Combating bribery in international business transactions:
A look at the OECD’s Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
Speaker:
Christine Uriarte
Bribing foreign public officials is a serious crime with serious consequences. Foreign bribery distorts competitive markets and stands in the way of good governance and sustainable economic development. Since the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions entered into force in 1999, 38 countries have recognized the risks foreign bribery presents and made foreign bribery illegal.
Christine Uriarte, an OECD senior anti-corruption analyst, will be speaking as part of the organization’s new Initiative to Raise Global Awareness of Foreign Bribery (www.oecd.org/corruption/initiative).
The Convention establishes legally binding standards to criminalize bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions and provides for a host of related anti-bribery measures. The 33 OECD member countries and five non-member countries - Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Estonia and South Africa - have adopted this Convention and made it illegal for their citizens to bribe public officials in other countries while conducting business deals abroad.
Uriarte will speak on the issue of foreign bribery, the Convention and recent developments in the fight against foreign bribery.
Seating is limited - please RSVP
Please include your affiliation in the email
(University of Toronto students need not rsvp)
About the speaker
Christine Uriarte is a senior analyst and general counsel at the Anti-Corruption Division of the OECD, where she has worked for 11 years. Her main responsibility is supporting the working group on bribery’s monitoring of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and related instruments. She coordinated the recent review of the OECD anti-bribery instruments and the 2006 Mid-Term Study of Phase 2 Reviews. She also acts as general counsel to other legal experts in the Anti-Corruption Division involved in the monitoring exercise, and is a member of the team that works on enhanced engagement with major emerging economies in Asia, as well as the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia-Pacific. Ms. Uriarte has a law degree from Queen’s University, Canada, is a barrister and solicitor, and a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
