9th December, Anti-corruption Day: break the chain of corruption!

AE’s specials and European Impact colums in: the Anti-corruption Day! 

This post has been originally written for Libera, Associations, Names and Numbers against Criminal Organizations and published on Bella Ciao Belgio

AUTHOR: Vania Putatti

LANGUAGE: English

The 9th of December is the International Anti-corruption Day, established by the General Assembly of the United Nations for the occasion of the adoption of the Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2003 and entered into force in 2005.

This year, the United Nations’ joint international campaign focuses on “how corruption undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to human rights violations, distorts markets, erodes quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish”.

Besides the doubts many governments and private sectors had during the ’90s, today the fight against corruption is gaining more and more importance at the international level.

Why now?

It is be hard to believe, but until the 90s in several western countries it was possible for a public officer not only to bribe other public officers or private entities while carrying out their duties in other countries, but also to deduct those bribes from taxes. However, twenty years later it has been understood that corruption, development funding and globalization are a really dangerous formula. Both the European Union and the United Nations have often explained that high levels of corruption, especially at the governmental level, lead to a huge waste of resources destined for the improvement of poor regions of the world. This lead to an increase in poverty and the enforcement of criminal organizations. It creates a spiral that can easily go out of control (the recent Greek crisis is an example).

Apparently, the United Nations is not willing to allow this anymore. Thanks to the new campaigning strategies, the improvement of communication channels and the joining forces of governments, private sectors, NGOs, the media and citizens, the fight against corruption and crime is getting stronger, as witnessed by the big increase of anti-corruption legislations and initiatives around the word (from the EU to India). In this framework, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are at the forefront of these efforts.

The anti-corruption day in Brussels

In occasion of the anti-corruption day, the social society organizes a special event in an attempt to sensitise the city of Brussels on the lack of proper regulation for the EU provision of capital an resources.

The 9th of December everybody is invited from 19:00 to 20:30 at Eno Atelier (rue de Dublin 42, Ixelles/Elsene) to assist a documentary screening and round table with special experts of the sector. The agenda includes at 19:05 the projection of the documentary “Fondi Rubati all’agricoltura” by Diego Gandolfo and Alessandro di Nunzio. At 19:30 will follow the roundtable “How criminal organizations are taking advantage from European funding” with the speakers Diego Gandolfo (journalist), Ignazio Corrao (MEP ), Monica Usai (Libera Europe) and Francesco Albore (OLAF).