On 18-21 June 2024 Vilnius will host the 21st International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC), the largest and most important transparency forum in the world. Political leaders, civil society and private sector executives from more than 140 countries will discuss the challenges and future prospects of curbing corruption.
“Right now the world faces myriad threats to human rights and the global order - from the rise of kleptocracy and authoritarianism to climate change - and corruption fuels each of these challenges. The IACC presents an invaluable opportunity for world leaders to focus in on fighting corruption, to learn from each other and forge new partnerships going forward”, - said Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International.
“It is a great honour and responsibility for Lithuania to bring together countries fighting corruption for meaningful discussions, which I believe will lead to positive changes in the field of anti-corruption in many of them," said Ingrida Šimonytė, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania. “When we close a door to one’s temptation to sell his or her power or to buy influence, these temptations immediately seek to find another open door. Therefore, we need to keep pace, be faster and constantly look for effective solutions to stop corruption. While tolerance to corrupt behaviour is slowly decreasing, we sometimes lack the tools to fight various forms of corruption. Events like this global conference provide us with opportunities to accelerate our own search for tools to fight influence peddling, to adopt and share best practices from other countries, and to help the values of openness and transparency to overcome the temptations of the supposedly easier path, to the detriment of all of us - as societies and as states”.
The International Anti-Corruption Conference has been contributing to global anti-corruption policy shaping for many years by raising awareness of the threats posed by corruption and by initiating discussions between the public and private sectors. One of the objectives of the Conference is to promote networking, the alignment of strategies, and the exchange of best practices at a global level. Last year, during the 20th IACC in Washington D.C., USA, it was announced that the next biennial global conference will be held in Vilnius in 2024. This decision was taken by the IACC Council after the President of the Republic of Lithuania submitted Lithuania's candidacy to host the conference in Vilnius, and an official agreement on the organisation of the conference was signed earlier this year and approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania.
“The organisation of a top-level global conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a recognition of Lithuania's solid progress in the fight against corruption. Being the main anti-corruption institution in the country, the Special Investigation Service (STT) of the Republic of Lithuania, together with other partners organising the event will strive to ensure that Lithuania’s and whole region’s experience in fighting corruption and building anti-corruption environment contribute and shape up high quality policy discussions on global corruption issues,” said Linas Pernavas, Director of the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Lithuania.
“This is a great opportunity to share our anti-corruption successes and critically evaluate what we should do better. The world is still looking for answers how to bring decision-making closer to people and curb political corruption. It would be great if next year in Vilnius we could discuss the future of transparency in a new, innovative format with a much larger role for practitioners working with new technologies and academics studying human behaviour“, said Sergejus Muravjovas, a long-time CEO of Transparency International Lithuania.
The International Anti-Corruption Conference in Lithuania is expected to bring together more than 1,500 participants from all over the world. The four-day event will feature six plenary sessions, more than 80 parallel workshops, fair-play music contest, films for transparency festival and a young journalists' competition.
The IACC is the world's foremost anti-corruption forum, working to tackle the biggest corruption threats in the world today and successfully influencing the global political and economic agenda since 1983. Last year's conference in Washington D.C. was attended by Anthony J. Blinken, US Secretary of State, Maia Sandu, President of Moldova and many other dignitaries, while previous conferences have featured speeches by global leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Hillary Clinton, Kofi Annan, Al Gore, George Soros, Angel Gurria and many others.
Previous IACC editions include the USA in 2022, Korea in 2020, Denmark in 2018, Panama in 2016, Malaysia in 2015, Brazil in 2012.
