260 organizations from 77 countries are calling on the 136 states parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) to adopt a transparent, accountable and effective system to monitor progress in implementation of anti-corruption commitments. The Statement will remain open to receive support from civil society organizations throughout September and October 2009. Click HERE if your organization wants to sign on to the Coalition Statement.

The UNCAC is the most comprehensive global legal instrument to prevent and fight corruption.The Statement includes specific recommendations on how best to monitor implementation of the Convention and was submitted to governments meeting at the UN in Vienna prior to the UNCAC's crucial Third Conference of States Parties to be held in Doha, Qatar in November 2009.

Experience with other anti-corruption monitoring systems shows that without a strong review mechanism the UNCAC will receive only lip-service from many governments and will be followed by uncoordinated and often feeble anti-corruption efforts. Though the need for a review mechanism was agreed upon by governments involved in 2006, the adoption of a strong mechanism is far from assured due to opposition from a small but vocal group of countries, blocking an otherwise wide consensus.

Current state of play indicates that, although transparency and civil society participation are called for in the Convention itself (UNCAC Article 13) a small group of government representatives is against such guarantees in the review mechanism of this landmark anti-corruption convention. "Blocking the progress of monitoring is unacceptable if countries truly do want to implement standards and requirements to prevent, detect, investigate and sanction acts of corruption", said Gillian Dell, Conventions Program Manager for Transparency International. "Such tactics are also contrary to common practice established in other international anti-corruption, human rights and environmental conventions, to which these countries are also parties," added Dell.

To see full list of the Statement signatories, visit www.uncaccoalition.org