During a meeting held on June 13-14 in Beirut, which brought
together representatives of civil society organizations involved in
combating corruption in eleven Arab countries, including "AMAN", the
"foundation stone" for the network of civil society organizations
to support the application of the United Nations Convention against
Corruption in the Arab countries was created. It was based on
the decision of the regional conference held at the Dead Sea last
January, with the support of UNDP-POGAR.
AMAN's representative, Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, presented a vision on the
network in terms of defining its goals and structure, eligible
organizations for membership in addition to developing its
relationship with the governmental network.
Representatives of civil society organizations who participated in
the meeting were considered founding members of the network. It was
agreed that the founding institution assume the establishment and
the leadership in local countries, as per a policy of openness, and
promoting an alliance of civil society institutions.
A committee was formed to develop bylaws of the Network. The
committee includes Dr. Saleem Nasr, (UNDP), Dr. Azmi Shuaibi (AMAN),
Salah Al-Ghazali (Kuwait Transparency Society), and Khaled Hajjaj
(Algerian Society for combating corruption). Bylaws to be developed
will be presented and discussed later in the Forum that will be held
in Kuwait during the month of November of this year.
AMAN had participated in the regional conference on supporting the
implementation of the "United Nations Convention against Corruption"
in the Arab States, which was held in the Dead Sea area during the
period of January 21-23, 2008. The conference was held in
cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC), and in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and the
Commission of combating corruption in Jordan.
Both Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, and Mr. Mohammad Liftawi, the National
Anti corruption campaign Project Assistant represented AMAN.
While the Minister of Justice, Dr. Ali Khashan, the director of
Financial & Administrative Control Bureau, Dr. Mahmoud Abu-Rob and
the Attorney General, Ahmed Al-Muguni represented the Palestinian
National Authority. The conference was attended also by ministers of
justice, representatives of governmental units involved in combating
corruption, in addition to regional and international experts and
donor representatives.
During
the conference, Shuaibi spoke about the role of Arab
parliamentarians in the implementation of the provisions of the
Convention in Arab countries. Participants, from their sides,
stressed the need to establish an official Arab regional network
that can serve as a forum for exchanging knowledge and experiences
in combating corruption.
