CSTO PA’s model lawmaking constantly addresses anti-corruption

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December 9 is the International Anti-Corruption Day. Several times since the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization began its work, the Organization has returned to the issues of improving model legislation in the area of anti-corruption, creating a strict consistent system of model legislation to combat this phenomenon.

According to the document substantiating the need to develop recommendations to counter corruption, “Despite the measures taken by the CSTO Member States to counter corruption, this phenomenon still significantly hinders social transformation and economic modernization, causes people’s distrust to state institutions, negatively affects their image in the international arena and is objectively considered as one of the main threats to national security.”

In 2014, the Research Centre under the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was tasked to develop Recommendations on the Harmonization of the CSTO Member States’ Legislation Regulating Relations in the Area of Prevention and Countering of Corruption.

The document’s development began with a comprehensive comparative legal analysis of the CSTO Member States’ legislation in the area of prevention and fight against corruption.

Then the document was drafted with the main emphasis on the legal regulation of the system of anti-corruption measures (including measures to prevent corruption offenses; their suppression; liability for their commission; compensation for damage caused by corruption offenses), as well as the harmonization of legal regulation of the formation of anti-corruption standards, which include a set of guarantees, restrictions and prohibitions in various spheres of life of the state and society.

On November 26, 2015, after discussions in the CSTO Member States’ parliaments, the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly adopted the Recommendations, but the development of model legislation in the area of combating corruption in the CSTO States continued.

For instance, Recommended Glossary of Terms and Definitions of the CSTO Member States in Regulatory Support of Combating Corruption was developed almost simultaneously with the Recommendations and adopted by the Assembly on November 24, 2016, after a detailed discussion in the parliaments of the CSTO Member States.

On November 5, 2019, the CSTO PA adopted the Recommendations on Approximation of the CSTO Member States’ Laws on Confiscation of Property in the Interests of Combating Corruption, Financing of Terrorism and Other Types of Crime.

Although the anti-corruption work continues, it should be noted that the model legislation adopted by the CSTO PA forms a fairly coherent system that helps to approximate and improve the national legislation of the CSTO Member States in the fight against corruption, removing its enablers and minimizing the consequences of corruption practices.