Caritas and religious leaders write to UN to fight global corruption

(Sept.08,2009): Caritas has joined other faith-based aid agencies and religious leaders in calling for action to wipe out global corruption. In a letter on Tuesday to the United Nations Secretary General, over 50 faith leaders and agency directors said “corruption is a major cause of poverty in developing countries and a major barrier to overcoming it. Corruption is at the heart of people’s experience of poverty.”
The letter to UN Chief Ban Ki Moon pointed out that for poor communities, corrupt practices constitute an insurmountable barrier to quality education, affordable healthcare and decent livelihood. Corruption steals opportunity and hope, they stressed and added that both rich and poor countries have a responsibility to overcome it.
In 2003, the UN General Assembly signed the UN Convention against corruption – UNCAC. It was the first global treaty that provides a framework to harmonise anti-corruption efforts worldwide. This week the UNCAC Working group will meet in the Austrian capital Vienna to look at progress made, far ahead of a November summit in Doha the capital of Qatar. Over 50 religious leaders and faith based organisations including Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight called on the group to turn UNCAC into an effective tool to wipe out corruption.