Review on Niue’s compliance on UN Convention Against Corruption recommends legislation to be updated

Niue is being reviewed on its progress on the United Nations Convention against Corruption with a team meeting government, parliamentarians, the private sector and the media on the island.

Niue acceded to the Convention on 3 October 2017. The Convention entered into force for Niue on 2 November 2017.

Consultant for the UN Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption Project John Hydes  who met with MP’s earlier today told BCN news Niue has made progress however is yet to update their legal framework.

“ In terms of the UNCAC review, Niue has already complied to the many good practices from around the world in terms of anti – corruption but the good thing about the review is that it points out possible amendments to the Niue Act and to crime laws that would help to tighten up the legislation here in Niue and the practices and implementation.

One of the big things in most of the Pacific countries is because we’ve inherited old commonwealth legislation, the private sector wasn’t included in terms of bribery and embezzlement so one of the recommendations out of this review is to be amending legislation so as the private sector, bribery , embezzlement , corruption also comes into the Niue Act and the Crimes provisions.” said Hydes

The United Nations Convention against Corruption is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. The vast majority of United Nations Member States are parties to the Convention.

The Convention covers five main areas: preventive measures, criminalization and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, and technical assistance and information exchange. 

The Convention covers many different forms of corruption, such as bribery, trading in influence, abuse of functions, and various acts of corruption in the private sector.