Anti-Corruption Forum Opened

The Global Forum on fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity II opens in Hague, Netherlands, on May 28-31. The forum, in which 190 Justice ministers and officials from the world are participating, is to be the milestone of the UN Anti-Corruption Agreement.

In the 4-day meeting, representatives of each country are to discuss about the measures to fight against such corrupted activities as bribe, rebate, and favoritism in the public human management and embezzlement. They will sign on the final declaration for the investigation of the anti-corruption activities.

The expected declaration of this forum is to be the foundation of the UN Anti-Corruption Agreement, which will be discussed at the UN intergovernmental meeting of the anti-corruption experts in Vienna, Austria, August, and at the UN Anti-Corruption Conference in Prague, the Czech Republic, October.

This forum is the second to the first meeting, which was organized by the former Vice President Al Gore and it was held in Washington, US. The participants are to discuss the measures to fight corruptions not only of government offices but also of the courts, judiciary organizations, civic volunteer groups, and multi-national industries.

Choi Kyong-Won, the new Justice Minister, is to give a keynote address at the meeting. The forum is held every other year and Korea is to host the next forum in 2003.

Albert Hendrik (Benk) Korthals, the Justice Minister of Netherlands, addressed in the opening ceremony that the forum will be a foundation to discuss the UN Anti-Corruption Agreement and he wishes that the forum would reach an agreement to re-collect the misappropriated funds that had been hoarded abroad secretly by the dictators in the past. The number of the participating countries has increased double from the last meeting. And the lowest countries in the transparency index, such as Indonesia, Uganda, Pakistan, India, are also participating in the meeting.

OECD already established a regulation to punish the individuals and corporates that are related to the bribes. 34 nations signed on the agreement in February 1999. Once the Agreement of the Anti-Corruption is established, the fight against the corruption is to be a duty of the international law.

mickey@donga.com