12 April 2022 –
Finland has become the 32nd country to sign the UNCAC Coalition’s Transparency Pledge, voluntarily committing to a high level of transparency and civil society inclusion in the second cycle of the UNCAC implementation review.
Finland was scheduled to begin its second cycle UNCAC implementation review, which covers articles on preventive measures (Chapter II of the UNCAC) and asset recovery (Chapter V), in 2018. The government will submit its self-assessment checklist soon and aims to hold the country visit with the peer reviewing countries Portugal and El Salvador and civil society stakeholders and finalize the review in 2022. See the country review documents as they are published here. Click here for more details on how the review mechanism works.
The Transparency Pledge was signed by Mr. Ari-Pekka Koivisto, Director General of the Department of Criminal Policy and Criminal Law at the Ministry of Justice of Finland. In its signature letter, Finland also takes note of the UNCAC Coalition’s Guide to Transparency and Participation in the UNCAC Review Mechanism, which outlines good practices of civil society participation to ensure a transparent and inclusive review process.
Principles of Transparency
The Transparency Pledge covers the following principles, complementing the UNCAC Coalition’s guide which includes best practice approaches for promoting transparency and participation in the review process:
- We will publish updated review schedules for our country review
- We will share information about the review institution or the coordinator (focal point)
- We will announce the completion of the country review indicating where the report can be found
- We will promptly post online the self-assessment and the full country report in a UN language, together with the executive summary in local languages
- We will organize civil society briefings and public debates about the findings of the report
- We will publicly support participation of civil society observers in UNCAC subsidiary bodies
Read more about the importance of transparency and civil society inclusion om the website of the Ministry of Justice of Finland here.