Study On The Implementation Review Mechanism Of The United Nations Convention Against Corruption

Corruption is an old topic,which damages democracy and the rule of law,violates human rights and social order.With the economic integration and the development of science and technology,corruption crimes have begun to cross national boundaries,causing damage to the global fair order.Developing countries suffer,but developed countries are not immune.Corruption has gradually become a global problem.Therefore,corruption crime has attracted more and more attention from governments and the international community.The international community has been paying attention to preventing and combating corruption,and has developed a series of anti-corruption legal documents within the regional and United Nations.The anti-corruption conventions at the regional level mainly include the Inter-American Convention against Corruption adopted on 1996,the Convention on the Fight against Corruption involving Officials of the European Communities or Officials of Member States of the European Union adopted on 1997,the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption adopted on 1999,the Civil Law Convention on Corruption adopted on 1999,and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption adopted on 2003.Within the framework of the United Nations,the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was adopted in December 2000 and the United Nations Convention against Corruption(hereinafter referred to as the Convention)was adopted in October 2003.The above-mentioned legal documents constitute thecomplete international anti-corruption legal system.Among them,the United Nations Convention against Corruption is the only legally binding anti-corruption legal document on a global scale,occupying a central position in the entire anti-corruption legal system.The Convention provides the legal basis for the international community to prevent and combat corruption,but only the Convention itself is not enough.The vitality of law lies in its implementation,and the Convention must be effectively implemented in order to play its due role.This paper studies the existing implementation mechanism of the Convention and the effect of its implementation in the States Parties,explores the problems existing in the procedure setting and operation of the Implementation Review Mechanism and puts forward suggestions.In addition,China,as a party to the Convention,has its own particularities in the process of implementing the Convention.Therefore,we should start from China's practice,study the specific problems encountered by China in the process of implementing the Convention and seek solutions.In addition to the introduction and epilogue,the text is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is "Overview of the Implementation Review Mechanism ",which mainly introduces the establishment process,main content and nature of the Implementation Review Mechanism.The United Nations Convention against Corruption is the legal basis and foundation for the Implementation Review Mechanism of the Convention.It is also the first global international convention against corruption,and plays a central role in the international anti-corruption legal system.At the beginning of the founding of the Convention,it adopted a way of self-supervision by States parties,which is not conducive to the supervision of the implementation of the Convention.It is necessary to establish an institutionalized monitoring mechanism.In November 2009,at its third session,the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention adopted the basic document of the Implementation Review Mechanism,thus formally establishing the Implementation Review Mechanism.Under the Implementation Review Mechanism,the Conference of the States Parties is the main decision-making body of the Convention and the implementing body of the Implementation Review Mechanism.In order to ensure thesmooth operation of the review of compliance,the Conference of the States Parties has a secretariat and a number of subsidiary bodies to assist the Conference in dealing with relevant work.The Terms of Reference of the Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2009 and the Guidelines for Governmental Experts and the Secretariat in the Conduct of Country Reviews,as contained in the appendix to the annex,and the Blueprint for Country Review Reports provide specific operational procedures for the Implementation Review Mechanism.The working procedures of the Implementation Review Mechanism consist of four main components: the selected procedures of the State party under review,the selection process for the review of States parties and governmental experts,the country review process and the follow-up procedure for compliance review,which form the complete process of implementation review.From the working procedure and operation of the Implementation Review Mechanism,it belongs to a special supervision mechanism between political supervision and judicial supervision,and at the same time it is also a mechanism for evaluating the rule of law.Chapter Two is "The Characteristics of the Implementation Review Mechanism from a Comparative Perspective." The Implementation Review Mechanism has evolved with the implementation theory of international law and the theory and practice of international treaty monitoring mechanism.Treaty monitoring mechanism is a new kind of international treaty implementation mechanism,which originated in the field of international human rights law,and then extended to the fields of international environmental law and military law.The essence of The Implementation Review Mechanism is the development of the treaty monitoring mechanism in the field of international anti-corruption.Therefore,there are many similarities and differences with other international treaty monitoring mechanisms and other specialized and regional anti-corruption treaty monitoring mechanisms.This chapter discusses the main contents and procedures of the international human rights treaty monitoring mechanism,the international environmental treaty monitoring