In September 2017, the Basel Institute and the Rwandan Office of the Ombudsman concluded a joint two-year project to strengthen the involvement of non-state actors in the fight against corruption in Rwanda.

Researchers from the Basel Institute recently delivered a workshop on quantitative and qualitative research methodologies for corruption research at the Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR) in Butare, Rwanda. 

The Basel Institute and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) will work together to provide expert support to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in the framework of SDC's thematic network on democratisation, decentralisation and local government (DDLG).  IDS is a leading global institution for development research, teaching and learning, and impact and communications, based at the University of Sussex. 

Researchers at the Basel Institute have finalised their study on “Corruption, Social Norms and Behaviours in East Africa”. Funded by DFID’s East Africa Research Fund and headed by Dr Claudia Baez Camargo from the Basel Institute, this research project was launched in January 2016. 

With a view to fostering co-operation across regional and international boarders to successfully handle asset recovery cases, the International Centre for Asset Recovery recently had the opportunity to conduct a regional training programmes in Botswana.

Sustainable capacity building at a national level is a key activity of the Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery. Train-the-Trainer (TTT) programmes play an important role in the process. Between January and September 2017, ICAR experts delivered a series of practical training workshops on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery in Tanzania to nearly 100 investigators and prosecutors, four of which were also trained to become certified trainers.

In September, Ugandan prosecutors secured another conviction for money laundering by a former Swedish Embassy accountant, only a few months after the country's first ground-breaking money laundering trial. The accused, who stole almost EUR 1.9 million, was charged by the prosecution with money laundering, embezzlement, forgery and uttering a false document. 

The Basel Institute has recently been appointed to facilitate a new sector-specific Collective Action initiative for the banknote industry. Initial collaborative discussions on the process forward for this initiative has been on-going for a couple of months. These discussions have laid the necessary consultative foundations for the initiative to fully take off in 2018.

Check out our recent FCPA blog: The Basel Art Trade Guidelines 10 years on. 

Thomas Christ, member of the Foundation Board of the Basel Institute, provides a contemporary perspective on an industry sector that has increasingly come into the spotlight of law enforcement and business integrity circles in recent years – the Art Market. 

Both in investment and in commercial arbitration, it is becoming more and more frequent that a party raises the objection of corruption, money laundering, fraud or bid rigging.

The challenges this presents for arbitrators and parties are considerable and were the topic of a conference organised by the University of Basel in cooperation with the Basel Institute on Governance.