16th IACC to find ways to end impunity for corruption
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will host the bi-annual keystone 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) from today (Sept 2) until Friday.
Themed ‘Ending Impunity: People. Integrity. Action’, over 1,000 delegates from over 130 countries are expected for plenary debates and workshops to discuss what can be done to end impunity for corruption.
Hosted by the government, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), and the Malaysian Society for Transparency and Integrity (TI Malaysia) and sanctioned by the IACC Council and Transparency International, the bi-annual event is the world’s premier global forum that gathers heads of state, civil society, the private sector and more to tackle the increasingly sophisticated challenges posed by corruption.
“Malaysia is privileged to have the opportunity not only to share our experience, but also to learn from others, in our quest to meet the IACC goals,” said MACC deputy chief commissioner (prevention) Datuk Mustafar Ali, who is 16th IACC Organising Committee chair.
“This three-day conference will cover five key areas, namely Prevention, Community Education, Operation, Investigation and Legal Framework. This exchange of information, ideas and experiences will further enhance our understanding of the issues and challenges that we must face and the actions to be undertaken, in order to achieve the success that we want.”
IACC goals
The IACC draws attention to corruption by raising awareness and stimulating debate. It fosters the global exchange of experience and methodologies in controlling corruption.
The conferences promote international cooperation among agencies and citizens from all parts of the world, helping to develop personal relationships by providing the opportunity for face-to-face dialogue and direct liaison between representatives from the agencies and organisations taking part.
Given the cross-cutting nature of corruption, the overall agenda is set to engage the anti-corruption community with experts and practitioners from areas that are highly sensitive to corruption. The IACC global challenges encapsulate these areas: Peace and Security, Natural Resources and Energy Markets, Climate Governance, Corporate and Financial Governance.
In doing so, the IACC agenda remains at the cutting-edge of the global debate as it links these discussions with other global movements like human rights, environment and ensures a truly cross-sector solution-oriented debate.
The IACC Team ensures that: the IACC Programme Committee; TI as the Secretariat to the Conference; along with a network of stakeholders participate in a global consultation process that leads to the design of the conference theme, rationale and objectives.
Ending impunity
Just as its name suggests, the 16th IACC is driven by ‘People. Integrity. Action’. International delegates from all sectors of the society will meet and take stock of where we are in the fight to end corruption and where we need to be. Ending impunity will be the goal. It is about creating positive and lasting change, together.
Governments plagued by cronyism, leaders who rewrite constitutions to extend term limits, and fragile democracies in thrall to special interests, all create a climate where corruption flourishes and impunity protects the powerful. We see it too often around the globe in countries both rich and poor; in countries blessed with natural resources and others plagued by recession.
It takes courage and collective action to ensure those in power who commit crimes are brought to justice. It requires an end to impunity. If the powerful are allowed to escape justice we risk the dissolution of society and the collapse of rule of law. We risk losing the fight against corruption. We need a culture of integrity in all sectors of society to achieve sustained, positive change.
We need people with integrity taking action together. The 16th IACC aims to make this happen. People in government, civil society, the private sector, young people and social innovators will come together to forge innovative anti-corruption, transparency and accountability solutions to end impunity.
Where we see failures in our public services, the judiciary, police, and education that let the corrupt go unpunished, the 16th IACC will look for ways to change the system.
Plenary agenda
The 16th IACC is grouped into the following plenary sessions: Opening Plenary I (Ending Impunity: People, Integrity, Action), Plenary II (Peace, Equality and Social Justice: Fighting Corruption in Development and Investment beyond 2015), Plenary III (Keeping Business Clean and Stopping Illicit Financial Flows), Plenary IV (Don’t Let Them Get Away with It: Investigating and Exposing the Truth), and Closing Plenary V (Grand Corruption: How to Stop the Corrupt Stealing from You and Me).
Opening Plenary I
The Opening Plenary I will discuss how the global community can promote greater people engagement to understand the effects of impunity on people, and to ensure security and justice for all, especially for those who stand up and take action against impunity for corruption. It will look at how to hold the corrupt to account when too often it is the corrupt that wield the power, both economic and political. It is about answering the question “How to trigger change against impunity for corruption?”
