As Carlos Guerrero explained here last week, corruption is anything but a victimless crime. Citizens are injured or killed when corruptly constructed buildings collapse on them. Others are denied the right to education, life saving medical treatment, and the fair resolution of their disputes thanks to bribery, embezzlement, and conflicts of interest.

The drafters of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption were not blind to the tremendous damage corruption does to identifiable persons or groups of persons. That is why they included a specific provision making it absolutely clear that all parties must grant victims of corruption an opportunity to seek compensation for any injuries sustained. In no uncertain terms article 35 requires state parties to open their courts to any individual or entity injured “as a result of an act of corruption.”

But UNCAC state parties have yet to take article 35 seriously. Academics, civil society organizations, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime all report that only a few victims in a handful of states have recovered damages. In the vast majority of the 190 countries that have ratified the Convention, not a single person injured by corruption has been compensated for their loss.

The UNCAC Coalition‘s Working Groups, a global network of over 350 civil society organizations in 100 countries, is demanding change. The parties to UNCAC meet this December in Atlanta to review each other’s progress in complying with the convention. Below is the Coalition’s letter to them urging that compliance with article 35 by all 190 be a priority.

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Open Letter to UNCAC States Parties: A Call for Action at the 10th UNCAC Conference of States Parties in Atlanta in December 2023 to Ensure Effective Reparation to Victims of the Harm caused by Corruption, 31 October 2023

Dear States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption,

At the upcoming 10th biennial gathering of the 190 States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption taking place in Atlanta, 11 – 15 December 2023 (the UNCAC Conference of States Parties), you will be reviewing progress in implementing the convention and discussing areas where more work is needed.

Reparation of the harm caused to victims of corruption is a key subject that should be addressed by you, the States Parties, at the conference. The UNCAC provides for such reparation, but weaknesses in the legal frameworks and practices of states mean that corruption’s harm to individuals, entities and communities remains largely without remedy.

Members of our UNCAC Coalition working groups, in our network of more than 300 civil society organisations, academics and experts from all over the world, are deeply concerned about the impunity of corruption perpetrators towards those harmed by their crimes, including in cross-border cases involving high-level officials, multinational companies, major financial institutions and professional enablers.

We urge States Parties to agree on concrete steps at the 10th UNCAC CoSP to accelerate efforts to address the consequences of corruption and ensure remedies for the damages caused, particularly at the collective level. States have a duty to protect against and ensure repair of the human rights violations caused by corruption. Only if anti-corruption efforts address the harm to victims, will justice be served.

In 2021, the UNCAC Coalition established a database to secure and share information on instances of reparation, where countries can profile their tools and cases. The case examples in this database show that in some jurisdictions, only the state is seen as a victim, while citizens and public interest organisations are excluded from representing collective interests. This is inconsistent with international law, basic legal principles and practical realities. In fact, often the representatives of the state at the highest level are the perpetrators of large-scale corruption, causing widespread harm. Moreover, in some countries, judges apply a direct nexus test for collective damage that is only suitable for individual harm. While the collective damage caused by corruption is often diffuse, it is also very real, and a range of quantification methods are available.

The UNCAC Coalition has made a submission to the 10th UNCAC CoSP outlining the most important issues that need to be addressed to ensure reparation for victims of corruption. The people and communities harmed by corruption depend on your decisive action to make it possible for their harm to be remedied.

on behalf of the UNCAC Coalition’s

Asset Recovery Working Group – co-chaired by Sara Brimbeuf, Senior advocacy officer, Illicit Financial Flows at Transparency International France and Jackson Oldfield, Director & Co-founder of the Civil Forum for Asset Recovery (CiFAR), Germany

Gender, Inclusion & Corruption Working Group –  co-chaired by Monica Kirya, Deputy Director (interim), U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center of the Chr. Michelsen Institute; Matthew Gichohi,  Researcher, U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center of the Chr. Michelsen Institute.

Grand Corruption and State Capture Working Group –  co-chaired by Cynthia Gabriel, Founding Director of the Center to Combat Corruption & Cronyism (C4Center), Malaysia;  and Gillian Dell, Head of Conventions Unit at Transparency International and UNCAC Coalition chair

Victims of Corruption Working Group –  chaired by Juanita Olaya, UNCAC Coalition ex-chair and board member