International, regional and national commitments

The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) has been adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 2003, by resolution 58/4, and entered into force in December 2005. To date, 186 countries have acceded to it with 20 Arab states, including Lebanon, which joined on 22 April 2009.

A- Review mechanism for the Convention
About the Mechanism:
The Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the Convention was adopted in 2009. It is an intergovernmental process that is repeated every 10 years in order to enable States parties in the Convention to identify the gaps in the implementation process in order to help them abide by the Convention’s provisions and then identify the needed assistance in this field.
Each operation shall consist of two review sessions, each of five years duration. Chapters III (Criminalization and law enforcement) and IV (international cooperation) are reviewed during the first session, whereas chapters II (Preventive measures) and V (Asset recovery) during the second session. Each session shall consist of four rounds, each for a full year, during which a quarter of the States parties selected by lot at the beginning of each session will be reviewed. The process is conducted through government experts appointed by the State to represent it, where the reviewed state starts preparing the self-assessment report through the use of the comprehensive Self-Assessment checklist, which is a computer application, developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, with respect to the States parties, to collect information on the status of compliance with the Convention for a given country. Afterwards, two other states, also chosen by lot, will analyse the content of this report, where they can complete the analysis through conducting a dialogue with the State being reviewed or any other direct means that are agreed upon, such as national visits or joint meetings in Vienna, the headquarters of the secretariat of the Conference of the States Parties. This process results in a country review report based on a model scheme, developed with the aim of harmonizing the various reports. The report is then submitted to the Conference of the States Parties and the executive summary will be published.

B- Lebanon’s status in the mechanism for the review of implementation of the Convention

	Review Date	Reviewed States	Field Visit	Self-Assessment	Report Evaluation of the country review	Executive Summary	Governmental Experts	Liaison Officer	Other information
First Session	Fourth year (2013-2014) of the first session	Republic of Seychelles/Iran	18-20 December 2014	Achieved but not published	Posted and available here	Posted and available here	Number of Experts: 11 Number of Experts: 11 List of names available here	the Ministry of Justice: Judge Rana Akoum the Ministry of State for Administrative Reform: Natasha Sarkis	• Reviewed in Rwanda in the first year of the first Session • Reviewed in Vietnam in the second year of the first session • Reviewed at Singapore in the fourth year of the first session

C. The role of OMSAR in monitoring the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption:
The Ministry of State for Administrative Reform is considered to be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention. In 2012, this Ministry formed a mini technical committee in decision No. 184 of 2012, which included all the concerned authorities and the ministry took over its secretariat. The main task of the committee was to keep up with the review process in Lebanon in mid-2013 by the United Nations so that it was tasked to prepare the required answers within the self-assessment list that Lebanon is supposed to prepare and send to the United Nations before the review process.
In addition, the Ministry of State for Administrative Reform, through its representatives, participates in meetings and conferences convened by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to monitor the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
Arab Network for the promotion of integrity and fighting corruption
Lebanon is a member of the Arab Network for the promotion of integrity and fighting corruption and its non-governmental group. The network was headed by the Minister of Justice during the period between 2013 and 2016.
• Governmental members: Ministry of State for Administrative Reform (2009)-Ministry of Justice (2009) – Public Prosecution (2009) – Central Inspection (2008) –  Supreme Disciplinary Board (2014) – the Audit Court (2008).
• Non-Governmental members:  Lebanese Association for the promotion of transparency-no corruption.

Government vision, ministerial statements and oath speech:
• Lebanon's commitments under the "Economic Reform and Development Conference with Institutions" known as the “Cedar” Conference and within the framework of "the vision of the Lebanese government for stability, growth and employment".
• The oath speech “"The socio-economic reform can’t succeed except by establishing a system of transparency through the adoption of a system of laws that helps prevent corruption, designate a committee to fight it, activate the monitory devices and enable them to play their roles."
• The ministerial statement for the "restore confidence" Government pledged "to develop a national strategy to combat corruption and to take quick and effective measures in the most vulnerable sectors to corruption. The first one is to lift the political hand from the inoperative monitory devices that need to have their performance effective and improved.
• The ministerial statement for the “To Action” Government committed itself to structural reforms, including "the endorsement of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and the draft laws related to it, as well as its executive program".