Integrity Initiatives International (III) and Club de Madrid announced today that 42 former Presidents and Prime Ministers are now among more than 250 eminent individuals from over 75 countries who have signed the Declaration calling for the creation of an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC).
The Declaration advocates for a new international court to punish and deter grand corruption – the abuse of public power for private gain by a nation’s leaders (kleptocrats) – which thrives in many countries and has devastating consequences for climate change, human rights, human health, and international peace and security, as has been made tragically evident by the war in Ukraine and the loss of staggering sums of COVID-19 relief funds to fraud.
“Grand corruption has global dimensions and cannot be combatted by the affected countries alone. This is the main reason why an International Anti-Corruption Court is needed”, said Danilo Türk, President of Slovenia (2007-2012) and President of Club de Madrid.
The former Presidents and Prime Ministers that have signed the Declaration include the following Members of Club de Madrid:
- Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of The Netherlands (2002-2010)
- Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2007-2010)
- Kim Campbell, Prime Minister of Canada (1993)
- Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica (2010-2014) and Vice-president of Club de Madrid
- Seung-Soo Han, Prime Minister of the Rep. of Korea (2008-2009) and Vice-president of Club de Madrid
- Ricardo Lagos, President of Chile (2000-2006)
- Hanna Suchocka, Prime Minister of Poland (1992-1993)
- Aminata Touré, Prime Minister of Senegal (2013-2014)
The Declaration and the full list of signatories can be found here.
The campaign to establish the IACC has progressed rapidly since the first 100 world leaders signed the Declaration in support of the IACC in June 2021. Since then, working with international partners to establish the Court has become official foreign policy in both Canada and the Netherlands. The two countries, together with Ecuador and other partners, will hold a conference of ministers from many countries later this year on international efforts to tackle corruption, with particular focus on the IACC.
The Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra has asked his European Union counterparts to work with the Netherlands to establish the IACC. He stated that “by establishing an anti-corruption court the Netherlands aims to strengthen the international legal order. But to make this happen we will need the support of many other countries.”
“Corruption is a great hindrance to building trusted institutions and a threat to social stability. Fighting corruption requires our strong collective commitments and efforts”, said Prime Minister Aminata Touré, Prime Minister of Senegal (2013-2014) and Member of Club de Madrid.
Integrity Initiatives International, the international non-profit behind the Declaration and coordinator of the campaign for the IACC, also announced in April that a total of 32 Nobel laureates have now endorsed the IACC initiative.
“Integrity Initiatives International joins the legions of vulnerable victims of kleptocrats throughout the world in being deeply grateful to the many former Prime Ministers and Presidents who recognize that an International Anti-Corruption Court is urgently needed and who are energetically striving to make it a reality,” said United States District Judge Mark L. Wolf, the Chair of Integrity Initiatives International.
