The Council of Europe through Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) and under the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme supported the authorities of Uzbekistan with the organisation of two thematic webinars by raising awareness and enhancing public officials’ understanding in the areas of ethics, integrity and conflict of interest.

The webinar of 27 October 2021 focused on the basic principles of ethics for public officials and their practical implementation. The topics under discussion included integrity checks, acceptance of gifts, introduction of compliance mechanisms and linkages between ethics and law. Through interactive exercises the participants also had the opportunity to review concrete situations from their professional experience and to find solutions in line with Council of Europe standards and good international practices.

The follow-up webinar of 29 October 2021 was devoted to the topic of management and regulation of conflict of interest in the public service. The participants learned and discussed examples of effective procedures aiming at managing conflict of interest, means of identifying risks to integrity in the public sector, different types of conflict of interest in public service and corresponding approaches to their resolution, as well as discussed in details concrete practices from other countries and compared them with existing practice in Uzbekistan.

These activities are part of the wider efforts of ECCD in supporting the Anti-corruption Agency of Uzbekistan (ACA) in improving national anti-corruption legislation, raising awareness of public officials on Council of Europe legal instruments and providing capacity building to ACA’s staff and broader categories of civil servants.

These activities were organised in the framework of the project “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” within the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023, which is a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The project is aimed at strengthening capacities to fight and prevent economic crime in five Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan.