|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The 11th Conference of States Parties (CoSP) to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) took place last month in Doha, Qatar, ending on 19 December 2025. As a Transparency International (TI) national chapter, Corruption Watch (CW) was present at the event as part of the TI delegation.
During the proceedings, parties adopted 11 anti-corruption-related resolutions, ranging from the combating of corruption that facilitates the smuggling of migrants, to enhancing data collection to measure corruption and its impacts. Among these, CoSP11 adopted a landmark resolution on combating corruption through transparency in political finance.
This is significant for South Africa, whose citizens are gearing up for another national election at the end of 2026, this one focusing on municipal government. Those same citizens are also gearing up for the campaign season and its associated shenanigans, which regularly include accusations of misuse of public money to fund political campaigns and lure voters.
In addition, the country’s Party Funding Act, which seeks to enhance the transparency, fairness, and accountability of electoral processes, is being challenged in court over, among others, increased limits in terms of the disclosure threshold which was doubled to R200 000, and the annual limit for private donations which was increased to R30-million.
Transparency demanded
Resolution 11/7 was tabled by Norway, Albania, Ghana, and Mongolia, and CW was one of the organisations which endorsed it. It was adopted by consensus, meaning it was adopted without the need for a vote. This marks the first time since UNCAC came into force in 2005, that states have agreed on global minimum standards aimed at cutting down on the influence of opaque, anonymous money on political parties and election campaigns.
Among others, the resolution calls on states to prohibit, monitor, and detect the abuse of state resources in election campaigns. It further recognises the importance of the participation of women, and highlights the key role of civil society and election observers in enhancing transparency in political finance.
The full text of the resolution is reproduced below – please note that this is an advance unedited version, but it is publicly available:
Resolution 11/7
Preventing and combating corruption through enhancing transparency in the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office, and electoral campaigns
The Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption,
Recalling that pursuant to article 7, paragraph 3, of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, 15 States Parties are to consider taking appropriate legislative and administrative measures, consistent with the objectives of the Convention and in accordance with the fundamental principles of their domestic law, to enhance transparency in the funding of candidatures for elected public office and, where applicable, the funding of political parties,
Recognizing that transparency in the funding of, where applicable, political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns is crucial to prevent corruption and economic crime, including money-laundering, while reaffirming that transparency measures should be implemented in accordance with the fundamental principles of the domestic law of States, thus contributing to safeguarding electoral and policymaking processes from undue influence in order to promote good governance and reinforce trust in public institutions,
Recalling that pursuant to article 4 of the Convention, States Parties are to carry out their obligations under the Convention in a manner consistent with the principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of States and that of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other States,
Stressing that corruption and economic crimes, including money-laundering, cross borders and negatively affect societies and economies, making international cooperation to prevent and combat them essential,
Recognizing that considerable challenges in the implementation of article 7, paragraph 3, of the Convention have been identified and that further efforts to support the effective implementation of that paragraph may be required, including through the provision of technical assistance, as applicable and upon request,
Recalling General Assembly resolution S-32/1 of 2 June 2021, entitled “Our common commitment to effectively addressing challenges and implementing measures to prevent and combat corruption and strengthen international cooperation”, in which Member States recognized that they were responsible for ensuring transparent, free and fair elections, in accordance with domestic law and their ambition to ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at the national level, and pledged to maintain, strengthen, develop and implement measures that protected the integrity of the electoral process and promoted its accountability to voters, transparency and impartiality in domestic electoral institutions and oversight mechanisms, and transparency in the funding of candidatures for elected public office, political parties and electoral campaigns, where applicable, with a view to preventing corruption, ensuring accountability, promoting good governance and reinforcing trust in public institutions,
Recognizing that limitations or restrictions on election campaign funding and measures for transparency of expenditures, in accordance with domestic law, inter alia, may be necessary to ensure that donations do not result in trading in influence, abuse of functions, or vote-buying, or other acts of corruption,
Recognizing that transparency requirements for donations to political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, by legal entities and legal arrangements, including private and state-owned enterprises, complex legal mechanisms such as trusts and holdings, and non-governmental organizations, can contribute to preventing and combating corruption,
Recognizing that strong domestic legislation designed to enhance transparency and accountability in the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable, including on foreign funding, can strengthen the prevention of corruption,
