Last week I attended the annual meeting of the UN Development Program (UNDP)’s Civil Society Advisory Committee. The significance of this committee for UN accountability merits attention. The UN – and most donor countries, for that matter – spends a good deal of time preaching the importance of civil society. As the line goes, civil […]
This week one of China’s former richest men, Huang Guangyu of Chinese appliance giant Gome Electronics, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for bribery and insider dealing. This follows rejection of the appeal of former Rio Tinto executives, who some believed had received unreasonably harsh sentences for bribing so-far unnamed government officials. Is China […]
Russia holds a unique place in the international economy. It isn’t the largest, fastest, strongest, or even scariest, but it is a heavyweight whose actions matter more than most. It ranked just 146 out of 180 countries on the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index, and had the 8th largest economy in the world in 2008 according […]
As I write this, British voters are going to the polls in what has been billed as one of the most exciting UK elections of the post-war period. Nick Clegg, member of the third-party Liberal Democrats, could overtake his mainstream rivals Gordon Brown (Labour) and David Cameron (Conservative). Regardless of the outcome, this is the […]
In some countries, political will is not enough. This is because they don’t have the institutions to implement whatever anti-corruption political will there might be. Fighting corruption requires investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration in a prison with guards that can’t be paid off. Some countries lack some or all of these things. Guatemala poses an […]
Violent demonstrations led to the fall of President Bakiyev in Kyrgyzstan last week. The opposition has taken control of the country, including the president’s supposed stronghold in the south. This is, of course, the second time a popular uprising has led to a change of government in Kyrgyzstan in the last five years. Both times, […]
Last week President Obama flew to Afghanistan to rally the troops before the upcoming offensive in Kandahar. He also paid a visit to President Karzai. According to the Associated Press, “The trip was intended to let Obama tell Karzai that he must deal with corruption and cut the flow of money from poppy production and […]
This week, Google closed its internet search service in China. Whether its January pledge to do so was a threat or a promise might depend on whether you are a Chinese internet user or a global lover of internet freedom. Government accountability today is revolving more and more around internet freedom. So-called freedom of the […]
I have spent this week at the Assembly of States Parties for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in New York.* The purpose of this meeting was to give countries that are members of the court, as well as interested observers, an opportunity to prepare for an upcoming high-level meeting when they will review the progress […]
My previous post notwithstanding, Mexico continues to be one of the largest sources of drugs headed to the United States. As in Guatemala, drugs and corruption go hand in hand. And, despite what U.S. law enforcement might like to attest, this is true on both sides of the Rio Grande. While it may be possible […]
Last week, the official drug czar of Guatemala as well as the chief of national police were arrested for allegedly leading a police ring that stole cocaine from drug traffickers. Now that is deep-rooted corruption. Guatemala is caught in a vicious cycle. On one side, the police and security forces have become involved in organized […]
Italian politics is always colorful, especially so when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is involved. His latest move gives an ironic twist to corruption fighting. Berlusconi has been accused of everything from womanizing to mafia links, but to date he has mostly slithered out between the fingers of the law. One current trial accuses him of […]
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