UPSC Prelims 2019 Question:

Consider the following statements

1. The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) has a ‘Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air’.
2. The UNCAC is the ever-first legally binding global anti-corruption instrument.
3. A highlight of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) is the inclusion of a specific chapter aimed at returning assets to their rightful owners from whom they had been taken illicitly.
4. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is mandated by its member States to assist in the implementation of both UNCAC and UNTOC.
   
   

Which of the statements given above are correct?

Explanation:

• United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is a legally binding international anti-corruption multilateral treaty. It has been adopted by the UN General Assembly in October 2003 and entered into force in December 2005. 
• The UNCAC covers many different forms of cross-border corruption such as bribery, trading in influence, abuse of powers and functions, and various acts of corruption in the private sector. It does not have a ‘Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air’. So, statement 1 is not correct.
• The UNCAC is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. So, statement 2 is correct.
• The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) is a United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime. It was adopted by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on 15 November 2000. India joined on 12 December 2002. The Convention came into force on 29 September 2003.
• The convention is supplemented by three protocols,

• To prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children
• Against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea, and air
• Against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking of firearms, their parts component, and ammunition. 

• There is no inclusion of a specific chapter in the UNTOC that is aimed at returning assets to their rightful owners from whom they had been taken illicitly. So, statement 3 is not correct.

• The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is mandated by its Member States to assist in the implementation of both UNCAC and UNTOC, which along with the UN Drug Conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988 underpin all the operational work of UNODC. So, statement 4 is correct.
  
  

Therefore, option (3) is the correct answer.

Subject: Polity | International Relations