<МЕЖАМЕРИКАНСКАЯ КОНВЕНЦИЯ О БОРЬБЕ С КОРРУПЦИЕЙ> [англ.](Заключена в г. Каракасе 29.03.1996)
INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION
AGAINST CORRUPTION
(Caracas,
29.III.1996)
Preamble
The Member States of the Organization of American
States,
Convinced that corruption undermines the legitimacy of public
institutions and strikes at society, moral order, and justice, as well as at the
comprehensive development of peoples;
Considering that representative
democracy, an essential condition for stability, peace, and development of the
region, requires, by its nature, the combating of every form of corruption in
the performance of public duties, as well as acts of corruption specifically
related to such performance;
Persuaded that righting corruption
strengthens democratic institutions and prevents distortions in the economy,
improprieties in public administration, and damage to a society"s moral
fiber;
Recognizing that corruption is often a tool used by organized
crime for the accomplishment of its purposes;
Convinced of the importance
of making people in the countries of the region aware of this problem and its
gravity, and of the need to strengthen participation by civil society in
preventing and fighting corruption;
Recognizing that, in some cases,
corruption has international dimensions, which requires coordinated action by
States to fight it effectively;
Convinced of the need for prompt adoption
of an international instrument to promote and facilitate international
cooperation in fighting corruption and, especially, in taking appropriate action
against persons who commit acts of corruption in the performance of public
duties, or acts specifically related to such performance, as well as appropriate
measures with respect to the proceeds of such acts;
Bearing in mind that
the eradication of corruption is a responsibility of States and that they must
cooperate with one another if their efforts in this area are to be effective;
and
Determined to make every effort to prevent, detect, punish, and
eradicate corruption in the performance of public functions or acts of
corruption specifically related to such performance,
Have agreed to adopt
the following Inter-American Convention Against Corruption.
Article
I
Definitions
For the purposes of this Convention:
"Public
function" means any temporary or permanent, paid or honorary activity, performed
by a natural person in the name of the State or under its direction, control,
and authority. The term "State" comprises the national, provincial, regional,
local, and municipal levels and their agencies.
"Government official"
means any person who has been selected, appointed, or elected and who performs
public functions on a permanent or temporary basis.
"Property" means
assets of any kind, whether movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, and
any document or legal instrument demonstrating, purporting to demonstrate, or
relating to ownership or other rights pertaining to such assets.
Article
II
Purposes
The purposes of the Convention are:
1. To promote,
facilitate, and regulate cooperation among the States Parties to ensure the
effectiveness of measures and actions to prevent, detect, punish, and eradicate
acts of corruption in the performance of public functions and in acts of
corruption specifically related to such performance, and
2. To promote
and strengthen the development by each of the States Parties of the mechanisms
needed to prevent, detect, punish, and eradicate corruption.
Article
III
Preventive Measures
For the purposes set forth in Article II of the
Convention, the States Parties agree to consider the applicability of measures
within their own institutional systems, which would create, maintain, and
strengthen:
1. Standards of conduct for the correct, honorable, and
proper fulfillment of government functions. These standards shall be intended to
prevent conflicts of interest and mandate the proper conservation and use of
resources entrusted to government officials in the performance of their
functions. They shall also establish measures and systems requiring government
officials to report to appropriate authorities acts of corruption in the
performance of public functions. Such measures should help preserve the public"s
confidence in the integrity of civil servants and government processes.
2. Mechanisms to enforce these standards.
3. Instruction to personnel
hired by government agencies to ensure proper understanding of their
responsibilities and the ethical rules governing their activities.
4.
Systems for registering the assets and income of persons who perform public
functions in certain posts specified by law, and, where appropriate, for making
the registration of such assets and income public.
5. Systems of
government hiring and government procurement of goods and services that assure
the openness, equity, and efficiency of such systems.
6. Government
revenue collection and control systems that ensure that such activities deter
corruption.
7. Laws that deny favorable tax treatment for any individual
or corporation for expenditures made in violation of the anticorruption laws of
the States Parties.
8. Systems for protecting public employees and
private citizens who, in good faith, report acts of corruption, including
protection of their identities.
9. To establish and strengthen the
highest oversight bodies of each State Party with a view to implementing modern
mechanisms for preventing, detecting, punishing, and eradicating corrupt
acts.
10. Deterrents to the bribery of domestic and foreign government
officials, such as mechanisms to ensure that publicly held companies and other
types of associations maintain books and records which, in reasonable detail,
accurately reflect the acquisition and disposition of assets, and have
sufficient internal accounting controls to enable their officials to detect
corrupt acts.
11. Mechanisms to encourage participation by civil society
and nongovernmental organizations in efforts to prevent corruption.
12.
Mechanisms for studying further preventive measures, such as the relationship
between equitable compensation and probity in public service.
Article
IV
Scope
This Convention is applicable as long as the alleged act of
corruption has been committed or has effect in a State Party.
Article
V
Jurisdiction
1. Each State Party shall adopt such measures as may be
necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offenses it has established in
accordance with this Convention when the offense in question is committed in its
territory.
2. Each State Party may adopt such measures as may be
necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offenses it has established in
accordance with this Convention when the offense is committed by one of its
nationals or by a person who habitually resides in its territory.
3. Each
State Party shall adopt such measures as may be necessary to establish its
jurisdiction over the offenses it has established in accordance with this
Convention when the alleged criminal is present in its territory and it does not
extradite such person to another country on the ground of the nationality of the
alleged criminal.
