The UN General Assembly Special Session against Corruption (UNGASS) calls for countries to adopt a wide range of measures to recover assets stolen through corruption.

This includes non-conviction based forfeiture (NCBF), which is emerging as a powerful tool to recover illicit assets when a criminal conviction is not possible.

What can we learn from actual cases of NCBF around the world? What should States consider when introducing NCBF legislation? How can it be applied more effectively and what challenges stand in the way?

Anti-corruption prosecutors are under attack everywhere. They are threatened, exposed to undue influence or hindered by abusive defence strategies.

At a special event at the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2021, a panel of international experts discussed measures that different stakeholders must take to protect prosecutors, and by extension protect the Convention.

This side event at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) focused on ways to ensure an inclusive reconstruction process, including civil society's role in the recovery and reconstruction.

It was organised by Transparency International Ukraine and the Basel Institute on Governance, which jointly issued anti-corruption recommendations during the conference.

The Lisbon Conference on 5-7 July 2022 saw high-level representatives from Lusophone countries, including Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Timor-Leste, come together with international experts. Together, they explored non-conviction based forfeiture (NCBF) laws – mechanisms to seize and confiscate proceeds of corruption and other crimes when a criminal conviction is not possible.

This two-day hybrid conference gathered thousands of crypto specialists and financial investigators from law enforcement, regulators and the private sector.

The conference was hosted by Europol at its headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands, together with the Basel Institute on Governance through the Joint Working Group on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies.

This session at the 2022 International Anti-Corruption Conference aimed to generate a realistic understanding of existing options for recovering assets frozen under sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. It also sought to identify and promote new instruments that countries could introduce for this purpose, thereby contributing to the global effort to accelerate asset recovery and push boundaries of current practice.

The head of Peru's Judiciary, Javier Arévalo Vela, has publicly highlighted Peru's success in recovering the proceeds of corruption and related financial crimes through its non-conviction based forfeiture law, Extinción de Dominio.

The subsystem Peru has rolled out to implement the law "allows the state to recover money from cases of corruption, money laundering and more" he said. Around USD 64 million have already been recovered, with many more cases in the pipeline.

As the war in Ukraine intensifies, calls are growing for states to confiscate Russian assets frozen under sanctions and redirect them to provide support to Ukraine. Our latest Working Paper argues that states can and should do this by enhancing the effectiveness and scope of established asset recovery measures​​​​ – not by introducing new untested mechanisms that risk inviting future legal challenges, defeating the purpose of sanctions and violating the rule of law.