United Nations General Assembly A/RES/55/61 Distr.: General 22 January 2001 Fifty-fifth session Agenda item 105 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly [on the report of the Third Committee (A/55/593)] 55/61. An effective international legal instrument against corruption The General Assembly, Noting the corrosive effect that corruption has on democracy, development, the rule of law and economic activity, Recalling its resolutions 53/111 of 9 December 1998, by which it established the Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and 54/126 of 17 December 1999, in which it requested the Ad Hoc Committee to complete its work in 2000, Recalling also its resolution 54/128 of 17 December 1999, in which it requested the Ad Hoc Committee to explore the desirability of an international instrument against corruption, either ancillary to or independent of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 1 Taking note of the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on its seventh session, 2 during which it considered the implementation of resolution 54/128, Recalling the debates and especially the statements made at the high-level segment and the results of the Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, 3 in particular the Vienna Declaration on Crime and Justice: Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century, Bearing in mind the need to prepare a broad instrument that takes into account existing international conventions against corruption, 1. Recognizes that an effective international legal instrument against corruption, independent of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,1 is desirable; 2. Decides to begin the elaboration of such an instrument in Vienna at the headquarters of the United Nations Centre for International Crime Prevention of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention; 1 Adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000. A/AC.254/25. 3 See Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Vienna, 10–17 April 2000: report prepared by the Secretariat (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.00.IV.8). 2 00 56305