International Cooperation

Participation in a joint side event of the UNGASS

From 2 to 4 June 2021, the first UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on corruption was held in New York. In a joint side event organized by the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), the Republic of Austria and UNODC, corruption expert Michael Johnston and the Acting Director of the BAK, Otto Kerbl, discussed, inter alia, the importance of education and training.

Representatives of UN Member States and non-governmental organizations took part in this hybrid meeting. The focus of the event was to collectively discuss practices and methods to increase integrity as well as resilience to corruption. Among other things, experts in the prevention of and fight against corruption presented bold and innovative best practices to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation. Particular attention was paid to the role of education and research in fighting corruption and thus enhancing the rule of law, as well as to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the UN Agenda 2030. In addition to the corruption expert and political scientist Michael Johnston, the BAK’s Acting Director, Otto Kerbl, spoke about the phenomenon of corruption and presented innovative corruption prevention approaches of the BAK, such as the BAK app "Correct or Corrupt" or the board game "fit4compliance – find your values".