Special session of the General Assembly against corruption

Secretary-General addresses General Assembly on UNCAC
Secretary-General addresses General Assembly on UNCAC

On 17 December 2018, the General Assembly adopted resolution 73/191 entitled “Special session of the General Assembly against corruption”, in which it decided to convene in the first half of 2021 a special session on challenges and measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation. In that resolution, the Assembly also decided that, at that special session, it shall adopt a concise and action-oriented political declaration, agreed upon in advance by consensus through intergovernmental negotiations under the auspices of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Furthermore, the Assembly invited the Conference of the States Parties to lead the preparatory process for the special session by addressing all organizational and substantive matters in an open-ended manner and requested the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to provide substantive expertise and technical support.

At its eighth session, held from 16 to 20 December 2019, in Abu Dhabi, the Conference considered under item 7 of its provisional agenda, as well as during a meeting to be held in parallel to the plenary session, the preparations for the special session, including the modalities for the preparations for and organisation of the special session of the General Assembly against corruption, proposals by States on the structure and substantive contents of the political declaration to be adopted by the special session and other matters of relevance. 

At that session, the Conference approved a draft resolution entitled “Special session of the General Assembly against corruption”, for subsequent adoption by the General Assembly. Subsequently, the General Assembly adopted the resolution 74/276 entitled “Special session of the General Assembly against corruption” on 1 June 2020. On 31 August 2020, the General Assembly adopted decision 74/568, in which it decided that the special session will be held from 2 to 4 June 2021.

At its special session on challenges and measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation, held from 2 to 4 June 2021 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the General Assembly adopted the political declaration “Our common commitment to effectively addressing challenges and implementing measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation”.

In paragraph 85 of the political declaration, Member States committed to implementing the declaration and invited the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention, as the treaty body with prime responsibility for promoting and reviewing the implementation of the Convention, to follow up and build on the declaration.

In its resolution 9/2 entitled “Our common commitment to effectively addressing challenges and implementing measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthening international cooperation: follow-up to the special session of the General Assembly against corruption”, the Conference responded to the call by the special session and committed to following up and building on the political declaration. The Conference directed its subsidiary bodies, within their mandates, to take appropriate measures to follow up on the political declaration. Information on the follow-up process is available here.