Nuhu Ribadu, pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has joined over 100 world leaders to sign a declaration calling for the creation of an International Anti-Corruption Court.
The signatories which include former heads of state and government from over 40 countries are advocating for a new international court to address the global problem of corruption.
Richard Goldstone, former judge of the South African supreme court of appeal, said: “Kleptocracy and impunity for crimes of grand corruption are an enduring and a growing evil in many countries. The victims are invariably the poor and powerless from whom vast sums are, in effect, are stolen.
” An International Anti-Corruption Court is urgently needed to prosecute, punish and deter kleptocrats, and to recover, repurpose and repatriate vitally needed illicit funds.”
The signatories, on the platform of Integrity Initiatives International, an NGO whose mission is to strengthen the enforcement of criminal laws against kleptocrats, submitted that grand corruption does not flourish because of a lack of laws, but because kleptocrats control the administration of justice in the countries they rule.
The 187 countries that are party to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) each have laws criminalizing corrupt conduct. Yet kleptocrats enjoy impunity because they control the administration of justice in the countries that they rule, they said.
Because grand corruption has global consequences and often cannot be combated by the countries most immediately victimized by kleptocrats, a new international institution an International Anti-Corruption Court is necessary and justified.
Mark L. Wolf, chair of Integrity Initiatives International and US district court judge, said: The declaration is a strong statement from world leaders that an international forum to hold kleptocrats accountable is needed now more than ever to end impunity for grand corruption.
