The world’s richest countries promised to close the gap between commitments they have made to fight corruption and the implementation of these promises in reality, as part of the leaders communiqué issued yesterday at the Los Cabos summit in Mexico. The group also agreed to a more joined up approach to issuing visa bans for corrupt politicians and those that corrupt them.
“The G20 has made steady progress on tackling corruption, and Global Witness welcomes the moves to deny corrupt politicians sanctuary in G20 countries,” said Robert Palmer, a campaigner with Global Witness. “What we now need is rigorous enforcement of anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws to prevent corrupt politicians lining their own pockets at the expense of ordinary citizens. There also needs to be a crack down on the companies, banks, lawyers and other professionals that facilitate this corruption”.
The G20’s anti-corruption working group has also had its mandate extended to 2014. The working group will publish a full progress report in November.
Read a submission to the working group here from February 2012, outlining civil society’s priorities for the group.
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Contact:
London: Robert Palmer on +44 (0)20 7492 5860, [email protected].