18th International Anti-Corruption Conference

This session will be an interactive workshop starting with a brief overview of the historical prevalence of bribery targeted at LGBT+ citizens. From there, we will take an in-depth look at the situation in Nigeria to talk about how homophobic private citizens are using gay hook-up apps to lure gay men into meetings at which they face extortion, forced outing and physical violence, thus addressing this issue through a business lens. The last part of the session will be use to find solutions and approaches to the challenges identified.

Bribery by state agents and private citizens continues to make LGBT+ people vulnerable in many places around the world. Wherever LGBT+ lives are criminalised or LGBT+ human rights are violated, we see an increased prevalence of bribery and corruption targeted at LGBT+ individuals. This creates a precarious situation for all LGBT+ people living in such societies, effectively denying them full citizenship. It also restricts the development of civil society space, and impacts negatively on business.

Corruption in countries dealing with conflict or fragility is particularly destructive, as it undermines the ability of governments to provide even the most basic public services, steals from the most vulnerable, and widens inequalities. It exacerbates social unrest and conflict and can contribute to violent extremism. Confronting corruption in these fragile environments is critical for long-term stability and shared prosperity. But this work is extremely challenging and is made more so by a lack of transparency and accountability along with low trust in already weak institutions. The successes and disappointments of the last decades have been instructive in how to effectively address corruption in these difficult and varied contexts. How can we leverage the latest innovations together with what we have learned from past engagements? How can we make sure that efforts to address corruption in fragile and conflict states are most likely to succeed?

The proposed panel discussion will focus on (i) the contextual challenges that must be addressed when confronting corruption in fragile and conflict states; (ii) the core elements of successful engagements and the critical role of ensuring accountability; (iii) the challenges of managing risk and the importance of balancing longer-term sustainable impact on corruption, as well as more immediate successes; (iv) the need to focus on both building capacity and skills within government systems, and building coalitions among civil society and other stakeholder groups; and (v) the untapped potential for transformative interventions rooted in new technologies.

The session will focus on the possible side effects of large-scale corruption investigations in contributing to the rise of populist and/or anti-establishment radical movements. The session will discuss whether and under which circumstances the exposure of corruption networks may fuel radicalism, populism and/or legitimacy crises and what the consequences for the anti-corruption movement may entail. The anticorruption movement has dedicated a great deal of effort to developing mechanisms aimed at exposing corruption networks and prosecuting the corrupt. The proposed workshop innovates by drawing attention to the “day after”: the difficulties that may emerge in the wake of major corruption scandals. The workshop challenges the generally accepted theory that fighting and eventually diminishing corruption will necessarily strengthen democracy by itself. The unveiling of criminal activities in government and political parties is sometimes followed by great political instability, which may be attributed to: (i) the creation of a power vacuum due to the reputational damage suffered by traditional leaderships and parties; (ii) the fueling of cynicism towards the political establishment or, in extreme cases, towards public institutions themselves; (iii) the entrenchment of the idea that corruption is inevitable and merely a “part of the game”. Activists and institutions should take such negative consequences in consideration when designing its strategies in the fight against corruption. The session will be run in three parts, beginning with a presentation of three concrete cases and their lessons learned. From there, we will facilitate an open debate with the participants to incorporate other cases, experiences and views from different regions of the world. Finally, we will introduce the comparative balance sheet and propose strategic guidelines for future actions.

Session Rapporteur: Fernanda Odilla

This session will explore how business benefits from citizens defending democracy and the rule of law. Based on a number of case studies, participants will discuss how civil society and companies can better work together in the fight against corruption and for citizens’ rights to participate in and control governments.
 
Beginning with a panel comprised of representatives from civil society and businesses, we will explore what ‘closing space' really means, what it looks like, and why businesses and NGOs should care about this—including highlighting work that is already being done by companies to take action. Following this, we will simulate an interactive, role-play workshop where groups of participants will receive a ‘real’ scenario in which civic space has been closing. Acting as the board of a hypothetical NGO and a relevant department within a business (sustainability, legal etc). Participants will need to identify the mechanism by which the government is repressing civil society and identify 3 strategies companies and civil society can take to curtail government action that violates civic rights or closes civic space.

This session will discuss the unintended consequences of corruption measures being experienced by financial institutions/intermediaries and CSOs, why they are important to address (if not, they can pave the way for deeper issues such as money flowing outside of the formal banking channels) and open the door to discuss ways in which this can be addressed.

Corruption is estimated to cost more than 5% of global GDP (US 2.6 trillion). Corruption undermines sustainable development, has a chilling effect on investment, damages the rule of law, and exacerbates inequality while enricheing dictators, traffickers and terrorists. Measures need to be taken to tackle this issue. Around the world civil society organisations (CSOs) play a crucial role in exposing corruption, revealing vested interests and holding the powerful to account when the rule of law fails. However, in our attempts to tackle corruption, sometimes more harm than good can be done. For instance, cracking down on online illicit funding should not undermine internet freedoms, strengthening financial regulation should not be at odds with the sustainable development agenda on financial inclusion, the costs of compliance should not shut out CSOs from access to funds. The very regulation designed to combat corruption should not emasculate the very institutions which seek to address it.

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.

The objective of this session is to put plans into actions, convene different stakeholders to develop concrete actions to fight corruption together, include each other in their current programs and strategies and find common spaces and alliances for future steps in strengthening democracy. 

Based on the findings from the sessions above, a panel will discuss strategies to optimally connect and align the fight against corruption with the one for citizens’ participation. Concrete proposals will be developed on how to strengthen coordination and cooperation in order to raise the effectiveness of the common fight for justice and democracy