Dr. Eberhard Kolsch
Ambassador of the
On the Occasion of the High-Level Political Conference for
the
Purpose of Signing
the United Nations Convention against Corruption
Mr. President,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To begin, I would very much like, on behalf of the Federal
Republic of Germany, to express my sincere thanks to the organizers of this
Conference: the United Nations, the Government of the United Mexican States,
the State of
In this central region of the ancient Mayan civilization, perfect
organization combined with warm hospitality has created a worthy framework
for this historic event - the signing of the United Nations Convention against
Corruption.
The Convention before us signals a new and welcome determination
on the part of the community of states to broaden its efforts to root out
the cancer of corruption at national and international level. Over twenty
years ago a similar UN project failed. The success of this project at the
beginning of the 21" century is an encouraging sign and a milestone in
the development of international anti-corruption measures.
Corruption assails the basic values of our societies, the rule
of law and justice. In the public sector it flies in the face of good governance.
In the world of commerce it distorts competition and the market. If corruption
takes hold in our institutions, it will pose a serious threat to the stability
and security of our domestic structures. Countering corruption is thus fast
a national task. Every state has to deal transparently and responsibly with
political power and resources. In the Federal Republic of Germany numerous
legislative and administrative measures have been developed and steps taken
by various associations and companies for this purpose, especially since the
middle of the last decade, which are being constantly reviewed and improved.
Recommendations from civil society organizations have thus borne fruit.
Corruption is however also an international phenomenon. In
various countries it is a reflection of an unstable and imbalanced social
environment that hinders sustainable development and makes it difficult to
improve living conditions. It can give rise to crises and conflicts, which
to prevent is also an international responsibility. Countering such dangers
by promoting development, strengthening sound public and commercial structures
and fostering the rule of law and democracy is a special concern of the German
Government. Such assistance goes hand in hand with the commitment of numerous
international organizations, most prominently the United Nations. The Convention
before us has in a remarkably short time created a new auspicious international
framework. An inspiring work was produced in a spirit of cooperation and compromise.
For this we must emphatically thank the United Nations, and in particular
the Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), as well as all member states and other
organizations and their representatives who contributed to the comprehensive
text.
The Convention against Corruption is the first global treaty
to tackle this phenomenon. It is the crowning achievement to a series of binding
international legal instruments adopted since 1996 at regional level under
the aegis of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organization of
American States, the African Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development. In its scope and in various individual fields it even goes
beyond these instruments, a result we had not previously expected. In the
fight against international crime it represents a valuable supplement to the
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which
recently entered into force and which served as model for many individual
provisions.
The all-encompassing multidisciplinary approach taken by the
Convention is exemplary. Only by combining mutually reinforcing measures can
the many forms of corruption be effectively and permanently contained.
It is gratifying that we have succeeded for the first time
ever in incorporating preventive and organizational standards, including
those for supervisory bodies, in a convention against corruption, even if
these could in
There has long been national and international unanimity on
the core criminal provisions. There was thus no obstacle to their recognition
as a global standard. Where no consensus was reached on proposals, compromises
were obtained. There was in addition agreement from the very beginning that
no member state should be forced to abandon fundamental principles of its
own national legal system.
The comprehensive provisions on criminal law and procedure,
in conjunction with the detailed regulation of extradition and mutual legal
assistance based on the UNTOC, should lead to an intensification and acceleration
and thus also an improvement of global international cooperation in combating
corruption. Consensus was even reached on providing non-coercive mutual legal
assistance in cases in which dual criminality is not given. Rule-of-law principles
remain unaffected.
The incorporation of universally applicable rules on the seizure
and confiscation of the proceeds and tools of corruption, combined with the
duty to return assets acquired corruptly, even across borders, does not just
represent progress, but is a major breakthrough at international level. In
the future, corrupt public servants should find it much harder to transfer
and hide their ill-gotten gains abroad.
Of practical importance for the implementation and application
of the Convention and the achievement of its aims are the provisions on technical
and organizational assistance between individual states and the adoption of
basic elements of a follow-up mechanism, to be further built on by a Conference
of States' Parties.
Taken as a whole, the comprehensive package of measures contained
in the Convention should succeed in considerably raising the inhibition threshold
that a person must cross before becoming corrupt, by doing much more to remove
any incentives to such behavior. This however presupposes that as many states
as possible sign the Convention, ratify it and effectively implement it in
their national law. The Federal Government offers interested states its support
in implementing the Convention. Fighting corruption must become a dynamic
process at both national and international level.
This process should involve on the one hand all social forces
and, on the other hand, the readiness to cooperate intensively at international
level.
There is still much to be done, but with the UN Convention
we are definitely on the right path
- for the sake of all our peoples!
Thank you.