ACRC held ‘Anti-Corruption Week‘ event for “Public Interest Whistle-Blowing Day”... Let’s meet on-line this year!

- Held various events including “Public Interest Whistle-Blowing Day Ceremony” and “Integrity Talk Concert” -

December 8, 2020

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Right Commission hosted the “2nd Public Interest Whistle-Blowing Day Ceremony” and other integrity culture events for three days from December 9 to 11, 2020, in celebration of International Anti-Corruption Day and Public Interest Whistle-Blowing Day.

International Anti-Corruption Day was designated by the United Nations to commemorate the signing ceremony of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) hosted on December 9, 2003, in Merida, Mexico.

Korea designated and proclaimed Public Interest Whistle-Blowing Day on December 9, 2018, to promote the importance of anti-corruption efforts and public interest whistle-blowers and to honor them.

This year, all the events were hosted on-line and contact-free, to prevent spread of COVID-19. They were live-broadcast on the 2020 Anti-Corruption Week website.

In the morning on December 9, the first day of the events, the result of 2020’s assessment on the integrity of 580 public institutions was announced at Government Complex-Seoul.

The result of the assessment allows understanding of changes in the integrity level of major public institutions at a glance.

Case presentations were given by public officials of public institutions with outstanding integrity, to share secrets of policies that have helped enhancement of their integrity.

In the afternoon on December 9, the ceremony for the second Public Interest Whistle-Blowing Day was hosted to raise positive awareness of public interest whistleblowing and to reaffirm Korean government’s commitment to protection of public interest whistleblowers.

After ACRC’s celebratory remark, celebratory video messages from Chairman Yoon Kwan-Seok of Korean National Assembly’s National Policy Committee and Executive Director Mark Worth of the European Center for Whistleblower Rights highlighted the importance of public interest whistleblowing and their support for active protection of whistleblowers.

Then, public officials in charge of relevant tasks, as well as citizens, sent supportive messages to public interest whistleblowers.

Plus, Anti-Corruption Training Institute, Korea’s one and only anti-corruption education institution which is affiliated to the ACRC, unveiled “Anti-Corruption Live” which is a leading anti-corruption educational program of the institute on-line for the first time.

Integrity Live is a program that enables enjoyable anti-corruption education for anyone. It is composed of a “sand art” designed based on a real story of a public official, “anti-corruption pansori” (Korean traditional musical storytelling) adapted from traditional pansori “Hongboga” in line with anti-corruption and integrity policies of Korea, “Anti-Corruption Play” about ethical dilemma regarding integrity, and so on.
 

Talk concert was held in the afternoon on December 10, to discuss the topic of “What does justice mean for those who were born in the 90’s?”.

The forum provided opportunities to understand the characteristics of young generations and perception gap between them and former generations, as well as to share ideas about the direction of anti-corruption and integrity policies that can be actually meaningful for younger generations.

Additional events were also held, including ▴ screening of anti-corruption educational content for enhancement of children’s moral sensitivity, ▴ lecture of the day which is a collection of anti-corruption lectures by important figures from various circles of society, and ▴ screening of “Anti-Corruption Rapping” by the winner of the anti-corruption contents contest.
 

An ACRC Official said, “Successful hosting of the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Korea last week has given us an opportunity to take a step closer to become an advanced country of integrity. I hope this event will also give an opportunity for our anti-corruption and integrity policies to take deeper root in people’s everyday lives.”