IACA and SIGA place Sport Integrity on the agenda

The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) and the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) have announced the joint organization of a Special Session during the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention on Anti-Corruption.

This biennial conference serves as the principal policymaking body of the UN Convention, dedicated to supporting States parties and signatories in their commitment to implement the Convention and providing policy guidance to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for the development and execution of anti-corruption initiatives.

SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity and works with sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies. This newspaper is a proud media partner of SIGA.

Importance of integrity, anti-corruption and compliance in Sport

The promotion of integrity, anti-corruption and compliance in Sport has become one of the priorities on the international anti-corruption agenda. COSP adopted two resolutions dealing with sport in 2017 (“Corruption in Sport”) and in 2019 (“Safeguarding Sport from Corruption”). In the Political Declaration of the special session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGASS 2021), the States declared safeguarding sport from corruption as one of their important goals.

The event, titled “Integrity and Anti-Corruption in Sport,” was motivated by the shared recognition that safeguarding Sport from corruption is a critical focus within the global anti-corruption agenda. It will take place on Thursday, 14 December 2023, at 13:00 EST (19:00 CET), at the Georgia World Congress Center, room Philadelphia A312, in Atlanta, USA. It will focus on the primary corruption risks in Sport and present effective solutions.

The panel will have the participation of Giovanni Tartaglia Polcini (Chair of SIGA, Italian Magistrate and co-Chair of the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group), Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros (Global CEO of SIGA), Katie Simmonds (Global COO of SIGA and Managing Director of SIGAWomen); Andrew Spalding (Faculty Member of IACA and Professor at the University of Richmond School of Law). Jaroslaw Pietrusiewicz, Officer-in-Charge of IACA, will moderate the high-level panel session.

This side event to the COSP UNCAC will cover various crucial topics, including:

• Identifying areas and relationships vulnerable to corruption and related crimes in Sport.

• Analyzing modern trends of corruption and other crimes in Sport.

• Sharing effective strategies and best practices for promoting integrity and preventing corruption within sports organizations.

• Discussing the roles of governments, international organizations, and sports bodies in promoting integrity and anti-corruption in Sport.

This initiative is a result of the partnership established through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on June 19, 2023, between SIGA and IACA.

“Sport is more vulnerable and exposed”

Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, SIGA’s Global CEO, emphasised the role played by the organisation in growing the recognition of the need of effective measures to tackle Corruption in Sport:

“There’s no point in denying the reality: Sport is more vulnerable and exposed than ever to corruption, money laundering and criminal infiltration. These threats are global, complex, increasingly sophisticated, and often involve transnational organized crime. Threats like these can’t be tackled by Sport alone. To win this fight, we need to move away from old mentalities, old rhetoric and old territorial feelings and adopt a complete shift of paradigm. We need to move from obsolete legislation and fragmented approaches into an up-to-date, robust, efficient, global regulatory framework, and action-oriented, result-driven, inclusive cooperation, at both national and international levels. We need to effectively prioritise anti-corruption in Sport, as the G20 agreed to do when adopting SIGA’s recommendation to include Anti-Corruption in Sport as one of the top three priorities, in 2021, to confer the judicial system and law enforcement with the much-need training, education and capacity building.”