mechanism and the WTO trade policy review mechanism,as well as the regional anti-corruption conventions such as the Council of Europe Anti-CorruptionTreaty,the Inter-American Convention against Corruption,the OECD Convention against Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and the Asia-Pacific Anti-Corruption Convention.The monitoring mechanism of the Failure Action Plan was comprehensively introduced.On the basis of these introductions,this paper compares the Implementation Review Mechanism with those treaty monitoring mechanisms,and analyses the relevant characteristics of the Implementation Review Mechanism.Chapter ? is "Status of Implementation of Contracting Parties under the Implementation Review Mechanism".According to the content,the provisions under the Convention include three types: mandatory obligations,optional requirements and optional measures.Accordingly,the obligations of States parties under the Convention are different.States parties usually implement their obligations under the Convention through legislative,judicial and administrative measures.After the entry into force of the Convention,especially since the Implementation Review Mechanism came into operation,a series of measures have been taken by the States parties in accordance with the requirements of the Convention.According to the implementation review procedure,the review of the implementation of the Convention by States parties is divided into two cycles.The first cycle includes the review of chapter III(Conviction and Law Enforcement)and chapter ?(International Cooperation)of the Convention,and the second cycle includes the review of chapter II(Preventive Measures)and chapter V(Asset Recovery)of the Convention.At present,the first cycle has been completed.The second cycle of deliberations is still under way.In this part,the author enumerates the provisions of the Convention in three different categories,and makes an analysis of the implementation of the Convention by the States Parties since the operation of the Implementation Review Mechanism based on the published review reports and summaries of the States Parties to the Convention and the publication of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.Chapter ? is "Evaluation and Analysis of the Implementation Review Mechanism ".On the basis of Chapters 2,3 and 4,this chapter summarizes the role and contribution of the Implementation Review Mechanism to the implementation ofthe Convention by the States Parties,and reflects on the problems arising from its theory and practice.Since the Implementation Review Mechanism came into operation,it has played an important role in the domestic legislative reform of States Parties and international cooperation against corruption among States Parties.However,due to the lack of corresponding transparency and mandatory nature of the mechanism itself,it has not been able to play an effective role.In addition,in practice,the delays in the implementation of the review process and the lack of funds caused difficulties in the operation of the Implementation Review Mechanism,and also affected the realization of the function of the Implementation Review Mechanism to a certain extent.In order to further improve the Implementation Review Mechanism,on the one hand,we should strengthen the transparency of the mechanism itself,expand the open information of the States Parties,and give full play to the supervisory role of the public and civil society organizations in the review process;on the other hand,we should strengthen the mandatory nature of the mechanism and give some mandatory measures to the implementing agencies.From the development of international human rights treaties and international environmental treaty monitoring mechanism,we can see that increasing the mandatory mechanism is also the development trend of treaty monitoring mechanism.In addition,it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with other anti-corruption treaty monitoring mechanisms and further enhance the political will and capacity of States parties to implement the Convention,including the ability to implement the Convention and the review process.The fifth chapter is "The Enlightenment of the Implementation Review Mechanism to China's anti-corruption work".After China's accession to the Convention,great importance has been attached to the implementation of the Convention.A new anti-corruption prevention agency,the National Supervisory Committee,has been set up and a series of legislative amendments and improvements have been carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Convention.Especially in recent years,China has adopted a series of anti-corruption activities.In addition to strengthening the fight against corruption crimes within the domestic scope,it has also focused on strengthening international cooperation against corruption in the international community,carrying out special activities such as“Skynet”,and increasing cooperation with relevant countries on extradition and cross-border pursuit of stolen goods,which has resulted in great achievements in China's anti-corruption activities.In the review of the implementation of the Convention,the Chinese Government has always maintained a positive and cautious attitude,and successfully completed the first cycle of the review of the Convention.China's implementation work has been affirmed by the review group.However,from the requirements and deliberations of the Convention,there are still many problems in the implementation of the Convention: there are some shortcomings and challenges in the implementation of the Convention,the image of anti-corruption in the international community needs to be improved,and anti-corruption needs to explore the way of China.In response to the above problems,China should further enhance its ability to perform its duties,win the trust of the international community with anti-corruption results,strengthen anti-corruption cooperation in the international arena,and seek China's voice and right to formulate international anti-corruption rules in order to better serve China's anti-corruption work.