Global action against corruption

INTEGRITY BEAT

- Henry J. Schumacher [e-mail]

Recently, governments gathered in Doha, Qatar, for the UN’s biennial anti-corruption conference.

They discussed global action against corruption and assess the commitments they have made under the world’s only global anti-corruption treaty and agree how it should be updated to meet today’s political and economic realities.

The stakes could hardly be higher. Political systems are straining under the weight of opaque money and eroding public trust in authorities that is fuelling the wave of anti-government and anti-corruption protests that have erupted in countries around the world in recent months. Citizens everywhere are living with the consequences of money in politics operating out of sight, from public contracts steered to well-connected donors, to anonymous funding schemes that tilt competition without voters ever knowing who is bankrolling power.