Position Paper example 2!

Delegate: Katie Gourley

Country: The Russian Federation

Committee: General Assembly B

Topic: Government and Controversy/Election Fraud

Focus Question: To what extent should be UN be involved with government changes in various countries? What action should be taken if a government is know to be corrupt?

The most general definition of the term corruption is the misuse of public powers for the purpose of gaining personal profit. Almost every country faces issues with corruption in their government , and it can be very hard to weed out corruption, for those with the most power are often those who are the most corrupt.

Somalia is one example of a country that faces extreme corruption. According to the Transparency International 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, Somalia is ranked last out of the 180 countries evaluated with a CPI score of 1.0. Transparency International bases their rankings off the degree to which corruption is perceived among public officials and politicians. (transparency.org) "Countries torn apart by conflict pay a huge toll in their capacity to govern," the agency's international chairman Huguette Labelle said in a statement in 2007 (USA Today, Sept. 29, 2007). Ever since the country broke out in civil war in 1991, Somalia has had troubles maintaining a stable government, they had a brief and fragile parliamentary system in 2000 but it expired in 2003 and since 2004, Somalia has been under a UN- backed government that has continually failed to assert any control.

Myanmar is similarly ranked with a CPI score of 1.3. Many accuse Myanmar’s Military junta (which took control in 1988) of turning Myanmar into the corrupt nation it has become. One of the most recent examples of the junta’s corrupt actions came in May, 2008 when a Cyclone Nargis devastated the country, killing thousands and leaving even more without food or shelter. As aid workers from UN agencies such as the World Food Program attempted to help bring relief to the many in need, myriad problems stemming from the country’s corruption arose. The first problem the aid workers faced was the infrastructure of the country that was degraded even before Nargis hit, much of the region was almost impossible to get in to. The second issue aid workers faces was the reluctancy of the country’s secretive military leaders to allow outsiders into the country; Myanmar was closed to foreign journalists and many aid workers and boxes of relief supplies were kept from those in need. The UN had to do all but demand the country to open its doors to help.

There are many causes for corruption in governments. It is, again, very hard to put definite terms on the causes of corruption because of the secrecy most corrupt governments hold so highly in regard. As stated before, countries can often become more susceptible to corruption in times of conflict or extreme poverty. However, corruption is universal, and no matter the development status of a country, no matter its wealth or world standing, corruption is prevalent.

The United Nations has taken actions to help countries eliminate corruption at its roots. At the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), the UN established that it is important to prosecute corruption after the fact, but that the most important thing in eliminating corruption is prevention in both the public and private sectors. The UN urges that preventative policies such as those that create anticorruption bodies, enhanced transparency and accountability in the financing of political campaigns and public finance policy, and systems that promote efficiency, transparency and recruitment based on merit. (undoc.org)

According to the Transparency International 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, the three least corrupt governments are Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden (all with a CPI score of 9.3). According to the same index, Russia is ranked 147 with a CPI score of 2.1. Russia is the lowest ranking European country on the CPI list and over three-fourths of ordinary Russian citizens would describe the corruption level as “high” or “very high” (economist.com). Corruption in Russia has become so prevalent that it is considered a normal part of society. INDEM, which monitors and analyzes corruption reports that 80 percent or all Russian businesses pay bribes (the economist) Russia should aspire to be more like Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden in its anti-corruption efforts.

In November 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that he would head an anti-corruption council to be set up within three months in Russia. There has been little to report on the actions of this council as of yet, as the council has not been fully established. At the time of his announcement Medvedev also stated that Russia needed a national plan to combat corruption including updated laws, measures to fight economic and social corruption, preventative measures, encouragement of anticorruption behavior in the country and education on the legal aspects of the issue (en.rian.ru).

The Council of Europe stated in a document entitled Criminal Law Convention on Corruption that they believed that an effective fight against corruption requires increased, rapid and well-functioning international cooperation in criminal matters and that they welcomed recent developments which further advance international understanding and cooperation in combating corruption, including actions of the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Organization of American States, the OECD and the European Union (conventions.coe.int).

Russia has often had differing views with the UN on many topics, however the views of the current Russian administration and of the UN appear to correlate on the issue of corruption. The UN and specific countries should work together to design programs to effectively eliminate corruption.