REGIONAL DIALOGUE ON STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF YOUTH, ACADEMIA AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN ASIA AND EUROPE IN IMPLEMENTING THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION |
Vienna, Austria, 17-18 October 2023 — How do youth, academics and civil society change makers intersect? Understanding the intersectionality between these categories of non-state actors was one of the great advantages of the series of regional dialogues convened by the Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) in 2023 to advance their role in the implementation of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).
On 17 and 18 October, over 25 participants from Asia and Europe gathered in Vienna to participate in the Regional Dialogue. Various panel discussions on relevant topics for these regions and globally preceded a series of group discussions to develop a set of recommendations on how young people, academia and civil society can be more involved in the implementation of UNCAC as well as what they would need from member states to feel supported in their efforts.
Academics can also be part of the youth group, or young people are part of civil society, and so on. The intersectionality often fails to showcase the heterogeneous nature of these groups' needs when it comes to their contribution to and roles within the anti-corruption space. Look at the video below to get a better sense of how this work took shape.
The academics came up with recommendations around the importance of anti-corruption education and of anti-corruption research for evidence-based policy making. In this respect, mobilization of resources was an important point. Young people called for support from other non-state actors and government in creating avenues for them to be watchdogs, supporting anti-corruption education and through strengthened protection of victims and whistleblowers. Finally, civil society organizations, framed the discussion adding the importance of political finance transparency in the fight against corruption, as well as the link between corruption and human rights as a fundamental principle to protect their work and the anti-corruption space more broadly.
These recommendations, and the recommendations from the other dialogues for participants from Africa and Latin America, were collected in the “Road map to strengthening the role of non-governmental actors (young people, academia and civil society) in the fight against corruption” which was submitted at the 10th session of the Conference of State Parties of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).
Following the dialogue, a second “UNCAC is for YOUth” event was held in Vienna. The young people gathered to practice the use of the “Acting for the Rule of Law Guide”, a non-formal education method that GRACE has been using for over a year now, to foster creativity and empower young people to think about solutions to corruption in their own setting. In this specific event, the group focused on acting out various examples on corruption and gender, a topic that is of great interest to young people.