Prepared Remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft Thank you for the opportunity
to address this conference. By making the fight aeains.
Corruption a priority for his Administration, President Fox has become
a hemispheric and world leader for integrity in government-. The Just ten short years
ago, corruption was a topic that governments avoided in international
discourse. Bribery was generally considered to be a domestic issue.
It was simply a part of human nature, a trivial issue, or ever, promoted
as a normal business expense to be deducted from taxes at home. In some
nations, corruption threatened to, in the words of philosopher and poet
Alexander Pope , "deluge all; and spread like a low-born mist,
and blot the sun." The fight against corruption
is critical to realizing our shared interests. Corruption undermines
the coals of peace loving and democratic nations. It jeopardizes free
markets and sustainable development. It provides sanctuary to the forces
of global terror. It facilitates the illicit activities of international
and domestic criminals. It saps the legitimacy of democratic governments
and can, in its extreme forms, threaten democracy itself. Worst of all,
it is a tax on the poor - it provides benefits to the crooked by channeling
money from projects to pockets. From projects like better roads and
water supplies to the bank accounts of cronies. It steals from the needy
to enrich the wealthy. Corruption must end. By combating corruption,
we restore confidence in democracy and the rule of law. We strengthen
the open trade and investment that drive the world economy. We ensure
that donor and government resources benefit a wide range of citizens,
not only a select few. When these conditions are secured, they combine
to create faith in the institutions of a civil society. Beginning with a series
of regional anti-corruption conventions and related initiatives, among
the first of which was this hemisphere's 1996 Inter-American Convention
against Corruption, the international community has made concerted efforts
to address this serious problem. The • A major campaign to end bribery
in international business transactions; • The creation of a high-level Global
Forum process to generate governmental political will against corruption; • The development of several regional
anticorruption treaties; and The United Nations Convention
against corruption we are signing today is a permanent enshrinement
of the new global attitude towards corruption. Corruption is now unacceptable
in any form, and international cooperation is considered a key element
of our respective efforts to combat this scourge. The product of our negotiations
over the past two years will sustain our fight against corruption. It
will ensure that corruption is more than merely a passing common interest
among nations. But this document is not enough. It must not become an
empty symbolic gesture. Our governments must translate the words of
this convention into effective actions. These deeds will reinforce intergovernmental
cooperation and, through domestic efforts to steam corruption, reaffirm
our collective goals. So, Attorney General Macedo
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