Recognizing also that the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns may, in some contexts, be misused by organized criminal groups and actors to infiltrate and undermine institutions, which may lead to corruption becoming entrenched and further weaken measures to prevent and fight corruption,
Recalling its resolution 10/10 on Addressing the societal impacts of corruption, which, inter alia, encourages States Parties to promote the meaningful participation of women in anti-corruption activities, programmes and initiatives, including by developing robust awareness programmes that address challenges to their participation,
Emphasizing that pursuant to article 13, paragraph 1, of the Convention, States Parties are to take appropriate measures, within their means and in accordance with the fundamental principles of their domestic law, to respect, promote and protect the freedom to seek, receive, publish and disseminate information concerning corruption and that pursuant to Conference of the States Parties resolution 9/3 of 17 December 2021, States Parties were encouraged to seek to utilize information and communications technologies to strengthen the implementation of the Convention, to strengthen public awareness and to promote transparency and public reporting, and mindful of the need to protect the rights or reputations of others, national security or ordre public,
Highlighting that in its resolution 10/8 of 15 December 2023, entitled “Protection of reporting persons”, the Conference encouraged States Parties, in accordance with their domestic law, to strengthen confidential complaint systems to facilitate timely reporting of corruption, ensure the confidentiality of reporting persons and allow, where appropriate, for anonymous reporting,
Taking note of recommendations by relevant intergovernmental organizations on the enhancement of political finance transparency,
Taking note also of the thematic reports submitted by the secretariat on the implementation of chapter II (Preventive measures) of the Convention, which contain information on successes, good practices, challenges, associated explanations, and observations identified during the second cycle of the Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption with regard to article 7, paragraph 3, of the Convention;
Taking note further that internal political party integrity and ethics standards and regulations and their effective implementation can enhance transparency in the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns and that they can play an important role in preventing and countering corruption,
1. Urges States Parties, in line with article 7, paragraph 3, of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, to take and implement legislative and administrative measures that enhance and protect transparency in the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable, in accordance with the fundamental principles of their domestic law and consistent with applicable international obligations;
2. Calls upon States Parties to ensure the existence of an oversight body or bodies, in accordance with the fundamental principles of their legal systems, with the necessary independence, material resources and specialized staff to effectively monitor and supervise the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable, and issue guidelines;
3. Also calls upon States Parties to ensure that political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable and in accordance with domestic law, keep records based on standard accounting requirements of all their revenues and expenditures, assets and liabilities, including their value, and above the thresholds defined by law, as applicable, the sources and relevant identification information of monetary and in-kind donations and related financial support, in accordance with their domestic law, and to report on them to the competent oversight body on a regular basis, which may include at least one interim report before and one final report after the elections and, for regular political party accounts, where applicable, at least annually;
4. Further calls upon States Parties, in accordance with their domestic law and in order to promote transparency and reduce the risk of corruption, to take the measures necessary to ensure that the financial reports submitted by political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable, are published online or are otherwise made public in a timely manner by a competent body or bodies, including, if applicable, the publication prior to the date of the election of the relevant identification of sources of private donations, in accordance with the thresholds defined by domestic law and in compliance with personal data protection legislation and with due regard for privacy rights;
5. Urges States Parties, where any form of public funding is provided to political parties, candidatures for elected public office or electoral campaigns, to ensure, in accordance with their domestic law, that such funding is allocated on the basis of objective and transparent criteria and is disbursed in line with the principles applicable to the management of public finances, including transparency, accountability and effective control;
6. Calls upon States Parties to strengthen their efforts to identify and manage conflicts of interest and prevent trading in influence, in accordance with the Convention and their domestic law, by considering restricting or prohibiting donations by legal entities, including where the source is anonymous, state, foreign-owned or -controlled, or, as feasible, those legal entities that maintain contractual relationships with public institutions above thresholds as defined by domestic legislation;
7. Calls upon States Parties to take measures, in accordance with article 16, against the promise, offer and giving to any foreign public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties, and to consider, where applicable, in accordance with article 18, taking measures against the promise, offer and giving, to a public official or any other person, directly and indirectly, of an undue advantage, in order to abuse his or her real or supposed influence to obtain an undue advantage for the original instigator or any other person, including through the funding of foreign political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable;
