ACRC successfully wrapped up IACC, setting record of the “first and biggest”

- Highlighting fair supply of vaccines and protection of democratic norms in “Seoul Declaration” -

December 5, 2020

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

The 19th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) hosted jointly by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui, the “ACRC”) and Transparency International was successfully wrapped up on December 4, proclaiming the Seoul Declaration.

IACC is the biggest global anti-corruption forum which is held biennially. This year, the conference was held in Korea on-line for the first time in its history, under the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances.

It made this year’s IACC the largest-ever one with more than 500 speakers and over 1.6 million visitors to the official website that served as the conference hall.

Notably, the conference was participated by world’s leading anti-corruption figures as speakers, including UN Secretary General António Guterres, OECD Secretary General Ángel Gurría, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, WEF President Børge Brende, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa, IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone, and Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard University.

Upon the opportunity of hosting the conference one-line, the ACRC organized it to be open to all citizens around the world and decisively exempted 550 dollar-worth registration fee.

As a result, the 19th IACC recorded the largest-ever number of participants.

For the 2020 IACC held under the theme and objective of “Designing 2030: Truth, Trust and Transparency”, the number of programs offered for four days was increased to more than 120 from 60 of previous conferences.

All the events and meetings of the conference were live-broadcast on-line and participants from around the world communicated through real-time chatting and discussions.

As more participants than ever before participated in this year’s conference, more fruitful discussions on more diverse anti-corruption issues were carried out.

Participants explored practical ways to realize anti-corruption goals that are more emphasized globally under the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances, to clarify areas in which governments, global organizations, civil societies, media, and academia around the world should pay attention and make efforts.

Significance of international and global cooperation was emphasized as well.

All the participants agreed that alliance and collaboration that cross national borders are essential to protect “truth, trust, and transparency”, the common values for the humanity, amidst “ethnocentrism” that is aggravating due to uncertainties and the pandemic.

Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui of the ACRC expressed her gratitude to more than 500 speakers and all the participants from around the world for showing their commitment for anti-corruption efforts by taking part in the on-line video conference despite various inconveniences.

The chairperson highlighted, “the task in front of us now is to put the ideas and discussions that we have shared for the past four days into action.

The footsteps that we take in these times of crisis and despair will be the key to make our future be hopeful.”

The outcome of the 19th IACC was titled “Seoul Declaration” to commemorate the host country South Korea and was proclaimed toward the entire world.

The declaration announced by the representative of young journalists includes measures to achieve joint objectives based on equity amid the proliferation of corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as “holding power to account, supplying vaccines fairly, eradicating structural discrimination, upholding democratic norms, expanding the domain of civil society, ensuring freedom of speech, and forging alliances across national borders.”

The full text of the declaration and details of all the discussions of the conference are available on the official website of the 19th IACC (www.19thiacc.pathable.co).