We’d like to introduce a coalition we’re particularly proud to be a part of to our English-language audience.
Coalition to Combat Corruption in Mauritania (3CM)
- Preamble
Corruption undermines economic growth and leads poor States to become poorer, in a word, to disaster and chaos.
It discourages foreign private investment and reduces resources available destined for infrastructure, public services, programs to counter poverty, thus affecting all sectors of development.
Corruption impedes the application of the law for the immense majority of citizens, in addition to the proper functioning of the executive, legislative and judicial branches; it undermines the integrity of the press and compromises civil society. It corrodes the totality of social relationships and deprives citizens of their dignity and pride in their belonging to their nation. It prevents them from adhering to the ideals of democracy and perceiving the State as an impartial, regulatory entity.
Corruption is an illegal act, one contrary to the principles of integrity, uprightness and honesty demanding by our holy religion, Islam. It runs counter to our moral values, which always underlay our cohesion and ensured our survival.
Despite a plethora of legislative and regulatory guarantees, the struggle against corruption has remained ineffective, particularly due to the weak commitment of civil society in the struggle against this plague.
Thus our Coalition has decided to lead a lasting struggle, methodical and without compromise, against all forms of corruption, at all levels and by all legal means so that equity, social justice and national cohesion will finally prevail.
To be effective and respond to a pressing need the Coalition’s action will be laid out in an global Action Plan, which will provide with ample detail the context of its founding, its mission, objectives, as well as the activities that it plans to undertake, in agreement with all partners and actors that share its convictions.
- Identity
The Coalition to Combat Corruption in Mauritania (3CM) congregates all civil society organizations convinced of the imperative to combat corruption in the most efficacious and rapid manner possible.
Its core is constituted of the participants in the May 8th, 2008 Meeting and comprise:
- Civil society organizations centered on transparency, citizenship, follow-through and evaluation, (the ICC, CM PCQVP, AMSE, TD);
- Civil society organizations dedicated to human rights (SOS Esclaves, AMDH, lawyers’ associations);
- Public media (TVM, RM, Horizons);
- Private media (Nouakchott Info, Le Rénovateur,);
- Electronic media (CRIDEM);
- Religious civil society organizations (Oulémas’ Association, Imams’ Association, Hand in Hand (La Main dans la Main), FPI);
- Civil society organizations focusing on development and social action (AED, MAFTEC, AAM.)
The coalition is pluralistic, open, democratic, apolitical, and non-profit in nature.
- Vision
The Coalition commits to waging a tenacious struggle against all forms and manifestations of corruption in Mauritania.
This struggle is all the more urgent and justified as corruption is slowly corroding all major segments of national life and compromising the country’s development as well as its social progress. It is all the more so when one realizes that the phenomenon is growing in amplitude and broadening at a time when our country is facing growing poverty and lives under the threat of pauperization and famine.
In this noble and just struggle, the Coalition intends to constitute the vanguard of the promotion of transparency, a more proper distribution of revenues and the respect of civic values and integrity.
The Coalition envisages itself as a credible and effective partner in the struggle against corruption, establishing itself as an instrumental entity in its proposals, counsel, deterrence and action.
It aspires to form the crucible of an active citizenry by serving as the proper example, by developing into a moral reference point and by constituting an essential tool for citizens’ information, awareness and organization.
- Mission
The Coalition must impose itself as an unavoidable interlocutor in the struggle against corruption and a credible partner for the State and development bodies.
It must develop its expertise and reinforce the abilities of its members to ensure a consultant role in the struggle against corruption among concerned institutions.
It must invest in the performance evaluation of public personages in matters of transparency and the struggle against corruption.
Its mission consists equally in reinforcing the demand for democracy, in defending the rule of law and in promoting exemplary conduct.
- Objectives
The Coalition’s first objectives consist of:
- Alerting public opinion and decision-makers to the depth and dangers of corruption;
- Contributing to staunching and reversing the growth of corruption by tangible, realistic and practicable acts.
- Priority Actions
- Establishment of the Coalition;
- Drafting of a Strategic Orientation File (DOS);
- Drafting of bylaws that define the regulations behind the Coalition’s operation;
- Preparing an action plan for the period stemming from June 1st to December 31st 2008;
- Involvement of all civil society organizations implicated in the same struggle.
