UNCAC Implementation
Working with other countries, civil society, international organizations to support accelerated implementation of the voluntary provisions of the UN Convention Against Corruption.
Country: Afghanistan
Status: overdue
Themes: Uncategorised
Last updated: December 2020
Classification:
Concrete: Somewhat Concrete | New: Not New | Ambitious: Somewhat Ambitious
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3 Notes:
The government has started to backtrack on this by removing civil society organizations from a selection committee for the anti-corruption commission. Lack of public scrutiny prevents transparency and increases corruption risks in the recruitment of such an important oversight body for the future of the Afghan fight against corruption. Additionally, the government has failed to implement the anti-corruption law, which was the identified way to transpose the main UNCAC provisions into national law.
Peer reviewer: 1
Updated: October 31, 2020
Afghanistan joined UNCAC in 2004 and the convention was ratified by the Parliament and signed by the President in 2008. The law is in the gazette on the Ministry of Justice Website.The Afghan government has not placed a mechanism to implement the UNCAC. However, the convention has been reflected in a few laws in particular the Criminal Law Working Group has specifically referenced the implementation of the UNCAC in the draft anti-corruption law. The draft anti-corruption law has adopted a few major provisions of the UNCAC including independence of the anti-corruption body. In addition, the Afghan government has established a specialized prosecutor body for the major corruption cases, another provision of the UNCAC. Afghanistan has recently completed a self-assessment of UNCAC chapters. In addition, Afghan cabinet has recently passed an anti-corruption law that is intended to establish independent anti-corruption agencies in line with UNCAC. Moreover, the Afghan anti-corruption law has been recently amended in an effort to make it more compatible with UNCAC although major features are still missing. The process for hiring commissioners has started. Government and civil society will each introduce 25 candidates each out of which only 5 will be selected by the president as commissioners. In the selection of the commissioners, civil society will be consulted. Unfortunately, for now, due to Covid-19, the process of hiring commissioners has halted.
Peer reviewer: 1
Updated: April 30, 2020