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	Denial of impunity vital to ensure peace in strife-torn countries – UN rights chief by Louise Arbour United Nations   6 April 2006   From Nepal to West Africa, from Sri Lanka to the former Yugoslavia, the observance of human rights and the battle against impunity for violators are vital elements for bringing true peace to countries torn by civil war, according to the United Nations top rights official.   “A peace agreement procured through the bargaining away of the fundamental human rights entitlements of affected persons results in an impoverished ‘peace’ that might better be labelled an absence of raging conflict,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told a joint Swiss-Norwegian expert seminar in Bern, Switzerland, yesterday.   “Many continue to argue that undue concentration on human rights jeopardizes the possibility of either concluding a peace agreement in the first place, or of a peace agreement that has been concluded proving durable. To the contrary, I suggest that human rights are central to and indispensable for both peace and justice,” she added.   Stressing the imperative to replace impunity for rights abuses with accountability, and the untenability of blanket amnesties, Ms. Arbour hailed last week’s detention of former Liberian President Charles Taylor under warrant of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges of crimes against humanity as “a powerful and welcome affirmation of this basic principle.”   In the former Yugoslavia, “there will remain a sense of failure to achieve true closure to the horrors of the conflicts of the 1990s, as long as the indicted leaders of ethnic cleansing remain at large, and while some have died before being held to account,” she added.   Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died last month while on trial before a UN international tribunal in The Hague, and the two top defendants charged with atrocities in the war in Bosnia, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadic, are still at large.   “In Darfur, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the international community is insisting - through the vehicle of the International Criminal Court - that those most responsible for unspeakable atrocities be brought to justice,” Ms. Arbour said.   But she also stressed the need for individual countries themselves to tackle the issue. “The foremost rejection of impunity will occur through credible and supported national procedures and processes,” she said. “As we have seen, in practice, the failure to combat impunity opens the door to new violations by the same perpetrators and encourages others to believe that they too will go unpunished.”   Equally important, Ms. Arbour stressed the need for the rule of law free of discrimination, often the source of modern conflicts.   Reviewing the work of her office around the world, she emphasized its presence in some of the most intractable disputes that have torn countries apart, including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bosnia-Herzergovina, Côte d''Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia.   “The critical place of human rights at all phases of the peace process, judiciously balanced to achieve greatest practical impact on the ground will always be a difficult and vital challenge but one which goes to the heart of our protection mandate,” she concluded.
	Transparency International calls on West to help return Africa"s Stolen Wealth by Genc Lamani BBC News / AllAfrica.com Africa   8 April 2006 (BBC News)   An anti-corruption campaign group has urged governments in the West to help Africa recover part of the wealth lost through corruption. Transparency International made the appeal in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.   The group estimated the amount of illegally appropriated money invested outside Africa to be $140bn (£80.4bn).   It called on Western governments to change their banking laws to make it easier for illegally acquired wealth to be repatriated to Africa.   Transparency International (TI) which leads a campaign against corruption worldwide, says the phenomenon is seriously undermining Africa"s fragile democracies and hindering efforts to achieve sustainable development.   "Money illicitly misappropriated from African treasuries should not be granted safe haven in banks overseas", Zambian representative Reuben Lifuka said.   Representatives of TI from seven African countries, including Zambia, Zimbabwe and Uganda, said that if Africa was to reverse the trend, it was imperative that African governments demonstrated the political will to fight corruption in a meaningful way.   But the organisation says without active co-operation from western governments the process could take 100 years to complete.   Although difficult to quantify, analysts estimate Africa has lost more than $140 billion due to corruption both by its own governments and Western companies in the post-colonial period.   In a declaration adopted at their meeting in Kenya, Transparency International representatives said it was not only illegal, but blatantly immoral that so much wealth stolen from Africa was allowed to circulate freely in the world"s wealthiest nations.   Last year, a United Nations treaty against corruption came into effect. It enables illegally acquired assets to be seized and eliminates banking secrecy protection for those under investigation.   