1. The Inter-American Convention against Corruption and its Follow-Up Mechanism (MESICIC)
The Inter-American Convention against Corruption, its Follow-Up Mechanism (MESICIC), and the Inter-American Program of Cooperation to Fight Corruption
Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the Permanent Council of the OAS Washington, D.C., February 14, 2013

2. Scope of the Presentation
The Inter-American Convention against Corruption.
The Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC).
Legal cooperation tools to support implementation of the Convention.
Other developments in cooperation pursuant to the Inter-American Program of Cooperation to Fight Corruption.
Recent activities and next steps under resolution AG/RES (XLII-O/12).

3. THE INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION

4. The Inter-American Convention
Origin
Purposes
Contents and scope
States Parties
Adoption: Caracas, March, 1996.
First international treaty on the subject to recognize the supranational dimension of corruption and the need for international cooperation to combat it.
To promote and strengthen the development of the mechanisms needed to prevent, detect, punish, and eradicate corruption.
To promote, facilitate, and regulate cooperation among the States to ensure the effectiveness of actions to prevent, detect, punish, and eradicate corruption.
Preventive measures.
Criminalization of acts of corruption.
Provisions to strengthen cooperation among states with respect to:
Mutual assistance and technical cooperation, extradition and identification, tracing, freezing, confiscation, and forfeiture of assets, as well as other forms of assistance.
33 OAS Member States.

5. The Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption

6. Principles and characteristics
The MESICIC
Description
Purposes
Principles and characteristics
Organs
Intergovernmental mechanism to assist the States Parties with implementing the ICAC, through reciprocal peer evaluations on an equal basis, which include specific recommendations.
To promote implementation of the ICAC.
To facilitate technical cooperation activities, exchange of information, experiences and best practices, and the harmonization of legislation.
Sovereignty.
No intervention.
Juridical equality of states within the framework of the purposes of the OAS Charter.
Equal treatment.
Impartial.
Objective in its operations and in its conclusions.
Does not label or rank.
Conference of States Parties.
Committee of Experts.
Technical Secretariat (Department of Legal Cooperation)
31 of 33 States Parties to the Convention.
States Parties

7. The MESICIC Procedure for review: Due process:
Document of Buenos Aires.
Rules of Procedure and Other Provisions.
Methodology for conducting on-site visits.
Rounds of review (selection of provisions of the ICAC and follow-up on recommendations from previous rounds).
On-site visits (with the prior consent of the country under review).
Preparation, consideration and adoption of country reports with specific recommendations.

8. Fourth Round (under way)
The MESICIC
Topics by Rounds of review:
First Round
Second Round
Third Round
Fourth Round (under way)
Conflicts of interest
Conservation of public resources
Obligation to report
Declarations of assets
Oversight bodies
Civil society participation
Technical assistance and mutual cooperation
Central authorities
Hiring of public officials
Government procurement of goods and services
Protection for whistle-blowers
Acts of corruption
Progress in implementing the recommendations of the First Round
Elimination of tax benefits
Preventing the bribing of national and foreign government officials
Transnational bribery
Illicit enrichment
Extradition
Progress in implementing the recommendations of previous Rounds
Oversight bodies.
Review of progress made with implementing the recommendations of the First Round (new information and developments for gauging their ongoing relevance).

9. Legal cooperation tools to support implementation of the Convention

10. Legal Cooperation Tools
- National Action Plans:
Technical cooperation project:
The crafting of national action plans to include:
Activities needed to implement the recommendations of the MESICIC
Those responsible for implementing them
Deadlines
Sources of funding
Progress indicators
17 participating countries

11. Legal Cooperation Tools
- Model laws:
Benchmark legal frameworks for formulating, reviewing, and amending laws:
Model law to facilitate and encourage the reporting of acts of corruption and to protect whistle-blowers and witnesses.
Model law on declaration of interests, income, assets and liabilities.
Others:
Conflicts of interest;
Access to administrative information;
Civil society participation.

