Instruments and initiatives

International Instruments

Switzerland supports various international instruments aimed at fighting corruption and is actively involved in the further development of these measures.

The OECD Convention on the fight against the bribery of foreign public officers in international business transactions

The 36 industrialised nations of the OECD and 8 further states (Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Russia and South Africa) have signed the Convention of 1997 on combating bribery of foreign officials in international business transactions. On this basis they have made amendments to their legislation in a coordinated action and made the bribery of foreign public officials a punishable offence. A far-reaching monitoring procedure has been set up to ensure that the Convention is implemented and applied in all participating states. The OECD country report on Switzerland was published and presented at a media conference in Bern in 2005. SECO has the lead role in representing Switzerland in the relevant OECD committee.

Evaluation of Switzerland, Phase 4

The OECD Working Group on Bribery regularly conducts reviews of signatory countries to the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. These reviews serve the purpose of assessing the level of implementation and enforcement of the Convention. This is the fourth time that Switzerland has gone through such a review (referred to as phase-four country monitoring). On 27 March, the OECD published a country monitoring report on Swiss efforts to combat corruption abroad, including recommendations for Switzerland. The OECD welcomes the fact that Switzerland has convicted six people and five companies for bribery of foreign public officials since 2012. It also applauds the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) for its role in detecting cases of corruption abroad in connection with money laundering. At the same time, the OECD calls for stricter penalties for companies as well as greater legal safeguards for whistleblowers in the private sector.

The OECD Convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions (1997)

OECD Report on the Evaluation of Switzerland, Phase 4 Report (PDF, 1 MB, 24.07.2018)

The Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption

In 1999, the Criminal Law Convention on the fight against corruption was passed under the auspices of the Council of Europe . This convention goes beyond the OECD Convention as regards content in that it contains the general minimum requirements for criminal law provisions to fight corruption both private and public. Switzerland acceded to the Criminal Law Convention and became a member of the Group of States against Corruption in 2006.(GRECO)

Council of Europe - Criminal Law Convention

Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)

The United Nations Convention against Corruption

The UN Convention against corruption was signed by more than 140 countries including Switzerland in December 2003 and came into force in 2005. The UN Convention differs from the conventions of the OECD and the Council of Europe due to its universal nature and the inclusion of provisions with respect to the restitution of funds acquired through illegal and corrupt practices. The UN Convention has been ratified by Switzerland in September 2009.

UN Convention against corruption

Further Initiatives

Alongside the efforts to fight corruption driven by the community of states, various private organisations and initiative groups are following the same goal, in particular:

Transparency International - TI

International Chamber of Commerce - ICC

UN Global Compact - GC