9th UN Convention Against Corruption conference to be held in Egypt Dec. 2021

CAIRO – 30 November 2020: Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Ghada Wali stated Sunday that the ninth Conference for the States Parties (COSP) to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption will be held in Sharm El Sheikh in December 2021.

The conference convenes every two years, and 2021 marks the year the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will hold a special session against corruption on June 2-4. The session is the first of its kind, and "provides an opportunity to shape the global anti-corruption agenda for the next decade – by advancing bold and innovative approaches, scaling best practices and developing new standards and mechanisms," according to UNCA Coalition website.

The United Nations Convention Against Corruption became effective in 2005 having 140 members. The convention is "the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument," and consists of five main areas. Those are preventive measures, criminalization and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, and technical assistance and information exchange.

The convention tackles bribery, trading in influence, abuse of functions, and various acts of corruption in the private sector.

Wali added in a TV interview that the UNODC is coordinating with Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Administrative Control Authority, the Public Prosecution, and other agencies.

Egypt's ranking rose from 117 in 2017 to 105 out of 180 countries surveyed in 2018 on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) issued annually by the Berlin-based Transparency International.

In August, the president ratified a decree allowing Egypt to join the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC), which calls for the eradication of corruption in the private and public sector. In 2017, the Egyptian Parliament approved joining the convention launched in 2003.

In December 2018, the president launched the second phase of the national strategy for fighting corruption 2019-2022, complementing the first phase initiated in 2014. The strategy's goals revolve on developing anti-graft bodies and activating mechanisms of transparency and integrity at government offices along with modernizing judicial procedures to accelerate verdicts' issuance and increasing public awareness about the need to combat corruption.