Media Releases

Combating bribery in international business transactions

October 8, 2010

TORONTO, ON — Brib­ing for­eign pub­lic offi­cials is a seri­ous crime with seri­ous con­se­quences. For­eign bribery dis­torts com­pet­i­tive mar­kets and stands in the way of good gov­er­nance and sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. Since the Orga­ni­za­tion for Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion and Development’s Con­ven­tion on Com­bat­ing Bribery of For­eign Pub­lic Offi­cials in Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Trans­ac­tions entered into force in 1999, 38 coun­tries have rec­og­nized the risks for­eign bribery presents and made for­eign bribery ille­gal.
Chris­tine Uri­arte, senior anti-cor­rup­tion ana­lyst and gen­er­al coun­sel at the OECD, will be speak­ing in Toron­to at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law as part of the organization’s new Ini­tia­tive to Raise Glob­al Aware­ness of For­eign Bribery (www.oecd.org/corruption/initiative).
The Con­ven­tion estab­lish­es legal­ly bind­ing stan­dards to crim­i­nal­ize bribery of for­eign pub­lic offi­cials in inter­na­tion­al busi­ness trans­ac­tions and pro­vides for a host of relat­ed anti-bribery mea­sures. The 33 OECD mem­ber coun­tries and five non-mem­ber coun­tries — Argenti­na, Brazil, Bul­gar­ia, Esto­nia and South Africa — have adopt­ed this Con­ven­tion and made it ille­gal for their cit­i­zens to bribe pub­lic offi­cials in oth­er coun­tries while con­duct­ing busi­ness deals abroad.
Ms. Uri­arte will speak on the issue of for­eign bribery, the Con­ven­tion and recent devel­op­ments and tools in the fight against for­eign bribery.

WHEN:                      Mon­day, Octo­ber 18, 2010
TIME:                        9 AM TO 10:30 AM
WHERE:                   Flavelle House, Fac­ul­ty of Law, 78 Queen’s Park Cres. [Muse­um sub­way stop; park­ing lim­it­ed]
COST:                      Free
INFO:                        http://www.law.utoronto.ca/conferences/OECD.html
CONTACT:               Lucian­na Cic­co­ciop­po, Direc­tor, Exter­nal Rela­tions
Seat­ing is lim­it­ed, please RSVP to: Lucianna.ciccocioppo@utoronto.ca
Office: 416–946-0334 / Mobile: 416–857-5220

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