Vienna, Austria, 12-16 June 2023 – The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organized the 14th Sessions of the Implementation Review Group and of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Prevention of Corruption, which took place at the UNHQ in Vienna.
PAM was represented by Hon. Rita Superman, Member of the Cypriot Delegation, and Hon. Tijana Davidovac and Hon. Ivana Nikolic, Members of the Serbian Delegation.
The events aimed at fostering engagement among Member States, practitioners, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders, to prevent and combat the different forms of corruption, promoting justice, and protecting the victims.
At the General Debate, Hon. Superman recalled the crucial role that parliamentarians play in the fight against corruption. MPs are at the forefront in overseeing the implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption, providing and/or improving national and regional legal frameworks needed to enable other actors to enforce effective measures. She also mentioned the long-standing and fruitful partnership between PAM and the UNODC.
To be better prepared to address issues related to fighting corruption and international organized crime, PAM signed, in 2021, an MoU with the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), and organized the same year, in Naples, the high-level conference “The Palermo Convention: the future of the fight against transnational organized crime”, in cooperation with the UNODC and the Vittorio Occorsio Foundation.
The outcome of the Vienna meeting will be reflected in PAM’s future recommendations and deliberations. PAM remains strongly committed to actively engage with the United Nations, governments, and any other regional or international organizations, in order to maximize efforts, and facilitate the highest degree of cooperation, necessary to tackle the exponentially growing transnational aspects of this crime.//