*EPF409 10/02/2003
Text: U.S. Welcomes Completion of U.N. Anti-Corruption Talks
(Agreement would bolster current efforts, State's Boucher says) (480)

The United States welcomes the completion of two years of talks that have resulted in agreement by 130 countries on a United Nations document aimed at strengthening international efforts to fight corruption, according to Richard Boucher, State Department spokesman.

Provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption would also complement existing international anti-corruption efforts being implemented by the Group of 8 countries (G8), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Organization of American States (OAS) and other international fora, Boucher said October 2. The G8 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The convention includes provisions requiring governments to criminalize bribing, embezzling and money laundering by their own and foreign officials. Governments would also be required to take measures to prevent corruption and to cooperate with other governments in exchanging evidence involving corruption offenses and in recovering assets illicitly acquired by corrupt officials.

The United States and other countries participating in the negotiations now will review the document and decide on signature.

Following is the text of Boucher's statement:

(begin text)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
October 2, 2003

Statement by Richard Boucher, Spokesman

SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE U.N. CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION

The United States welcomes the completion of negotiations for the convention. We have been an active participant during the entire two-year negotiation process, and have been committed to working with the 130 participating governments to produce a Convention that can have truly global acceptance and application. The final text contains a wide range of provisions that will strengthen international efforts to fight corruption -- in which the United States Government is already a leader -- and complement ongoing existing international initiatives in the G-8, OECD, OAS, and other multilateral fora.

The convention contributes to a number of general areas relating to a government's anticorruption efforts; including:

1. Criminalization: requires governments to criminalize the bribing of their own and foreign public officials and other corruption-related crimes such as embezzlement and money laundering.

2. Prevention: requires governments to take a number of measures to prevent corruption, including those that promote integrity among their public officials and increase the participation of civil society in the fight against corruption.

3. International cooperation, including with respect to asset recovery: provides a practical channel for governments to work together to extradite persons and exchange evidence regarding corruption offenses, and recover assets illicitly acquired by corrupt public officials.

4. Cooperation in implementation: creates a vehicle for governments to monitor implementation of the convention and to share expertise and provide technical assistance relating to their anticorruption efforts.

The United States Government will, like other participants in the negotiations, take home the final text and initiate a formal process to review the text and make a decision on signature.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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