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Plenary Agenda #IACC2024
Click on each date to get more information about the sessions scheduled
We face a myriad of interconnected global threats, all fiercely disrupting global security. At the same time, all those that fight for integrity, environmental and social justice are facing a deadly war.
Climate change, lack of trust in public governance, and the spread of populist and kleptocratic regimes are fuelling the increase of human rights violations, crimes against humanity, environmental crimes, illicit trade and trafficking, and the power of organised crime. As we move to a multipolar world, with an ineffective global governance system, efforts to sustain human security face even more challenges.
Greed and the lack of integrity in powerholders increasingly becomes a norm. Impunity is fuelled by dirty money, an obscure financial system, unchecked legions of enablers, and vast new opportunities indirectly offered by new technologies and globalisation. To perpetuate their impunity, the corrupt are willing to cross any red line.
Yet more than ever fighters for integrity and justice from all sectors and regions are bravely combatting, at elevated risk, against the social and environmental damage caused by these global threats, and those who benefit from it. It is them at the front lines who defend integrity and transparency at a local, national, and international level.
As we concluded the 20th IACC in 2022, we reaffirmed the urgency to strengthen our alliances and to support all those who fight for their rights and for our common future: Only then we will be able to cut the gordian knot of corruption.
The news is old, already: Kleptocrats, criminals, traffickers and their accomplices have been benefitting from the failure of anticorruption reforms and weak democratic institutions. They are continuously evolving and to date, they run a highly sophisticated global enterprise: It is an invisible 1 billion USD per year scheme, right under our noses.
Its complex, resilient, and surprisingly innovative. It is a web of networks, individuals, and groups. It includes kleptocrats, politicians, business leaders, enablers, bankers, criminals, and anyone in between. They thrive through a single, highly profitable, but often deadly ecosystem.
Organised crime is a global risk that cuts across all thematic areas of the 21st IACC agenda. We look to uncover -and learn from- their strategies, address anticorruption reform failures, while assessing what from our work is having the best impact against this dark criminal enterprise.
In a world where corruption tears apart the fabric of society, countless individuals and groups from all sectors and backgrounds step forward to defend integrity and confront the forces of corruption, which cause greater damage to women and vulnerable groups. The corrupt, on their side, are becoming alarmingly used to cross any red line to ensure their impunity. In 2022 alone, an environmental activist was killed every second day, and the number of journalists and media workers killed represented a staggering rise of 50% from 2021.
Through this agenda track we seek to raise our collective voice to honour the countless champions of integrity and highlight their determination in the face of danger. With a strong gender and vulnerable groups focus, we also seek to strengthen our networks and strategies to further support and protect all the leaders of integrity that fight to defend our social moral compass
Corruption and greed are at the root of environmental crimes and climate change. The catastrophic weather events of the recent years are a looming warning of what is to come.
From undue influence of the fossil fuel industry over climate policy development to misspending in climate finance projects and from corruption in the management of land to over consumption and waste in developed economies, if greed and corruption are not fought decisively, the environmental catastrophe awaiting us will only grow.
To address this global risk, the 21st IACC invites experts, advocates, and defenders to assess our successes and challenges to date. We aim to outline key areas of action, and advocacy, for the following years for our global movement to take up.
Corruption poses a significant threat to the rule of law, democracy, and economic development in many countries. Systemic corruption or high-level corruption are particularly dangerous as they generate a significant risk to prosperity, stability and national security of a country due to its negative impact and disruptive character on the trust in public institutions.
Law enforcement has always been at the forefront of addressing these threats. While the expectations for law enforcement institutions are higher than ever, many operate under challenging circumstances, such as the need to remain independent and free from undue influence or remaining seriously under-financed or under-staffed.
This session will bring together top law enforcement officials and practitioners to provide an overview of the contemporary situation and challenges of law enforcement in addressing corruption and organized crime threats. It also seeks to delve into the challenges, strategies, and best practices in ending impunity of corruption from a law enforcement perspective.
Business has a pivotal role in reshaping the global economy and promoting fairness and sustainability for all. Enterprises, from global to local, the tech, retailer and consumer goods sectors are showing that when mixing good will and power, their scale of contribution can be a game changer.
Yet the road to achieve integrity in business is paved with ethical dilemmas, risks and land mines. Challenges that business leaders are increasingly learning to address. This thematic stream calls business leaders of integrity, and the movement at large, to shed light on the opportunities and obstacles to advance a sustainable, equitable, and prosperous world economy by advancing collective action for business integrity.
Violent conflicts, crisis, and chaos only benefit kleptocrats, the corrupt and their accomplices. Strategic corruption, used as a foreign policy tool force societies at large to pay a deadly price. The current regional and local conflicts are costing tens of thousands of innocent lives and causing irreparable damage, globally. The impunity around these global crimes not only prolongs them but foster the proliferation of more of violent conflicts. We are reaching now historical proportions. This is a soaring global risk with no end in sight.
The 21st IACC calls experts and practitioners from around the world to engage in the analysis of the deadly effects of corruption on peace and human security, be it on a global, regional and local level, and to propose actions to stop corruption both as a precursor -and trigger- of conflicts, as well as an obstacle to reach peaceful resolutions and just repair.
Technological revolutions are and have always been a double edge sword, given how fast they are adopted, for good and for bad. Laws, policies, and practices usually must race, to catch up. The current tech revolution, fuelled by artificial intelligence, has unleashed a dark side where deep fakes, high tech surveillance, large scale disinformation -and more- are exploited by both organised crime and the corrupt. This is the era of the information warfare.
We face immense opportunities yet unprecedented risks. Our movement is being benefited by early and witty adopters, but also strives to be ahead of fast and opportunistic users without a moral compass. We seek to bring greater understanding of the immense positive power of the latest tech innovations, showcase the best examples while also learning how they are turbocharging the corrupt. We aim to equip our global movement with the necessary knowledge to maximise the opportunities brought by the current revolution, to win the tech fuelled anticorruption race.
The corrupts’ ambitions have a profound impact on human rights and the health of democratic regimes. We are witnessing, at alarming rate, new kleptocracies and captured states, all of which often result in more crimes against humanity. With dozens of elections taking place around the world during 2023, 2024 and 2025, each state can either walk the stairway to heaven or face a highway to hell. How can our movement, along with countless leaders of integrity, best protect the fundamental rights and dignity of billions around the world?
