IHRC: Lebanon Should Sign UNCAC to Combat Corruption

Commissioner of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in the Middle East Haitham Abu Saeed said that Lebanon should sign the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in order to combat corruption as “sought by Lebanon’s President and PM,” the National News Agency reported on Friday.

Saeed said in a statement that he received a report from a member of the Executive Council of the Committee in the Middle East, Adib Asaad on the outbreak of corruption in the Mediterranean country.

“The blatant outbreak of corruption in Lebanon and the dangerous reality that resulted from it brought the Lebanese state to the brink of the abyss. It led to a great financial failure which reflected negatively on the state and citizens alike,” Abu Saeed said quoting Asaad’s report.

Abu Saeed said that “the Lebanese state should sign the UN agreement on combating corruption for its significance being the only legally binding international anti-corruption multilateral treaty, criminalizing some actions, and strengthening law enforcement and international judicial cooperation, in addition to providing effective legal mechanisms to recover the assets, funds and looted assets as sought by President Michel Aoun and PM Hassan Diab.”