Anti-corruption conventions are written international agreements signed by state parties which establish international frameworks of agreed rules and standards for countering corruption, in addition to serving as an expression of high level political commitment. These conventions are intended to produce better policies and practices in and among member states in the prevention, detection, investigation, and sanctioning of acts of corruption.

The common frameworks provided by international anti-corruption conventions serve to:

• Facilitate international cooperation in the control and sanctioning of corruption in order to address a cross-border phenomenon;
• Provide governments, citizens and donors with internationally agreed reference points for their work at the national level. These reference points serve as standards which remain constant even as administrations change;
• Create peer pressure on governments;
• Provide civil society with leverage to hold government accountable;
• Promote collective pressure on the private sector.

Within the framework of these conventions, states have reached agreements on the principal public policy tools and norms for impeding corrupt practices. In the Americas, anti-corruption conventions have set standards in key areas such as:

• Procurement;
• Public sector ethics and procedures and access to information;
• Private sector standards, including accounting and auditing standards;
• Criminalisation of bribery of domestic and foreign public officials;
• Prevention and criminalisation of money laundering;
• International cooperation and mutual legal assistance;
• Asset recovery.

Many anti-corruption conventions contemplate the creation of intergovernmental follow-up mechanisms to in order to assure that state parties comply with their commitments. These monitoring or review mechanisms are essential for the conventions to be effective.

Learn in more detail about the relevant anti-corruption conventions in the Americas with the following links:

• The Inter-American Convention against Corruption of the Organization of American States (OAS)
• The United Nations Convention against Corruption
• The Convention against Transnational Bribery of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• Civil society's work promoting anti-corruption conventions
• Conventions from other regions