The Inter-American Convention against
Corruption and its Follow-Up
Mechanism (MESICIC)
The Inter-American Convention against
Corruption, its Follow-Up Mechanism
(MESICIC), and the Inter-American
Program of Cooperation to Fight
Corruption
Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the Permanent Council of the OAS
Washington, D.C., February 24, 2012
Scope of the Presentation
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The Inter-American Convention against Corruption.
The Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Implementation of the
Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC).
Legal cooperation tools to support implementation of the
Convention.
Other developments in cooperation pursuant to the InterAmerican Program.
Report on the current status of Follow-up to the Convention
and to the Inter-American Program, pursuant to resolution
AG/RES. 2655 (XLI-O/11).
THE INTER-AMERICAN
CONVENTION AGAINST
CORRUPTION
The Inter-American Convention
• Origin:
– Adoption: Caracas, March 1996
– First international treaty on the subject to recognize the
supranational dimension of corruption and the need for
international cooperation to combat it.
• Purposes:
– To promote and strengthen the development of the
mechanisms needed to prevent, detect, punish, and eradicate
corruption.
– To promote, facilitate, and regulate cooperation among the
States to ensure the effectiveness of actions to prevent,
detect, punish, and eradicate corruption.
The Inter-American Convention
• Contents and scope:
– Preventive measures.
– Criminalization of acts of corruption.
– Provisions to strengthen cooperation among states with
respect to:
• Mutual assistance and technical cooperation, extradition
and identification, tracing, freezing, confiscation, and
forfeiture of assets, as well as other forms of assistance.
• States Parties:
– 33 OAS member states.
The Mechanism for Follow-Up on the
Implementation of the Inter-American
Convention against Corruption
The MESICIC
• Description:
– Intergovernmental mechanism to assist the States Parties with
implementing the ICAC, through reciprocal peer evaluations on an
equal basis, which include specific recommendations.
• Purposes:
– To promote implementation of the ICAC.
– To facilitate technical cooperation activities, exchange of
information, experiences and best practices, and the
harmonization of legislation.
• States Parties:
– 31 of the 33 States Parties to the ICAC.
The MESICIC
• Principles:
– Sovereignty; nonintervention; the juridical equality of states,
within the framework of the purposes of the OAS Charter.
• Characteristics:
– Impartial; objective in its operations and in its conclusions; does
not label or rank; equal treatment for all; intergovernmental;
open to civil society participation.
• Organs:
– Conference of States Parties (political body); Committee of
Experts (technical body); and Technical Secretariat (Department
of Legal Cooperation).
The MESICIC
• Procedure for review:
– Due process:
• Document of Buenos Aires.
• Rules of Procedure and Other Provisions.
• Methodology for conducting on-site visits.
– Rounds of review (selection of provisions of the ICAC and followup on recommendations from previous rounds).
– On-site visits (with the prior consent of the country under
review).
– Preparation, consideration and adoption of country reports with
specific recommendations.
The MESICIC
• Topics by Rounds of review:
First Round
Second Round
Third Round
• Conflicts of interest
• Conservation of
public resources
• Obligation to report
• Declarations of assets
• Oversight bodies
• Civil society
participation
• Technical assistance
and mutual
cooperation
• Central authorities
• Hiring of public
officials
• Government
procurement of
goods and services
• Protection for
whistle-blowers
• Acts of corruption
• Progress in
implementing the
recommendations of
the First Round
• Elimination of tax
benefits
• Preventing the
bribing of national
and foreign
government officials
• Transnational bribery
• Illicit enrichment
• Extradition
• Progress in
implementing the
recommendations of
previous Rounds
Fourth Round
(under way)
• Oversight bodies.
• Review of progress
made with
implementing the
recommendations of
the First Round (new
information and
developments for
gauging their ongoing
relevance).
Legal cooperation tools to support
implementation of the Convention
Legal Cooperation Tools
- National Action Plans:
– Technical cooperation project:
• The crafting of national action plans to include:
– Activities needed to implement the recommendations
of the MESICIC
– Those responsible for implementing them
– Deadlines
– Sources of funding
– Progress indicators
• 17 participating countries
Legal Cooperation Tools
- Model laws:
– Benchmark legal frameworks for formulating, reviewing, and
amending laws:
• Model law to facilitate and encourage the reporting of acts
of corruption and to protect whistle-blowers and witnesses.
• Model law on statements of assets and interests.
• Other:
– Conflicts of interest; access to administrative
information; and civil society participation.
Legal Cooperation Tools
- Anticorruption Portal of the Americas:
– Access to national and OAS developments in this field; documents
and activities of the MESICIC; other legal cooperation tools.
www.oas.org/juridico/english/FightCur.html
Legal Cooperation Tools
- Systematization of national legislation:
– Classification by subject and country of national legal provisions
considered by the MESICIC in order to review implementation of
the Convention.
- Legislative guidelines:
– Basic elements in national legal frameworks, in areas such as:
• Conflicts of interest; conservation of public resources;
oversight bodies; access to information; consultation
mechanisms; technical assistance and mutual cooperation;
the hiring of government officials; protection of whistleblowers reporting acts of corruption.
Legal Cooperation Tools
- Anticorruption Bulletin and Social Networks:
Subscriptions at:
[email protected]
twitter.com/MESICIC
Other developments pursuant to the
Inter-American Program for Cooperation
in the Fight against Corruption
Other developments
- Training programs:
– Mandate of the Inter-American Program for Cooperation in the
Fight against Corruption:
– 4 areas:
• To members of the Committee of Experts of the MESICIC
• In ethical values for government officials.
• On matters relating to freezing of assets, forfeitures, and the
recovery of assets.
• In areas relating to cooperation against corruption.
Other developments
- Cooperation with other international organizations and initiatives:
Other developments
- Hemispheric Conferences:
Lima, Peru
June 2010
Cali, Colombia
June 2011
Report on the current status of follow-up to the
Convention and to the Inter-American Cooperation
Program, pursuant to resolution AG/RES. 2655 (XLI-O/11)
Latest report
- Recent developments in relation to resolution AG/RES. 2655 (XLIO/11):
– Adoption of the Hemispheric Report of the Third Round of Review
of the Committee of Experts of the MESICIC.
– Start of the Fourth Round of Review:
• Adoption of documents and decisions:
– Questionnaire, methodology, structure of reports, and
calendar.
– Sequence for the review of the States parties and
composition of the subgroups.
Latest report
- Recent developments in relation to resolution AG/RES. 2655 (XLIO/11):
– Start of the Fourth Round of Review:
• Coordination and preparation of the first on-site visits
corresponding to the first group of countries (March-April).
• Subsequent preparation of the country reports.
• Next meeting of the Committee: September 2012.
– Adoption of the first reports of the Fourth Round.
– Consideration of the topic of common interest: "The
responsibility of the private sector in preventing and
combating corruption."
Thank you very much.
General Secretariat
Secretariat for Legal Affairs
Department of Legal Cooperation
[email protected]