HE Hamad bin Nasser al-Missned, President of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority (ACTA), headed the Qatari delegation that participated in a number of UN events including First resumed tenth session of the Implementation Review Group (Vienna, September 2-4, 2019) and the Tenth Intersessional Meeting Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Prevention (Vienna, September 4-6, 2019); an invitation received from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to present best practices and initiatives of Qatar in the field of preventing and combating corruption nationally and internationally, with a focus on the national strategy to promote integrity and transparency, adopted recently by Qatar.
Through his speech to the Prevention Meeting, on September 5, the President of ACTA stated Qatar is witnessing a comprehensive renaissance in all political, economic and social fields, supported by advanced legislative and institutional frameworks, including in the areas of transparency, integrity and preventing and combating corruption. This is reflected positively on the position of the State of Qatar regionally and internationally.
Moreover, he shed light on the international efforts of Qatar in the above-mentioned areas, in particular Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani Anti-corruption International Excellence Award, in addition to hosting the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha in 2015.
At the national level, he spoke about steps taken by Qatar to strengthen the national legal and institutional framework for transparency and integrity including enacting legislation regulating public officials, tenders and auctions, draft laws on transparency and conflict of interest, the National Framework for Institutional Transparency and Integrity and the National Strategy to Promote Integrity and Transparency.
Additionally, the President of ACTA held a number of bilateral meetings, which began with a meeting with Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC, where the ACTA President thanked him for the technical support provided by UNODC in the development of the Qatari National Strategy for promoting Integrity and Transparency. He also invited Fedotov to attend the launch of the National Strategy and the accompanying Forum to be held in December 2019 in Doha.
The meeting discussed enhancing cooperation between Qatar and UNODC and Qatar’s offer to host the 10th session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which will be held in 2023. The ACTA President explained that Qatar’s interest in hosting this conference comes in context of its keenness to enhance the partnership with UNODC and all States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Convention (UNCAC), contributing to the implementation of the Convention and achieving its objectives, and supporting international efforts to prevent and combat corruption.
He stressed the fact that Qatar has all the technical, financial and intellectual potentials to successfully organise the 10th session of the Conference of States Parties.
HE Hamad bin Nasser al-Missned held a meeting with John Brandolino, Director of the Division of Treaty Affairs of UNODC, Brigitte Strobel Shaw, Head of Corruption and Economic Crime Branch and a number of UNODC’s experts. The meeting dealt with existing and future co-operation projects between ACTA and UNODC in the field of preventing and combating corruption and ways to enhance them.
He also held side meetings with a number of heads of anti-corruption authorities, who participated in the UN meetings, including states of Serbia and Thailand, where enhancing bilateral co-operation and exchanging expertise were discussed.
HE Hamad bin Nasser al-Missned extended an invitation to UNODC and the participating countries to attend the launching of the National Strategy to promote Integrity, Transparency and the accompanying forum to be held in Doha in December this year. He also invited all countries to follow the announcement of the fourth edition of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani International Excellence Award on the International Anti-corruption Day on December 9, 2019.
At his side meetings, the ACTA president discussed supporting Qatar’s proposal to host the 10th session of UNCAC Conference of States Parties to be held in 2023. He announced that Qatar will submit a draft decision in this regard at the next session of the conference, which will be held in Abu Dhabi.
HE Hamad bin Nasser al-Missned shakes hands with Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC in Vienna.
