From 5 December to 4 January 2012, the exhibition “Corruption: struggle without compromises”, dedicated to the International Anti-Corruption Day, runs in the Dociments of International Organizations Reading Room (room 207g).

This Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in November 2003 (resolution A/RES/58/4). It is annually celebrated on 9 December. This date was chosen not casually. The UN Convention against corruption, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 3 November 2003, was opened on this day in Mexican city Merida at Political conference. During three days this new international document was signed by the representatives of 100 countries.

Corruption became a huge problem of the present. Any state, regardless of its social- economic and a political system, has no absolute immunity to corruption. The signing of this Convention is a result of deep realization by the world community of serious danger.

The Convention has come into force on 14 December, 2005. Its purpose is to prevent and eradicate all over the world corruption which undermines economic development, weakens democratic institutes and a principle of law leadership, breaks a public order and destroys the trust of a society, that promote prosperity of the organized crime, terrorism and other threats of human safety.

The Convention marked that negative consequences of corruption affect all layers of a society. The confrontation must be done together beginning from banks, members of parliament, the non-governmental organizations, mass media to doctors, lawyers and simple citizens.

The document obliges the states, which have signed it, to declare a criminal offence to a bribe, embezzlement of budgetary funds and money-laundering of corruption profit. It stipulates for the prevention of corruption, punishment guilty, and also mechanisms of the international cooperation in the struggle against this harm. The Convention obliges the state-members to pursue the policy on counteraction to corruption, to approve corresponding laws and to found special bodies in order to struggle against this phenomenon. In accordance with the Convention the states must achieve that their officials to be incorruptible, fair and responsible.

The Convention was signed by 140 states and ratified by 80.

Supporting and developing initiatives on struggle against corruption at national, regional and international levels, the Republic of Belarus was one of the first states-members who ratified the UN Convention against corruption. Besides this Convention the Republic of Belarus also ratified such basic international acts, the European Council Convention on criminal liability for corruption, the UN Convention against transnational organized crime, the Civil Law Convention on Corruption.

Uncompromising and resolute struggle against corruption is the central part of internal policy of our state. The base document, on which basis an anticorruption activity in our country is organized, is the Law of the Republic of Belarus “ About struggle against corruption”, accepted on 20 July 2006.

The exhibition contains more than 60 documents of the international organizations (the United Nations, the European Union, the European Council, etc.) in Russian and English languages: books, periodicals, mimeograph materials of the United Nations, brochures and booklets.

The exposition consists of following sections:

Concept, forms and types of corruption. The influence of corruption on the development of a society;
The international legal documents aimed at struggle against corruption;
The main methods and directions of struggle against corruption and its separate demonstration;
Struggle against corruption in the Republic of Belarus.

The exhibition will be interesting to workers in government and management bodies, employees of law enforcement bodies, public prosecutors, judges, and also to teachers, post-graduate students and students of legal high schools.

Useful references

The UN system

World Bank

The UN development program