OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions of 1997
United Nations Convention against Corruption of 2003
The Tenth Principle of the Global Compact of 2004
Partnering Against Corruption Initiative von 2004
The Convention of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) aimed at fighting the bribery of foreign officials in international business affairs was signed on December 17th, 1997 and has been in effect since February 15th, 1999. All EU members ratified the agreement and adjusted their laws accordingly. In Germany this was done by the International Bribery Law (IntBestG).
Transparency International's 2009 Progress Report on OEDC Convention Enforcement
The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) was signed by the Federal Republic of Germany on December 9th, 2003. It contains 71 articles with partly new elements of offense. The agreement, approved by the UN General Assembly, calls on all governments to treat bribery and corruptibility as a crime.
Article 8: "… establishing measures and systems to facilitate the reporting by public officials of acts of corruption to appropriate authorities, when such acts come to their notice in the performance of their functions."
Article 33: "… to provide protection against any unjustified treatment for any person who reports in good faith and on reasonable grounds to the competent authorities any facts concerning offenses established in accordance with this Convention."
The agreement came into effect with the ratification of the 30th signatory state in September 2005. 150 countries have ratified the convention so far. An implementation in German law has not taken place yet.
The Global Compact is an initiative of the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan aimed at achieving a common ethical orientation within the United Nations, governments and society for the global economic process with regards to human rights, labour and environment.
Since 1999, approximately 3,800 companies, labour and social organisations from all regions of the world have agreed to uphold the ten principles of the Global Compact, with 52 of them in Germany.
The fight against corruption was incorporated as the tenth principle in June 2004:
"Business should combat corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery."
The World Economic Forum founded the only company-driven, global Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) in 2004. Management, governmental and administrative members as well as legislators are challenged.
The initiative seeks to be a neutral platform enabling companies to consolidate their efforts to counter bribery and corruption. It implements concrete and effective measures for fighting corruption, promotes cooperation between independent experts, non-governmental organisations and governmental agencies and motivates as many companies as possible to subscribe to the anti-corruption measures.
The Partnering Against Corruption - Principles for Countering Bribery have been developed by a multinational and intersectoral group of companies in cooperation with the World Economic Forum, Transparency International and the Basel Institute on Governance.
Participating companies make a commitment to:
The enterprise shall prohibit bribery in any form.
The enterprise shall commit to the continuation or implementation of an effective program to counter bribery.
The aim of these PACI Principles is to provide a framework for good business practices and risk management strategies for countering bribery.