18th International Anti-Corruption Conference

We will hear from key representatives of the indigenous rights movement, investigators, anti-corruption campaigners and frontline environmental defenders a session that explores impunity and corruption that lie at the heart of many illegal resource exploitation deals. Showing present examples of how corruption often contributes to indigenous land rights being ignored for the benefit of business and big landowners. The session will focus on high-level resource grabbing and corruption driving conflict in South Sudan, criminalisation and sand smuggling in Cambodia, and the struggle of an indigenous community in Ucayali, Peru to secure their land rights in the face of death threats and murder. 

This session will allow participants to gain better understanding the reality of the risks, and the barriers that prevent defenders from accessing justice, defending their rights and making their voices heard. This will also create the opportunity for activists to connect with anti-corruption practitioners, criminal investigators, human rights groups and other supporters to identify key points of leverage to influence companies and governments, where corruption and collusion drive attacks. The anticipated outcome is to establish connections between experts and practitioners from different sectors and to plant the seeds of new strategies to meet the needs of frontline activists.