Successful outcome to Global Unions' protest at banning of anti-corruption organisation

Update 7 December

On 29 November PSI, ITUC, and TUAC working with UNICORN, the global unions anti-corruption organisation, condemned what they saw as a direct attempt by the government of the Republic of the Philippines to gag anti-corruption voices at the forthcoming first session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) that will be held from 10-14 December in Jordan. We have since learned that the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN) has been reinstated to the conference.

29 November

Public Services International (PSI), the Trade Union Advisory Committee at the OECD (TUAC) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) have all expressed concern that one of the most respected anti-corruption organisations in the Philippines has been banned from the conference because one (unnamed) member state has used UN rules to object to the participation of the Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN). TAN is the main anti-corruption NGO in the Philippines - its website is  http://www.tan.org.ph/files/home.asp - and is highly regarded by other anti-corruption campaigners in that country because of its fearless approach to identifying corruption.

In fact, according to Hans Engelberts, PSI General Secretary, “TAN has actually been formally recognised by the Arroyo government as a key voice of civil society in working with the government on these issues - until its very recent public criticism of what appears to be an attempt by the government to whitewash an official anti-corruption enquiry.”

“It would be a bad start to the work of the UN on fighting corruption if the message given to civil society is that those governments at whom the accusations of serious corruption have been made are the ones who can determine whether corruption is identified and tackled in cooperation with civil society,” say the three union bodies. “This risks that the UN's work on the UNCAC starts where the discredited and discarded Human Rights Commission left off - that the criminals control the court.”  

PSI, TUAC and the ITUC have been working jointly on anti-corruption issues through their sponsorship of the union-based organisation UNICORN, which will be present at the conference. The three union bodies are all approaching President Arroyo with their allegations and asking her to confirm whether her government supports open, harassment-free discussion of corruption in her country or whether she supports the knobbling of critics and whistle-blowers. They will be asking her to do all she can to get TAN reinstated as an official delegation at the conference.

For further comment (in English) please contact:

    Hans Engelberts, PSI, Hans.Engelberts@world-psi.org

    John Evans, TUAC, evans@tuac.org

    James Howard, ITUC,  james.howard@ituc-csi.org

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