Civil Society Organizations Fighting Corruption: Theory and Practice Workshop
- When?
- Monday 9 July 2012 to Tuesday 10 July 2012
- Where?
- University of Surrey
- Open to:
- Staff, Students
- Speaker:
- The keynote speakers include: Roberto Villarreal (United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs) Hans Holmen (Linkoeping University, Sweden, author of Snakes in Paradise) Pierre Landell-Mills (Partnership for Transparency Fund) Slagjana Taseva (Transparency International, Macedonia)
- Admission price:
- £95
- Admission information:
- Admission price will include a dinner on the 9th July, lunch and refreshments on both days.
The fight against corruption has figured high on the agenda of the international community since the mid 1990s resulting in the adoption of regional and international conventions. Civil society is regarded by many of these conventions as an important tool in this fight. While Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have an obvious role in raising awareness, their more direct involvement in fighting corruption has proved vexing. For example, following the Third Conference of the States Parties to the UNCAC, Doha, 2009, proposals for a peer review mechanism were adopted. These were widely criticized by CSOs for allowing states would to produce reviews that were secretive and lacking transparency. Similarly, CSOs argued for observer status in the Implementation Review Group at the 2010 Fourth Conference in Marrakesh 2010, to be refused by the States Parties. This reluctance on the part of states to allow substantive involvement of CSOs raises a number of interesting questions that merit further delineation and investigation. The UN continues to insist that “CSOs are UN system partners and valuable UN links to civil society . . . . and are indispensable partners for UN efforts at the country level”.
It would be easy simply to blame states for wanting to retain their hold on power and to exclude any bodies that might be critical of their established interests. However, we suggest that this would be an overly-simplistic answer. The relationship between states and CSOs – and between CSOs themselves – is a complex and dynamic one. In this workshop we seek to move beyond statements of blame and recrimination, to surface this complexity and, in so doing, to build a level of understanding that offers a basis for concrete and sustainable actions.
The following is an indicative, but not exclusive, list of the questions that could be addressed:
i) Why have State Parties adopted such a cautious approach to CSOs - is it a question of lack of trust in CSOs?
ii) Who are CSOs and to whom are they accountable?
iii) How transparent are CSOs themselves and from where do they gain their legitimacy?
iv) What measures are needed to overcome this reluctance to engage and how will these vary between different states?
We are keen to encourage cross-disciplinary and comparative perspectives and welcome contributions from arts, humanities and social scientific researchers as well as policy-makers and practitioners. Plenary speakers will be announced in the near future.
Those wishing to present a paper must submit an abstract of no more than 500 words and a one page cv by 29 February 2012to Professor Indira Carr (I.Carr@surrey.ac.uk) or Professor David Goss (D.Goss@surrey.ac.uk). We encourage final year PhD students to submit proposals. Colleagues will be notified whether their paper has been accepted for presentation by7 March 2012. Presentations will be limited to 30 minutes in length. Those selected to present a paper must submit an original, fully-referenced paper of between 6,000-8,000 words by 10 June 2012. The conference organisers intend to obtain a publishing contract for an edited collection of papers derived from the workshop presentations.
The delegate fee for the conference will be £95 (including dinner on 9th July, lunch and light refreshments on both days). Delegates will be responsible for their own overnight accommodation; a list of hotels with conference rates will be supplied.
If you would like to register and pay for the conference, please visit our online store at http://store.surrey.ac.uk/. You will need to go to the Product Catalogue and the Civil Society Organizations Fighting Corruption: Theory and Practice Workshop will be under the FBEL heading.
If you have any problems making a payment please contact Natalie at n.berge@surrey.ac.uk.
The delegate fee is payable by all attendees, whether or not they are presenting a paper. Advance booking does not guarantee your paper will be accepted for presentation.