To win the fight against corruption and promote social justice, we must join forces and ensure that those who abuse their power do not get away with it. People pressure, political will and collective action have proven to be decisive factors for positive change – we see that across continents – but risks and challenges for those taking a stand against the corrupt remain immense.
Plenary II
Plenary II seeks answer to “How to root out corruption in our quest to end extreme poverty?” Corruption only makes the rich richer and the poor poorer; it fuels conflict and violence, destroys nature and ultimately hurts those who are in most need.
The panel of this session will discuss why transparency, accountability and integrity are at the core of human security. The session will design key recommendations for fair and transparent foreign direct investment and for the post 2015 Development Goals.
Despite the benefits that foreign direct investment can bring and the progress made by many countries in a number of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), grand scale corruption, natural resources depletion, illicit financial flows and tax evasion are impeding significant progress in our quest for peace, equality and social justice.
Plenary III
Plenary III dwells on the topic: “How can companies and their leaders contribute to the fight against corruption?” Increasingly, international organisations and governments are recognising the real cost of dirty money in the financial system: illicit financial outflows from poor countries dwarf aid and investment, ever-powerful criminal networks laundering money through offshore havens, shell companies and secrecy jurisdictions facilitating massive tax evasion to the detriment of cash-strapped national budgets, to name a few. Each a driving force behind the global financial crisis.
This session will engage a multi-sector expert panel to critically reflect upon the current state of affairs in the world of money.
Plenary IV
Plenary IV focuses on investigating and exposing the truth. Now more than ever ordinary citizens, journalists and advocates from all fields have the necessary tools to blow the whistle on corruption. A few clicks can enable anyone to expose corruption globally; an emerging culture of collaboration allows investigative journalists to uncover systemic international corruption cases while advocates from around the world increasingly use journalism style investigations to strengthen their advocacy work. But despite this progress, or perhaps because of this progress, the risks for those who speak out are bigger than ever. The key issue is that effective collaboration between these groups remains weak.
The purpose of this session is twofold: By identifying the main barriers that prevent citizens, journalists and advocates from working together more effectively, this session aims to produce concrete recommendations for the global community at large to take on. In looking at supporting those who speak out against corruption, the session will identify concrete actions the global community needs to embrace in order to reverse an increasingly dangerous national and international environment.
Closing Plenary V
Closing Plenary V recaps the solutions to ending impunity for corruption by highlighting what international structural changes need to take place and what kind of collaboration between sectors and countries is still needed. It also examines how can we ensure a safe environment for people of integrity to take action against impunity for corruption.
Key speakers
Notable international speakers include Natural Resource Governance Institute president Daniel Kaufmann; Global Witness co-founder Patrick Alley; IACC Council chair Akere Muna; African Development Bank Integrity and Anti-Corruption director Anna Bossman; Right to Information in India founder, political and social activist Aruna Roy; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior associate Sarah Chayes; Transparency International managing director Cobus de Swardt; Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe freedom of the media representative Dunja Mijatovic; and Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption commissioner Simon Peh.
South Africa public protector Thuli Madonsela; Instituto de Comunicacion y Desarrollo founder Anabel Cruz; Inuka Kenya Trust CEO and journalist John Githongo; French High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life president Jean-Louis Nadal; MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Dr Abu Kassim Mohamed; TI founder Peter Eigen; SNC-Lavalin president and CEO Robert G Card; TI vice-chair Elena Panfilova; TI chair Jose Ugaz; Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Paul Low; and State of Qatar Attorney General Dr Ali Fetais Al Marri will also be among the key speakers.
Completing the list of key speakers are World Vision International president and CEO Kevin Jenkins; Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo; TI Malaysia president Datuk Akhbar Satar; WTO former general director Pascal Lamy; Virunga producer Joanna Natasegara; Amnesty International secretary general Salil Shetty; MACC advisory board chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim; Board of 100Reporters chairman Ron Nixon; Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Monique Villa; journalist Michael Peel; Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar; Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem; BritDoc Foundation chief executive Jess Search; journalist Frank Vogl; and United Nations Development Programme director/chief of profession, governance and peacebuilding Patrick Keuleers.