Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Official 2008-2009 UN anti-corruption logo (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Two events to raise awareness of corruption

Two events are planned in Kyiv today to mark the United Nations International Anti-Corruption Day.


High school and university students will receive awards for the best written essays on how corruption has affected their lives at 1 p.m. at the World Bank office. At 7 p.m., five awards will be given for the best investigative piece in print, online media, television, and an overall grand prix prize at the Radisson Hotel.


“Anti-Corruption Day in Ukraine is significant and is an additional reminder of the importance of the issue…Transparency International’s and our surveys show corruption in Ukraine isn’t improving at all,” said Juhani Grossman, project director for the Promoting Active Citizen Engagement in Combating Corruption in Ukraineproject.


The United Nations Convention against Corruption, which entered into force in December 2005 was meant to put forth comprehensive and even-handed measures for tackling the global challenge of corruption.


“As recently as ten years ago, corruption was only whispered about,” reads a UN statement. “Today there are signs of growing intolerance toward corruption and more and more politicians and chief executives are being tried and convicted.”


It is widely believed that corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. For example, it undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, and distorts markets.


The Convention devotes measures to the prevention and criminalization of corruption, on asset recovery, and calls for international cooperation with established implementation mechanisms.