SPECIAL MEETING ON "ENHANCEMENT OF PROBITY AND THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN THE HEMISPHERE"

OAS Working Group Panel
American University: Claudio Grossman
(Dean, Washington College of Law)

Friday, March 31, 2000
8:30am

Corruption has devastating financial effects on economies. It distorts the provision of social services, causing contracts to be awarded to substandard providers and causing inflated costs and cost overruns in government enterprises. It destroys confidence in a country's financial system, which deters investment. It widens the gap between the rich and the poor.

Official corruption is much more than just a financial problem, however. It is a violation of human rights. It perpetuates discrimination by providing greater public benefits to those who have the money to offer bribes or "grease money." It violates the principle of equality before the law, destroys the guarantee of due process, and prevents the full realization of economic, social, and cultural rights because resources are not distributed fairly and effectively. By distorting the free will of the people, it violates the right to vote and be elected, and ultimately affects the quality of democracy.

In the Western Hemisphere, corruption has undermined legitimate institutions and economic development. The problem has become so pervasive that leaders of the hemisphere began to call for a hemispheric approach to combating corruption at the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americas, leading to the 1996 Inter-American Convention against Corruption. While the Convention has been ratified by 17 nations and some progress has been achieved, experts agree that to succeed in the implementation of the Convention's goals, it is critical that all countries in the region ratify the Convention and work toward the development of domestic and regional norms and procedures to ensure compliance.

American University, Washington College of Law was privileged to host the "Experts' Roundtable: A Hemispheric Approach to Combating Corruption" on November 11-12, 1999 to address just this issue. In cooperation with cosponsors Transparency International and the Inter-American Bar Association, the Washington College of Law succeeded in assembling an impressive group of academics, jurists, diplomats, and attorneys from around the world. We at WCL consider as part of our mission the need to address key issues of our time and to create a conceptual space where civil society actors, government officials and academics can hold constructive dialogues as to how to achieve a better world.

The Roundtable examined the effects of corruption in the hemisphere, outlined a "hemispheric approach" to the problem, and discussed ways to increase the number of ratifications of the Convention as well as to improve adherence to its provisions. The principal conclusions of the unanimous "Findings, Considerations, and Recommendations" of the Experts' Roundtable were the need for all countries to ratify the Convention and the need for those countries that have already done so, to promote immediate implementation and enforcement of the Convention, through the conduct of regular peer review evaluations and the use of a multilateral monitoring mechanism. The "Findings, Considerations, and Recommendations" established by the Experts' Roundtable will help to forge the path for the end of corruption in the Americas. The recommendations were submitted to Heads of State and Organization of American States (OAS) Ambassadors. They were formally presented to the OAS Working Group on Probity at its January 2000 meeting and, since then, a range of OAS Ambassadors have responded favorably.

It is hoped that this Working Group meeting will recommend that the OAS General Assembly call for ratification of the Convention and the adoption of a monitoring mechanism at its June 4-6 meeting in Windsor, Canada. Such actions will infuse new energy into the process of fighting corruption and will pave the way for even further concrete reforms at the Third Summit of the Americas in 2001.

It will take the cooperation of experts, governments, and corporations to achieve the Working Group's ultimate goal—the elimination of corruption in the Western Hemisphere. I hope that the today's meeting will succeed in fostering that cooperation.