|
|
SPECIAL EVENT ON MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT OF YOUTH IN ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFORTS |
15 June 2022 — The political declaration adopted at the special session of the General Assembly (UNGASS) against corruption in June 2021 places anti-corruption education and training at the core of a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to promote transparency, accountability, integrity, and a culture of rejection of corruption. In line with the mandates of the political declaration, UNODC launched the Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) initiative, which aims to promote the role of education and youth empowerment in preventing and countering corruption.
In 2020, UNODC supported the National Transparency Authority (NTA) and the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs (MoE) of Greece in organizing a youth competition entitled “Integrity Leaders of Tomorrow”. The objective of the competition was to encourage Greek students to take action and find innovative ways to promote values such as integrity, fairness, justice, respect, solidarity, acceptance and responsibility in their societies. NTA and MoE received a total of 217 submissions ranging from essays and speeches, to poems, paintings and drawings, photographs, and short films.
To demonstrate the success of this competition, UNODC, in partnership with NTA, organized a special event on meaningful engagement of youth in anti-corruption efforts, that was held in the margins of the 13th session of the Working Group on Prevention of Corruption in Vienna. Two youth speakers, the secondary school winners of the competition, joined the event to present their winning submissions and discuss how States parties can foster a culture of rejection of corruption by engaging young people in anti-corruption activities based on art and creativity. The two high school students also discussed with delegates from anti-corruption bodies and other law enforcement authorities the role of education and youth empowerment to prevent and fight corruption.
During the event, the participants had the opportunity to see a virtual exhibition of selected submissions of Greek primary and secondary school students who took part in the youth competition “Integrity Leaders of Tomorrow”.
