By Paula O'Malley

Taking place in Athens, Greece, from 30 October to 2 November 2008, the conference will host world leaders and representatives from civil society, government and the private sector who will engage in open debates in a set of four plenary sessions to address the critical issues that will define our common future. There will also be around 40 workshops linking the issue of corruption with the conference’s foci.

Past conferences have attracted over 1,300 participants from over 130 countries. The plenary debates have featured former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, former President of the World Bank James Wolfensohn, Organisation of American States Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, former Kenyan anti-corruption chief John Githongo, Senior Commissioner of the Ministry of Supervision of China Zhenjun Wu, as well as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sánchez.

Since its founding in 1983, the biennial International Anti-Corruption Conference series has evolved into a premier international gathering for all who those committed to fighting corruption. The IACC is conducted by the IACC Council with Transparency International as its secretariat. This year the conference will be jointly hosted by the Greek government, Transparency International and TI’s national chapter in Greece.

For more information on the 13th IACC and to lend your voice to the international anti-corruption movement, you may register online at www.13iacc.org. Calls for workshop proposals will open on April 1st, 2008. Please direct any questions to info@13iacc.org.

By Georg Neumann

ALACs promote the relationship between citizens´ demand for justice based on corruption cases, and the capacity of the system to address these cases. This methodology stimulates citizen empowerment through legal assistance and advice in presenting the complaints. Moreover, the information recorded from the complaints is used to plead the case of institutional and legal changes in order to reduce the risks of corruption and bring back public trust in the official institutions. The TI national chapter in Guatemala, Acción Ciudadana, is the first national chapter in Latin America to open an ALAC. Besides Acción Ciudadana, other Latin American and Caribbean national chapters have also shown interest in the methodology, which was originally developed in the Eastern European region.

TI national contact in Ukraine, the “Anticorruption Committee”, received funding from Management System International to implement a “Legal Assistance to Citizens through Anticorruption Hotline”. The project provides legal advice to victims of corruption and a toll-free hotline through which citizens can seek advice in corruption related matters. A national public campaign to advertise the new service will start soon. It will be implemented by the Association of Outdoor Advertising and the Committee for Counteracting Corruption and Organised Crime.

In February, TI national chapter in formation in Kyrgyzstan opened its first ALAC in Bishkek. The project is supported by the Finnish Foreign Ministry initially for one year.

By Georg Neumann

The concert was part of the national chapter’s efforts to create and strengthen a gender-sensitive anti-corruption movement by linking the anti-corruption and the women's rights movements.

Well-known and upcoming bands and solo performers entertained the audience throughout the day highlighting solidarity with the cause and encouraged the young audience to say NO to corruption. Performing artists include Farida Parvin, Syed Abdul Hadi, Kangalini Sufia, Azam Khan, Fahmida Nabi, Shahed, Mehrin, Kafil and Krishnakoli, as well as the bands Souls, Renaissance, Maksud O Dhaka, Dalchhut, Aurthohin, Black and Yatri.

The concert was organised in collaboration with the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) in Bangladesh and held at the Gulshan Youth Club ground in Dhaka. The national chapter also produced a special tv message on the occasion of Women’s Day, available on the their website here. Huguette Labelle, Chair of TI, addressed the audience with a message read out during the event.

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, TI also published an In Focus highlighting its recently re-edited Working Paper on Gender and Corruption and gives an overview of how TI addresses gender issues in its work.