NEW YORK, DECEMBER 9 – A plague worth about 4 trillion US Dollars, around 5% of global GDP, more than the entire GDP of the African Continent”. Beyond Covid, corruption is “yet another pandemic to eradicate”, the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, Maurizio Massari, said in a message against a crime that puts democracy and the Rule of Law at risk of coming apart.
In the video, released on the YouTube channel of the Italian Mission on the day in which the entire UN systems rallies against corruption, Massari explained that the size of the problem and its consequences are difficult to measure. “The International Monetary Fund described corruption as a complex network of leaking tubes. Corruption causes leakages at multiple points. If no one stops the leakage, the risk is that one day the whole state building might collapse. In the same way, if we don’t stop corruption, the Rule of Law that governs our societies might come apart, undermining democracies, social justice and citizens’ trust in state institutions” he said.
The Ambassador focused on the efforts that the UN and Italy have put in place through the Sustainable Development Goals – specifically on the reduction of on reducing bribery, strengthening institutions, and accessing information included in Goal 16 and its target – but specified that the fight against corruption is a “vital” condition for achieving the entire 2030 Agenda: “Preventing corruption helps protect our Planet, creates jobs, achieves gender equality, and secures wider access to services such as healthcare and education”. (@OnuItalia)
