Call for world anti-kleptocrats court

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The Netherlands, Canada and Ecuador backed calls Monday for the creation of a global anti-corruption court, saying it would help tackle "kleptocrats" at the head of governments.

Foreign ministers from the three countries supported a campaign for a graft-busting tribunal, which backers say would operate on similar lines to the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

"The Netherlands, Canada and Ecuador share the vision that this could eventually lead to the establishment of an International Anti-Corruption Court," Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said after they met in The Hague.

"Such a court will provide the international community with an additional tool to enforce existing anti-corruption laws," Hoekstra tweeted.

Some two trillion dollars in procurement spending around the world is lost to corruption every year, according to United Nations figures.

United States senior judge Mark Wolf, who is leading the campaign, said the tribunal "will focus on the highest level of officials and the people they bribe."

"The culture of ending corruption starts at the top down" he told a panel discussion on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting.

Some 189 parties including 181 countries have signed up to the UN's Convention Against Corruption, a treaty aimed at stopping graft around the world.

"This court could be a place where very brave whistleblowers… for instance could bring their evidence" if unable to do so in the countries where they live.

But the court's backers admitted that it still had a long way to go before it could become a reality.