Kuwaiti anti-corruption decision adopted across the Arab world
- Rana Al-Fares: Knowing who owns companies and who actually controls them helps uncover, trace, and recover corruption proceeds.
- The resolution calls for developing legislation, exchanging information, and leveraging modern technologies and artificial intelligence.
- Kuwaiti efforts, which began at the Gulf level and are now expanding across the Arab world, aim to enhance ownership transparency and counter methods of concealment.
The Conference of the Parties to the Arab Convention against Corruption, during its sixth session held in Doha, the capital of Qatar, adopted a resolution submitted by the State of Kuwait and prepared by the General Authority for Anti-Corruption (Nazaha). This concerns enhancing the transparency of the beneficial owner, marking the first draft resolution that the Authority has independently prepared and submitted on behalf of the State of Kuwait to the Conference.
The resolution aims to enhance the capacity of states to identify individuals who own or effectively control companies, and to limit the use of such entities to conceal funds derived from corruption crimes. This assists competent authorities in uncovering, tracing, and recovering these funds, while protecting legitimate business activities.
The resolution calls on the Parties to develop their national legislation and regulations to counter methods of concealing true ownership, to enhance information exchange and cooperation among them, and to leverage modern technologies and artificial intelligence in collecting and analyzing data that helps identify beneficial owners.
In this context, Dr. Rana Al-Fares, President of the General Authority for Anti-Corruption (Nazaha), affirmed that the adoption of the Kuwaiti resolution represents an important step toward enhancing Arab cooperation in countering methods used to conceal the identity of the beneficial owner and obscure the proceeds of corruption crimes.
In her address to the Conference, Al-Fares stated that “knowing who owns or effectively controls companies enhances transparency, limits the possibility of using them to conceal funds derived from corruption crimes, and assists competent authorities in uncovering, tracing, and recovering such funds.”
She added that “Kuwait, in preparing the resolution, sought to strike a balance between enhancing integrity and transparency on one hand, and protecting legitimate business activities and economic interests on the other, in line with the Arab and United Nations conventions against corruption and the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).”
She noted that “this resolution, as the first draft resolution that Nazaha has independently prepared and submitted on behalf of the State of Kuwait, reflects the Authority’s orientation toward enhancing Kuwait’s contribution to developing joint Arab initiatives in the field of preventing and combating corruption, and transitioning from participating in regional efforts to taking the initiative and proposing measures that support joint Arab action.”
She explained that “the resolution is an extension of Kuwaiti efforts that began at the Gulf level, where Nazaha previously prepared a guide of practices and measures for identifying the beneficial owner for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which was adopted by the Ministerial Committee concerned with combating corruption in the GCC states, before these efforts today moved to the Arab level.”
Al-Fares expressed Kuwait’s appreciation to its sister state Qatar for its excellent hosting and organization, and to the Parties for their support of the resolution, affirming the expectation that its outcomes will be translated into practical steps that enhance integrity, transparency, and Arab cooperation in combating corruption.
The adoption of the resolution came during the State of Kuwait’s participation in the works of the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Arab Convention against Corruption, with a delegation headed by Al-Fares, who, in Kuwait’s address to the Conference, affirmed that combating corruption is a shared responsibility that requires effective Arab cooperation and continuous development of the capacities of the relevant authorities.
