Vance Center Presents at UN Anti-Corruption Conference

Associate Executive Director Jaime Chávez Alor, second from right, joined a panel on “Advancing the Rights of Victims of Corruption” at the UN Anti-Corruption Conference in Doha, Qatar, December 19, 2025. Photo credit: Vance Center

Associate Executive Director Jaime Chávez Alor, who leads the Vance Center’s Institutional Integrity program, represented the Vance Center at the biennial global gathering.

Civil Society Convening

On December 14, Chávez Alor attended Civil Society Preparatory Day, where the Global Civil Society Coalition for the UNCAC coordinated advocacy strategies, communications efforts, and key asks for negotiated resolutions.

The day included presentations from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and other Coalition leaders, and roundtable conversations covering pressing issues including restrictions on civic space, differentiated impacts of corruption on specific groups, and regional challenges.

Participants in Civil Society Preparatory Day before the UN Anti-Corruption Conference in Doha, Qatar, December 14, 2025. Photo credit: Vance Center

On December 15, the Global Coalition organized a meeting of its Working Groups on Human Rights and Corruption and Victims of Corruption. Chávez Alor presented recent outputs from the ongoing Global Coalition initiative “Stronger Together: Justice for Victims of Corruption,” which has included multiple events and convenings over the final months of 2025.

The Vance Center has provided important pro bono support to the Coalition, including contributing to drafting two key submissions:

1. Promoting Policy Coherence Through the Systemic Integration of International Human Rights Law. This paper calls for interpreting and implementing UNCAC in light of States’ existing human rights obligations, recognizing corruption’s impact on rights such as health, education, and access to justice.
2. Recommendations for Integrating Human Rights into Anti-Corruption Frameworks. This document, presented by the Coalition’s Working Group on Human Rights and Corruption, offers practical steps and recommendations for states and international bodies to better reinforce the links between human rights and anti-corruption frameworks.

The Working Groups submitted the documents to the UN in November in preparation for the CoSP11 discussions. They are available here.

Chávez Alor also presented the Vance Center’s work on the International Database on Corruption Damage Reparations and Victim Standing. The database, coordinated by the UNCAC Coalition Working Group on Victims of Corruption, identifies if and how victims of corruption around the world have been recognized and/or remedied for these harms, covering a range of practices and international frameworks.

The Vance Center coordinated a research project involving lawyers in dozens of countries on national legal systems and laws that would permit victims of corruption to participate in relevant legal proceedings. The research found that many legal systems allow CSOs to participate in corruption cases, including by bringing litigation and representing groups of victims, but these mechanisms are rarely used as authorities often interpret them restrictively. At the same time, growing threats to civic space are discouraging CSOs in many places from participating in these proceedings.

Associate Executive Director Jaime Chávez Alor joined events coordinated by the Global Civil Society Coalition for the UNCAC at the UN Anti-Corruption Conference in Doha, Qatar. Photo credit: Vance Center

Addressing Rights of Victims of Corruption

On December 19, the Vance Center organized a panel, “Advancing the Rights of Victims of Corruption,” highlighting the essential role of victims in anti-corruption frameworks.

The discussion emphasized that corruption is not a victimless crime. In reality, it erodes democracy, deepens inequality, and undermines access to essential services. Panelists called for a shift from focusing solely on individual victims to recognizing collective harms affecting communities and societies.

Speakers highlighted the strong link between corruption and human rights violations and stressed the need for victims to participate in legal processes to strengthen accountability and asset recovery. They pointed to strategic litigation as a powerful tool to secure remedies and set precedents affirming the human rights impacts of corruption.

The panelists offered examples from Italy, Brazil, and Mexico that showcased practical reforms: reusing confiscated assets, measures to improve integrity in law enforcement, and whistleblower protection protocols.

Representatives of civil society organizations, including the Vance Center and the Global Coalition, shared cases in which courts recognized CSOs’ standing to represent victims in corruption proceedings. The session concluded with a call to integrate human rights into anti-corruption frameworks and advance these efforts.

Associate Executive Director Jaime Chávez Alor, right, and other panelists after the panel on “Advancing the Rights of Victims of Corruption” at the UN Anti-Corruption Conference in Doha, Qatar, December 19, 2025. Photo credit: Vance Center

Chávez Alor emphasized that every corrupt act causes real harm to individuals or entire communities. He shared recent examples of cases in which the Vance Center has filed amicus briefs on behalf of the Coalition as a client, illustrating civil society’s role in defending collective interests of victims. These cases include:

• Peru: Peru’s Supreme Court recognized Proética (the national chapter of Transparency International) as a aggrieved party in criminal proceedings related to alleged corruption in a government-run school feeding program, setting a precedent for CSOs to participate in these proceedings.
• Mexico: Mexican organization TOJIL challenged restrictions on CSO standing before the Inter-American Human Rights System, underscoring that limiting CSOs also limits fundamental rights like freedom of association.

The discussion was moderated by Ambassador Ugljesa Zvekic, Ambassador of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO) at the UN in Vienna and Senior Advisor at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

The impressive panel of speakers included Ambassador Debora Lepre, Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN in Vienna; Dr. Eduardo Vetere, board member of the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme; Márcio Mattos, General Coordinator of the Unified Public Security System of the Ministry of Justice in Brazil; María José Veramendi Villa, Human Rights and Anticorruption Officer at OHCHR; and Vania Pérez, president of the Citizen Participation Committee of Mexico’s National Anticorruption System.

As UNCAC’s main decision-making body, CoSP convenes every two years to bring together governments, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, and leading experts to assess progress, address emerging challenges, and adopt resolutions that shape global anti-corruption priorities.

Data for Anti-Corruption

Earlier in December, Chávez Alor moderated a panel discussion on illicit financial activities and institutional responses at the Second Global Conference on Harnessing Data to Improve Corruption Measurement, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Associate Executive Director Jaime Chávez Alor moderates a panel discussion on illicit financial activities and institutional responses at the United Nations headquarters, December 3, 2025. Photo credit: UN Media

The Dec. 3 session, “Measuring Illicit Financial Flows, Illicit Markets and Tax Evasion,” featured leading experts who shared innovative approaches to estimating the scale of illicit financial flows, analyzed trends in cross-border financial crimes and examined their implications, and underscored how these insights can help guide institutional reforms.

Panelists included:

• Angela Me – Chief, Research and Trend Analysis Branch, UNODC
• Diana Camerini – Statistician, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• Louise Russell-Prywata – Deputy Executive Director, Open Ownership
• Andres Knobel – Consultant and Lead Researcher, Beneficial Ownership, Tax Justice Network
• Tuesday Reitano – Managing Director, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
• Kateryna Boguslavska – Head of Financial Crime Risk, Basel Institute on Governance

Watch the full session here