United Nations Convention Against Corruption

Switzerland is actively involved in worldwide efforts to fight corrupt practices. In this regard, it ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on 24 September 2009. UNCAC is the only global agreement on fighting corruption and has 187 states parties.

Federal legislation, classified compilation: United Nations Convention Against Corruption (de/fr/it)

UNCAC contains implementation obligations for the states parties in the following areas:

• preventive measures
• criminalisation and law enforcement
• international cooperation
• asset recovery
• technical assistance and information exchange
  

The implementation of the above-mentioned obligations by each member state is evaluated within the framework of a peer review mechanism established in 2009, which provides for five-year cycles, in which two thematic chapters of the convention are reviewed. Two randomly selected states parties are involved in the review of another state party each time.

The evaluation is primarily based on self-assessment, which can be supplemented, expanded upon and corrected in direct dialogue with the reviewing states. The drafts of the resulting country reports must be validated by the state party under review. An executive summary of each final country report is always published.

UNODC Country Profiles

An Implementation Review Group has been established to oversee and improve the country reviews, and is intended to serve as a forum for the states parties to exchange experiences and evaluate the country reports.

Implementation Review Group of the United Nations Convention against Corruption

In the first review cycle in 2012, Switzerland was reviewed by Finland and Algeria for compliance with Chapter III (criminalisation and law enforcement) and Chapter IV (international cooperation). Switzerland's self-assessment checklist, country report and executive summary can be found under its UNCAC country profile.

UNCAC country profile

As part of the second review cycle, starting June 2020 Switzerland's correct and thorough implementation of Chapter II (preventive measures) and Chapter V (asset recovery) is also being evaluated. This process is being coordinated by the FDFA's Prosperity and Sustainability Division. The focal point for the Swiss side is the secretary of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Combating Corruption, Urs A. Tschanz (urs-andreas.tschanz@eda.admin.ch).

Switzerland's self-assessment checklist was submitted within the September 2020 deadline and subsequently reviewed by the two evaluators Bangladesh and Sweden. Owing to COVID-19 pandemic-related delays in the whole second review cycle, following a dialogue phase, the country visit in Bern took place between 18 and 20 October 2022. The next step is the review report with a number of concrete recommendations for action for Switzerland.

Based on its commitment to transparency, Switzerland will voluntarily publish all the relevant documents pertaining to its second country review (the completed self-assessment and detailed examination report).