The Second Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption Held

The Second Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption was held in Bali Island, Indonesia from January 28 to February 1, 2008. More than 1,000 people from the founding countries and signatory countries of the convention, special agencies of the United Nations and non-governmental organizations attended the conference, including ministerial level delegations from more than 40 countries. Approved by the State Council, Wu Dawei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Qu Wanxiang, Vice Minister of Supervision and Deputy Head of National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NBCP) led Chinese delegation to the conference as the head and the deputy head respectively. Related people from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Supervision, NBCP, Supreme People s Procuratorate and Foreign Affairs Committee of National People s Congress also participated in the conference.

According to the stipulation of Article 63 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption on the conference of parties, the first Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention against Corruption was held in Jordan from December 10 to 14, 2006.

Hendarman Supandji, Attorney General of Indonesia was elected as the president of the conference. Indonesia s Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs addressed the conference on behalf of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia. Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime delivered a speech at the opening ceremony.

Besides organization affairs and general debate, the conference fully affirmed the work the working group in convention implementation supervision, asset recovery and technological assistance, and reviewed topics such as implementation supervision, asset recovery, corruption prevention, technological assistance, criminal conviction and bribe to officials in international public organizations.

Meanwhile, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime held the ministerial level roundtable conference of asset recovery, legislative organization forum, non-government social forum, private department forum, media forum and artist forum with related non-governmental organizations.

Chinese delegation actively participated in conference discussions according to schedule, introduced China s progress in convention implementation and corruption prevention, briefed on the basic information of the construction of combating corruption and upholding integrity in China, illustrated China s claim of strengthening international cooperation in combating and preventing corruption and set up China s sound image of a responsible power.

Wu Dawei briefly introduced the work related to the implementation of the convention of China in the general debate, including related information of establishing NBCP and China s principles and stances in convention implementation and asset recovery. Qu Wanxiang delivered a speech on corruption prevention, introducing the information of China launching corruption prevention work and China s principles of international cooperation and assistance in the area.

During the conference, Qu Wanxiang also met with Tuija Brax, Minister of Justice of Finland and Robert Leventhal, Director of Anti-Corruption Program of the State Department of the United States, discussing issues of both concerns such as combating and preventing corruption.

The third conference of parties will be held in Qatar in 2009.