The measures to tackle corruption are there, say campaigners. What is needed to make it happen is more political will..   Nairobi. 7 April 2006 (allAfrica.com)   The Nairobi Declaration on International Obligations and on the Recovery and Repatriation of Africa"s Stolen Wealth.   We, the Representatives of Transparency International in 7 African Countries, Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on 6-7 April 2006,   Affirming the fundamental human right to development of all African peoples;   Aware of the negative role that corruption has played in undermining Africa"s fragile democracies and hindering her people"s efforts to attain sustainable development;   Noting the emergence of recent international instruments such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the African Union Convention for the Combating of and Prevention of Corruption; and other interventions aimed at creating a just global socio- economic order, including global debt cancellation campaigns, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative;   Noting that despite some asset recovery successes several African countries are experiencing difficulties in obtaining appropriate mutual legal assistance in their endeavor to trace, seize, recover and repatriate assets and monies illegally appropriated and transferred abroad by their nationals and other collaborators;   Aware that well over US$ 140 billion has over the decades been illegally and corruptly appropriated from Africa, by politicians, soldiers, businesspersons and other leaders, and kept abroad in form of cash, stocks and bonds, real estate and other assets;   Observing the commitments made by the G8 and other commissions on Africa;   Persuaded that, with the co-operation of all relevant actors, Africa"s stolen wealth is identifiable, traceable and potentially recoverable;   Recalling the Nyanga Declaration of March 2001 by 11 Transparency International African Chapters. Hereby Declare   That it is imperative that African governments engender and demonstrate the political will to fight corruption in a meaningful way.   That corruption remains one of the primary hindrances to development in Africa. Thus, for as long as governments continue to pay mere lip service to anti-corruption reform, such development and, particularly, the eradication of poverty as elaborated by the Millennium Development Goals will remain unattainable.   That African governments and the international community should as a matter of priority, ensure the Ratification, Domestication and Implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, the African Union Convention on the Combating and Prevention of Corruption, and the OECD Convention Against the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials.   That it is not only illegal but Blatantly Immoral that so much wealth stolen from Africa is allowed to circulate freely in the economies of some of the world"s wealthiest nations in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and diverse offshore havens.   That while the call for the cancellation of African debt is noble and deserving of full support, it is inherently inconsistent to call for the cancellation of Africa"s debts while much of the money originally lent, is Odious, and remains illegally invested or banked in privately held accounts abroad.   That it is unconscionable that individuals and corporations who are nationals of the OECD and the G 8 are enjoying measures of Impunity despite their corrupt practices in Africa.   That African governments and the international community should, as a matter of priority, expedite the tracing, recovery and repatriation of wealth stolen from African countries and transferred abroad, including sealing of all known loopholes, and requiring international cooperation from non-State actors such as corporations and financial institutions where there is reasonable cause to suspect illegal activity, and mandatory liquidation and repatriation of assets known to have been corruptly acquired.   That all international initiatives aimed at the promulgation of a more just global socio-economic order, including campaigns for debt cancellation, should include an explicit focus on recovering and repatriating assets stolen from developing countries as a necessary condition to the realization of a more just and fair global community.   That all countries should tighten their banking laws to ensure that moneys illicitly appropriated from African treasuries are not granted safe havens in banks or non-bank financial institutions operating in those countries.   That African representatives of Transparency International will lobby their governments for legislative reform to seal all known loopholes that allow the illegal appropriation of public money from their treasuries and to punish the culprits, as well as to create frameworks for receiving recovered and repatriated moneys.   That TI African National Chapters meeting in Nairobi express their solidarity with anti-corruption activists and National Chapters that operate in difficult circumstances wherever they are.   Adopted at Nairobi Kenya, this 7th day of April 2006.   By: Audrey Gadzekpo, Ghana; Ahmed Abdalla, Kenya; Maman Wada, Niger; Mouhamadou Mbodj, Senegal; George Egaddu, Uganda; Rueben Lifuka, Zambia; Goodwill Shana, Zimbabwe.
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