FAQs

• Uprooting corruption: Global security demands a global response

  Key Topics: global governance, peace and security, kleptocracy, conflict/fragile states, international agreements, national commitments, effective implementation

  The Global Challenge: Governments have fallen desperately short on their anti-corruption commitments and pledges. Poor governance allows autocratic leaders, kleptocratic regimes and organised criminal networks to strengthen their hold on power and the global economy, at the cost of democracy, human rights and global security. This is despite the growing number of binding obligations and commitments that states have made through the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the Summit for Democracy, the 2016 London Anti-Corruption Summit, the UN General Assembly Special Session against Corruption and the Open Government Partnership. What needs to be done to reverse the global wave of authoritarianism, which is being fuelled by corruption? How are corrupt practices contributing to the rise of extremism and incitement to violence?

• Defending the defenders: Those who uncover the truth and stand against corruption and violations of human rights

  Key Topics: civil society space, restrictions on freedoms of expression and assembly, journalists under threat, impunity for violence against civil society actors, defending the truth, speaking up in difficult environments

  The Global Challenge: The fight against corruption has gained momentum globally. Yet the corrupt are fighting back by clamping down on democratic rights and freedoms, imposing stronger-handed regimes, stepping up surveillance and stoking division and extremism. Today more than ever, those who exercise their right to question the powerful, to demand free and fair elections, to mobilise or speak out against injustice are being silenced by coercive means – sometimes paying with their lives. What strategies and actions can we use to defend people’s rights and freedoms, against all forms of injustice and violence?

• Building the path towards a fair and sustainable future

  Key Topics: sustainable development, public funds, emergency responses, COVID-19 pandemic, social justice, economic justice, health, education, safety, equality, business integrity

  The Global Challenge: Corruption erases hopes for a fair future, standing in the way of realising the global aspirations of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This, in turn, makes it harder to cope with rising levels of inequality and the unparalleled impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. All the while, people and communities living in already vulnerable conditions suffer the worst consequences. Everyone in our societies – from business leaders to activists to government reformers – has a role to play in advancing greater social justice. What are the major corruption challenges blocking the road for the future we imagined at the beginning of the new millennium, and which actions and champions are forging a fairer future?

• Overcoming corruption in the race against the climate crisis

  Key Topics: Climate change, climate funds, a greener and carbon-neutral planet, natural resources management, extractive industries, environmental defenders

  The Global Challenge: The climate emergency is the biggest and most urgent challenge our societies must rally behind, but corruption hampers these efforts. From the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry in climate policy development to the theft or misuse of climate financing funds, corruption has been undermining the economic and social transformation needed to tackle the climate crisis. What’s worse, corruption continues to enable environmental crimes and often kills environmental defenders. If we don’t fight corruption, we will never reach the Paris Agreement’s target of keeping the planet's temperature from rising by more than 1.5°C. How can the international community stop corruption from enabling environmental devastation and derailing climate action?

• Ending criminal networks, dark markets and cross-border crimes

  Key Topics: trafficking, cross-border corruption, organised crime, criminal networks, environmental crimes, endangered species, freeports, illicit trade, law enforcement, sanctions

  The Global Challenge: The global demand for scarce, endangered or forbidden goods and services, which often are acquired through trafficking, is steadily on the rise – earning shady actors dirty money and blood money. Criminal networks are the first to profit from this demand by creating dark markets and exploiting everything from human beings and endangered species to drugs and arms, from counterfeit merchandise or rare antiquities to precious natural resources. Trafficking is a devastating business that knows no territorial boundaries. But while the consequences are often global, people living in vulnerable conditions, weak states, or resource-rich environments, are the first to suffer the harm inflicted by criminal networks, including death. What is holding back law enforcement, how are criminal networks innovating and where are today’s most critical hotspots? What are institutions around the world doing to fight back?

• Fighting greed, kleptocrats, oligarchs and cracking down on money laundering and the enablers

  Key Topics: Illicit financial flows, beneficial ownership transparency, secrecy jurisdictions, cryptocurrencies, professional enablers, foreign bribery, asset recovery and repatriation, legal loopholes, grand corruption, beneficial ownership transparency

  The Global Challenge: Greed drives the corrupt to endlessly accumulate money and power. Accountants, bankers, real estate agents and luxury brokers – to name just a few – have been identified as the enablers that move, hide and launder ill-gotten fortunes. Perpetrators of grand corruption, notably kleptocrats, oligarchs and autocrats, rely on these enablers to hide their wealth. After years of self-sabotage, the game-changing Panama Papers and subsequent revelations, along with increasing threats to national security, have finally prompted several countries to take real steps to curb the flow of dirty and blood money. But it is not enough. Where have we successfully exposed and prosecuted the enablers? What is preventing effective laws and their enforcement? How are countries cooperating to crack down on money laundering? How can the enablers be finally subject to the right regulations and scrutiny? How does innovation in tech and banking, particularly cryptocurrency markets, facilitate illicit financial flows?