Anti-corruption is a multifaceted topic that touches upon various administrative, financial, political, social and economic aspects. Accordingly, it cuts across a wide-ranging group of laws that cannot be gathered in one exclusive and definite list. This legal compendium includes a group of major Arab laws that are directly connected with the implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and provides users with easy access to these national laws and other key relevant international instruments. The legal compendium represents a form of free knowledge sharing between researchers of UNDP-ACIAC, who gathered those legal texts, and other researchers and website users, among whom several have also enriched this work with their contributions. The texts were gathered from official sources and are made available in Arabic, and other languages whenever possible. They are also continuously updated and expanded, and thus do not represent an all-inclusive list of UNCAC-related laws, but do constitute the major portion thereof.
The legal compendium includes the following categories of laws:
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Specialized anti-corruption laws: This category includes laws that have been officially labeled by the legislator as "anti-corruption" instruments, including those that regulate specialized anti-corruption bodies.
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Administrative and financial control laws: This category includes laws that organize the State’s administrative and financial control functions, including those that regulate related institutions such as audit bureaus, inspectors general, and others.
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Public procurement laws: This category includes laws that are applicable to public procurement processes including those that regulate related institutions such as specialized procurement bodies and supreme procurement councils.
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Law enforcement and criminalization: This category includes laws that regulate judicial and law enforcement bodies, in addition to criminal laws and criminal procedures.
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Anti-money laundering laws: This category includes all anti-money laundering laws including those that regulate the banking and financial sectors and specialized enforcement bodies such as financial intelligence units, anti-money laundering units, and similar bodies.
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Other related national laws: This category includes other national laws that deal with other aspects of the UN Convention against Corruption. These include laws on access to information, whistleblowers, etc.
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Key related international instruments: This category includes key binding and non-binding international instruments that have a direct bearing on the topics above, such as anti-corruption conventions, bilateral judicial cooperation treaties, and others.
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National anti-corruption strategies and action plans: This category includes strategies and action plans that have been developed by governments in Arab countries to address corruption.