The objective of the 1997 Convention against Transnational Bribery of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is to criminalize the bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions in an effective and coordinated manner. This aims to address the supply side of bribery by focusing on a group of countries that account for the majority of global exports and foreign investment.

The 35 states party to the Convention (including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States) commit not only to penalizing foreign bribery but also to cooperate with other countries in matters of mutual legal assistance and extradition. State parties also commit to establishing preventive mechanisms such as accounting and auditing guidelines for business.

The obligations of the parties to the Convention can be divided into five categories:

1. Criminalization: The Convention obliges signatory states to define foreign bribery as a crime and to punish acts of bribery in international business. They are required to do so with an adequate statute of limitations.
2. Provisions regarding private sector: The Convention requires States to establish the liability of companies and to prohibit accounting practices used in order to bribe foreign public officials or to hide bribery.
3. International cooperation: Given that foreign bribery involves actors in different jurisdictions and that international financial channels are often used to carry out or hide international bribery, the Convention prescribes mutual legal assistance between countries and the exchange of information. It also makes extradition easier in relation to offences governed by the Convention.
4. Money laundering: States are required to treat concealment of the proceeds of corruption as a money laundering offence, with certain limited exceptions.
5. Monitoring: The parties to the Convention are required to cooperate in a follow-up review process to monitor and promote the full implementation of the Convention.

Links to more infomation are found below:

• See the text of the Convention
• See the countries that have signed and ratified the Convention
• Follow-up to the implementation of the OECD Convention
• Civil society participation in the OECD Convention
• View the latest news
• Read related documents