UN LAUNCHES ANTI-CORRUPTION VIDEO SPOTS: ‘WITH CORRUPTION, EVERYONE PAYS’

UN Launches Anti-Corruption Video Spots:  ‘With Corruption, Everyone Pays’

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 10 May (UN Information Service) -- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released two video spots to raise global awareness about the negative impact of corruption and its social and financial costs.  The spots are being launched today with a press event in conjunction with the thirteenth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, to be held in Vienna, Austria, from 11 to 20 May.

The two 30-second video spots are the first-ever United Nations anti-corruption spots and show corruption as an international problem.  They aim to raise worldwide visibility of the issue in order to encourage governments to take anti-corruption measures, including ratifying the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which was opened for signature in December 2003.

The spots focus on corruption among the judiciary and in the provision of public services (health, water and roads), areas where people worldwide perceive that corruption flourishes, according to the Transparency International Global Barometer Survey 2003, as well as UNODC’s own research and interviews.  One spot illustrates judiciary corruption in different regional contexts, while the second shows the costs of corruption in a worldwide context.  Both spots emphasize that corruption affects everyone and should not be tolerated.

Corruption causes reduced investment or even disinvestment, with many long-term effects, including social polarization, lack of respect for human rights, undemocratic practices and the diversion of funds intended for development and essential services.  Corruption has the greatest impact on the poor -- the most vulnerable part of a country’s population.

The spots are initially available in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese and Swahili.  The UNODC is working with Transparency International, the leading international non-governmental organization devoted to combating corruption, to distribute the video spots.

The television spots against corruption build on the successful experience of the UNODC’s three-year television awareness campaign against human trafficking, which includes four spots highlighting different aspects of this growing problem.

To view the spots, visit www.unodc.org.

For more information:  United Nations Information Service Vienna (UNIS), P.O. Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria, tel.: (+43-1) 26060 4666, fax: (+43-1) 26060 5899, e-mail: UNIS@unvienna.org; or visit home page: www.unis.unvienna.org.

* *** *