8. Calls upon States Parties to prevent bribery and trading in influence, including by considering limitations on donations, in accordance with domestic law, to political parties, candidatures for elected public office, and electoral campaigns, where applicable, with a view to combating corruption, which can result from donations made with corrupt intent, while taking into account their different political and legal systems;
9. Encourages States Parties to consider, in accordance with their domestic law, measures to regulate legal entities and legal arrangements that finance communication activities that seek certain election results, and to require that they disclose the identifying information of the sponsors of such activities;
10. Further encourages States Parties to consider requiring, in accordance with their domestic law and as appropriate, the disclosure of the value and sponsors of political advertisement such as those related to electoral campaigns in order to enhance transparency and prevent corruption;
11. Calls upon States Parties, in accordance with the fundamental principles of their domestic law, to prohibit the misuse of publicly controlled resources in a manner that supports or undermines any political party, candidature for elected public office or electoral campaign, where applicable, and to mandate the competent national authorities or oversight bodies, as appropriate, to monitor for and detect such misuse;
12. Also calls upon States Parties to ensure that competent oversight bodies, as appropriate, have the authority to monitor compliance with relevant legislation and to take relevant measures, including, where applicable, administrative sanctions, or refer detected violations to competent law enforcement or judicial authorities for further action in accordance with the fundamental principles of their domestic law;
13. Calls upon States Parties to take measures, within their means and in accordance with article 13 of the Convention and the fundamental principles of their domestic law, to ensure that the public has effective access to information and to promote and protect the freedom to seek, receive, publish and disseminate information while remaining mindful of the need to protect the rights or reputations of others, national security or ordre public, and to promote the active participation of individuals and groups outside the public sector, such as civil society, non-governmental organizations, and community-based organizations, and where applicable, electoral monitoring mechanisms, academia, the private sector and media in the prevention of and fight against corruption, to support efforts to promote transparency in the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable, and in line with the Convention;
14. Also calls upon States Parties to establish and strengthen, in accordance with articles 8, 32 and 33 of the Convention and with their domestic law, confidential, safe and secure reporting systems that are easily accessible for a variety of stakeholders, and ensure the confidentiality of reporting persons’ identities and personal information in order to facilitate the timely reporting of corruption offences related, inter alia, to the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable;
15. Further calls upon States Parties to enable, in accordance with their domestic law, effective cooperation, including through promoting collaboration, joint activities and information exchange among, as appropriate, anti-corruption authorities, the police, investigative, prosecutorial and judicial authorities, financial intelligence units and administrative and oversight bodies, as well as election authorities, with a view to supporting corruption investigations and proceedings at the national level and, as appropriate, the international level concerning corruption offences established in accordance with the Convention and related to the funding of candidatures for elected public office, political parties and electoral campaigns, where applicable, as well as other related economic crimes, including money-laundering;
16. Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime within existing resources to collect information from States Parties on a voluntary basis on good practices, challenges and lessons learned in preventing and combating corruption through measures aimed at enhancing transparency in the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable, in line with the present resolution;
17. Also requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to develop, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources and taking into account the different political systems of States, materials to promote the effective implementation of the present resolution.
18. Directs the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Prevention of Corruption to discuss good practices and challenges for enhancing the transparency of the funding of political parties, candidatures for elected public office and electoral campaigns, where applicable, at its eighteenth meeting;
19. Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to report, within existing resources, on the implementation of the present resolution to the Conference at its twelfth session;
20. Also requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources, in cooperation with other relevant multilateral bodies, to provide technical assistance including material support, to States Parties, upon their request, to support the introduction and implementation of measures to enhance transparency in political finance, as outlined in article 7, paragraph 3, of the Convention and bearing in mind the present resolution;
21. Invites States Parties and other donors to provide extrabudgetary resources for the purposes set out in the present resolution, acknowledging that such extrabudgetary resources are subject to the rules and procedures of the United Nations, and requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to utilize any such extrabudgetary resources efficiently and effectively.
