Anti-corruption activists unite to support international trade compliance

The national chapters of Transparency International in Portugal, Norway and Iceland gathered this week for the kickoff meeting of CLEANBIZ – Power-up Anti-bribery for Human Rights and Sustainable Development, a new project supported by the EEA Grants Bilateral Relations Fund, aimed at fostering the business sector participation and commitment towards Human Rights and Sustainable Development by scaling up corporate social responsibility principles through implementing the implementation of corporate governance and sustained efforts against illegal and unethical competitive practices in international business transactions.

Iceland, Norway, and Portugal signed the UNCAC and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, and over the years had implemented its provisions into the national laws by extending the already existing provisions, namely regarding corruption and the bribery of public officials to also include bribery of foreign public officials and agents. But we see different levels of engagement of the private sector, as well as corporate governance and compliance mechanisms in place to address it, mainly due to distinct levels of enforcement by the governments and the public perception of the impacts of corruption in everyday life, on Human Rights and on Sustainable Development.

Based on Transparency International’s business integrity conceptual framework, and with a clear focus on fighting foreign bribery, over the next 12 months the project will support the implementation and the enforcement of the OECD Anti-Briebery Convention by combining anti-corruption and human rights compliance and due diligence with awareness-raising and training directed to the business sector.

TI Portugal, TI Norway and TI Iceland are reference organisations in the fight against corruption in their countries and for this reason are very well positioned to contribute to achieving the project’s objectives and expected results. As a strong capacity building initiative, the activities will be implemented collaboratively, being TI Portugal, as the promoter, responsible for project coordination.