4. This Convention does not preclude the application of
any other rule of criminal jurisdiction established by a Party under its
domestic law.
Article VI
Acts of Corruption
1. This Convention is
applicable to the following acts of corruption:
a. The solicitation or
the acceptance, directly or indirectly, by a government official or a person who
perform public functions, of any article of monetary value, or other benefit,
such as a gift, favor, promise, or advantage for himself or for another person
or entity, in exchange for any act or omission in the performance of his public
functions;
b. The offering or granting, directly or indirectly, to a
government official or a person who performs public functions of any article of
monetary value, or other benefit, such as a gift, favor, promise, or advantage
for himself or for another person or entity in exchange for any act or omission
in the performance of his public functions;
c. Any act or omission in the
discharge of his duties by a government official or a person who performs public
functions for the purpose of obtaining illicit benefits for himself or for a
third party;
d. The fraudulent use or concealment of property derived
from any of the acts referred to in this article;
e. Participation as a
principal, coprincipal, instigator, accomplice, or accessory after the fact, or
in any other manner, in the commission or attempted commission of, or in any
collaboration or conspiracy to commit, any of the acts referred to in this
article.
2. Any other act of corruption defined by the States Parties in
accordance with the purposes of this Convention.
Article VII
Domestic
Law
The States Parties that have not yet done so shall adopt the necessary
legislative or other measures to establish as criminal offenses under their
domestic law the acts of corruption described in Article VI and to facilitate
cooperation among themselves, pursuant to this Convention.
Article
VIII
Transnational Bribery
Subject to its Constitution and the
fundamental principles of its legal system, each State Party shall prohibit and
punish the offering or granting, directly or indirectly by its nationals,
persons having their habitual residence in its territory, and businesses
domiciled there to an official of another State of any article of monetary
value, or other benefit or advantage, (such as gifts, favors, or promises), in
connection with any international economic or commercial transaction and in
exchange for any act or omission in the performance of that official"s public
functions.
Among those States Parties that have established transnational
bribery as a crime, such offense shall be considered an act of corruption for
the purposes of this Convention.
Insofar as their laws permit, the States
Parties shall provide the necessary cooperation and assistance in connection
with this offense, as provided in this Convention.
Article IX
Illicit
Enrichment
Subject to their Constitutions and the fundamental principles of
their legal systems, those States Parties that have not yet done so shall take
the necessary measures to establish under their laws as an offense a significant
increase in the property of a government official that he cannot reasonably
explain in relation to his lawful earnings during the performance of his
functions.
Among those States Panics that have established illicit
enrichment as an offense, such offense shall be considered an act of corruption
for the purposes of this Convention.
Insofar as their laws permit, the
States Parties shall provide, in connection with this offense, the assistance
and cooperation established in this Convention.
Article X
Progressive
Development
Subject to their Constitution and the fundamental principles of
their legal systems, those States Parties that have not yet done so shall
endeavor to adopt the necessary measures to establish as offenses under their
laws the following acts:
1. Undue use, for a person"s own benefit or that
of a third party, of any kind of classified or confidential information which a
government official or a person who performs public functions has obtained
because of, or in the performance of, his functions.
2. Undue use, for a
person"s own benefit or that of a third party, of any kind of property belonging
to the State or to any firm or institution in which the State has an interest,
to which a government official or person who performs public functions has
access because of, or in the performance of, his functions.
3. Any act or
omission by any person who, personally or through a third party, or acting as an
intermediary, seeks to obtain a decision from a public authority whereby he
obtains for himself, or for another person, any unlawful benefit, whether or not
it harms State property.
4. The diversion by a government official for
purposes unrelated to those for which they were intended, for one"s own benefit
or that of third parties, of any movable or immovable property, monies or
securities belonging to the State, to a decentralized agency, or to an
individual, that he may have received by virtue of his position for purposes of
administration or custody or for other reasons.
Article XI
Impact on
Property
For application of this Convention, it is not necessary that these
acts of corruption harm State property.
Article XII
Extradition
1.
This article shall apply to the offenses established by the States Parties in
accordance with this Convention.
2. Each of the offenses to which this
article applies shall be deemed to be included as an extraditable offense in any
extradition treaty existing between or among the States Parties. The States
Parties undertake to include such offenses as extraditable offenses in every
extradition treaty to be concluded between or among them.
3. If a State
Party that makes extradition conditional on the existence of a treaty receives a
request for extradition from another State Party with which it does not have an
extradition treaty, it may consider this Convention as the legal basis for
extradition with respect to any offense to which this article applies.
4.
States Parties that do not make extradition conditional on the existence of a
treaty shall recognize offenses to which this article applies as extraditable
offenses between themselves.
5. Extradition shall be subject to the
conditions provided for by the law of the Requested State or by applicable
extradition treaties, including the grounds on which the Requested State may
refuse extradition.
6. If extradition for an offense to which this
article applies is refused solely on the basis of the nationality of the person
sought, or because the Requested State deems that it has jurisdiction over the
offense, the Requested State shall submit the case to its competent authorities
unless otherwise agreed with the Requesting State, and shall report the final
outcome to the Requesting State in due course.
7. For the purposes of
application of this Convention, the fact that the property derived from an act
of corruption was intended for political purposes or that it is alleged that an
act of corruption was committed for political motives or purposes shall not
suffice in and of itself to qualify the act as a political offense or as an
offense related to a political offense.
8. Subject to the provisions of
its domestic law and its extradition treaties,
