Fight against corruption: Niamey Declaration on collaboration between investigative journalists, public institutions and civil society

Niamey Declaration on collaboration between investigative journalists, public institutions and civil society in the fight against corruption.

Considering the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) adopted by the UN General Assembly through Resolution 58/4 of 31 October 2003;

Considering the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union on 12 July 2003;

Considering the Protocol on the fight against corruption of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted by the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS on 21 December 2001;

Considering that ECOWAS member countries have ratified and/or adopted texts relating to the prevention and fight against corruption and related offences;

Considering that corruption is a pernicious evil that continues to cause human tragedy in the sense that it violates human rights and annihilates development efforts;

Concerned about the fate of millions of African children who are dying of hunger, thirst, and without real access to health care and education because of this scourge while a tiny minority of dignitaries take liberties with public resources;

Considering the close link between corruption and terrorism, which is decimating thousands of Africans and threatening the foundations of several West African States;

Convinced of the value of good governance, including transparency and accountability;

Considering the worrying proportions that corruption takes in our countries;

Considering the efforts made by national anti-corruption institutions, the media and civil society organizations to denounce this insidious practice;

Considering the urgency of strengthening the synergy of action between the media, the national structures of prevention and repression of corruption and civil society organizations;

We, investigative journalists, national institutions for the prevention, fight and repression of corruption and related offenses and civil society organizations, participants in the Conference on the impact of investigative journalism on the fight against corruption in West Africa, held from 26 to 27 April 2023 in Niamey:

• Call for the institutionalization of this conference as a framework for collective reflection, sharing of experiences, proposals for a better contribution to the sanitation of public management in West Africa and a greater impact of investigative journalism in the fight against corruption;
• Commit to strengthening the collaboration between investigative journalists, anti-corruption institutions and civil society in order to meet the common challenges of good governance and strengthening the rule of law;
• Decide to strengthen the synergy of actions of actors in the fight against corruption within and between countries;
• Call on the various governments to strengthen the independence, autonomy and financial capacity necessary for the execution of their public auditing missions;
• Call upon the Heads of State and Government of West Africa to respect and ensure respect for the various Conventions and Protocols to which our States have freely adhered;
• Call on legislators in the sub-region to adopt or strengthen laws protecting journalists, investigators and national anti-corruption institutions, civil society actors and whistleblowers;
• Urge the judicial institutions of West African countries to take up cases of denunciations of mismanagement of public resources made public by the media;
• Invite the governments to create the necessary conditions for the free exercise of the profession of journalist and the independence of the media, especially investigative media;
• Call on the citizens of the sub-region to get strongly involved and systematically denounce cases of corruption as well as appearance offences.

Done in Niamey, April 27, 2023

The Conference