12. Legal Cooperation Tools
- Anticorruption Portal of the Americas:
Access to national and OAS developments in this field; documents and activities of the MESICIC; other legal cooperation tools.

13. Legal Cooperation Tools
- Systematization of national legislation:
Classification by subject and country of national legal provisions considered by the MESICIC in order to review implementation of the Convention.
- Legislative guidelines:
Basic elements in national legal frameworks, in areas such as:
Conflicts of interest; conservation of public resources; oversight bodies; access to information; consultation mechanisms; technical assistance and mutual cooperation; the hiring of government officials; protection of whistle-blowers reporting acts of corruption.

14. Legal Cooperation Tools
- Anticorruption Bulletin and Social Networks:
Subscriptions at:
twitter.com/MESICIC

15. Other developments pursuant to the Inter-American Program for Cooperation in the Fight against Corruption

16. Other developments - Training programs:
Mandate of the Inter-American Program for Cooperation in the Fight against Corruption:
4 areas:
To members of the Committee of Experts of the MESICIC
In ethical values for government officials.
On matters relating to freezing of assets, forfeitures, and the recovery of assets.
In areas relating to cooperation against corruption.

17. Other developments
- Cooperation with other international organizations and initiatives:

18. Other developments - Hemispheric Conferences: Lima, Peru June 2010
Cali, Colombia June 2011

19. Recent activities and next steps under resolution AG/RES
Recent activities and next steps under resolution AG/RES (XLII-O/12)

20. Recent activities and next steps
First 10 on site visits carried out:
Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.
More than 60 public institutions visited.
Meetings with more than 100 public officials, many of them the highest level officials of the agencies under review.
More than 50 participating civil society, private sector, and labor organizations, professional associations, and academics.
Preparation for visits to the next group of countries

21. Recent activities and next steps
- Adoption of the first five country reports of the Fourth Round.
Brazil, Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico, and Paraguay.
Conclusion of the process of preparing the following five country reports for adoption at the XXI Meeting of the MESICIC Committee of Experts, March 18 to 22, 2013 (OAS headquarters).
Argentina, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago
Adoption of the Second Progress Report on Implementation of the Convention.

22. Recent activities and next steps
Conclusion of the process of preparing the model laws:
To facilitate and encourage the reporting of acts of corruption and to protect whistle-blowers and witnesses; and
On declaration of interests, income, assets and liabilities.
Technical cooperation project with broad participation by the States Party and civil society organizations.
Adoption by the Committee of Experts at its XXI Plenary Meeting.

23. Recent activities and next steps
Continuation of the consideration of topics of collective interest by the Committee of Experts of the MESICIC:
Responsibility of the Private Sector in Preventing and Combating Corruption:
Methodology adopted in that regard.
Promoting Citizen Participation in Transparency and in Combating Corruption:
New topic of collective interest.

24. Recent activities and next steps
Participation of National Experts on the Committee and of the Technical Secretariat of the MESICIC in national and international events such as:
15th International Anti-Corruption Conference (Brasilia, November 2012).
Anti-Corruption Symposiums in Ecuador (Quito, November 2012).
Third Central America and Dominican Republic Forum for Transparency (Tegucigalpa, October 2012)
Annual Meeting of the Open Government Partnership (Brasilia, April 2012).
Regional Dialogue on Open Government (Mexico City, March 2012).

25. Recent activities and next steps
Next event with the participation of National Experts on the Committee and the Technical Secretariat of the MESICIC :
Regional Meeting on Private Sector Responsibility in the Fight against Corruption:
Bogota, Colombia, March 7 –
Organizers: Secretariat for Transparency of the Presidency and the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia; with the support of the Technical Secretariat of the MESICIC (SG/OAS), EUROsociAl, UNDP and the OECD.

26. Thank you very much. General Secretariat Secretariat for Legal Affairs
Department of Legal Cooperation