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EASTERN CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES BOOSTING
COOPERATION ON OAS TREATY AGAINST CORRUPTION

  December 3, 2002

Senior officials from six Eastern Caribbean states will meet in Castries, St. Lucia, on December 6, to promote the ratification and implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption among the subregion’s Organization of American States (OAS) member countries that have not yet ratified or implemented the 1996 treaty.

The principal authorities concerned, among them Attorneys General, Members of Parliament from both the governing and opposition parties and the Permanent Secretaries from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, will come together to build the necessary consensus to attain ratification and legislative implementation of the hemispheric treaty.

Organized in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney General of St. Lucia, the December 6 meeting in Castries is part of a hemispheric initiative in which the OAS has been at the forefront. The cooperative endeavor to promote the ratification and implementation of the anti-corruption treaty is a continuation of the programs executed by the OAS Secretariat for Legal Affairs.

Ambassador Denis G. Antoine of Grenada, the OAS Permanent Council Chairman, will offer opening remarks to the plenary. St. Lucia’s Attorney General, Senator Petrus Compton, will deliver the keynote address to inaugurate the meeting, to which OAS Director Alphonsus Antoine will deliver a message from the Secretary General.

At the centerpiece of the conference is an anti-corruption study and regional draft model legislation for the Eastern Caribbean Region, to be presented by Grenadian consultant, Judge Monica Theresa Joseph.

To date, 28 out of 34 OAS Member States have signed and ratified the Inter-American Convention against Corruption.

Reference: E-239/02