Fighting transborder corruption: How can Civil Society Push Authorities to Respond? International Practitioner and Research Conference, June 19 – 20, 2017

Organisers

Expert group on Fighting Transborder Corruption of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum
Netherlands Helsinki Committee
BlueLink Foundation
CEELI Institute

Host

CEELI Institute, Prague, The Czech Republic

Aims/objectives/description of the Conference

This Conference will provide an arena for academics, policy researchers and corruption investigators across disciplines for extending the debate of civil society, media and state authority responses to transborder corruption in the EU-Russia region.

We invite contributions that address developments, trends, or investigate specific cases of transborder corruption in the member states of the EU and Russia. Research and practitioners’ investigations of related processes and cases within the target region’s immediate neighbourhood, including Ukraine, South Eastern Europe or European Economic Area countries, shall be presented and addressed. Contributions on the USA and other countries that demonstrate relevance to the processes and trends of trans-border corruption in the EU and Russia, as well as comparative studies, are welcome.

The conference programme will be structured along two streams: academic and practitioner. For the academic stream we welcome and encourage proposals for papers across a wide range of relevant perspectives – such as political, democracy and kleptocracy studies, economics, international relations and law, anthropology, journalism and media studies. For the practitioner stream we encourage reports from recent investigations of transborder corruption, as well as insights of practical, legal, institutional, cultural and corporate challenges to anti-corruption work and suggestions for resolving them.

A primary question that the Conference will aim to compare responses to is: how civil society and journalists could influence authorities to effectively prosecute and diminish corruption? Contributions to both Conference streams will be encouraged that advance the knowledge of methods to research, investigate, analyse, and fight corruption.

No participation fees will be charged. Travel and accommodation support will be offered to conference participants from EU countries and Russia in justified cases.  Investigators and researchers presenting transborder corruption cases will as well be eligible for covering of additional travel costs, related to their investigations in Russia and the EU. Participants should indicate and justify interest in receiving travel support in their abstract submissions.

Call for papers

The conference will include research papers, position papers, investigation presentations, or multimedia/film presentations. It will lead to the publication of an edited report on transborder corruption in the EU and Russia. Proposed contributions should take up to 20 minutes of presentation, followed by 10 minutes of questions and debate. Presentations might be grounded in ongoing investigations, journalistic practice or activism, as well as work in progress.

Paper/presentation proposals should include all of the following details of the proposed contribution:

  * the name(s), affiliation(s), email(s) of presenter(s);
  * title of paper/report presentation and chosen stream (academic or practitioner);
  * abstract (max 500 words);
  * a justified request for travel and accommodation support; and
  * a short bio (max 150 words).

Confirmed keynote speaker: Balint Magyar, author of the “Post-Communist Mafia State: The Case of Hungary”.

Timeline

Abstracts can be submitted and will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until March 31, 2017, 17:00 pm CET
You will be notified if your submission has been successful by April 5, 2017
Submission deadline for accepted papers: June 5, 2017
Conference dates: June 19 - 20. 2017
Edited Report published in October 2017

Please submit proposals and inquiries to  pavelan [at] bluelink [dot] net (pavelan [at] bluelink [dot] net).

Conference Committee:

• Anastasia Kirilenko, Independent journalist/Corruption investigator
• Andrey Kalikh, Fighting Trans-border Corruption Expert Group Coordinator, EU-Russia Civil Society Forum
• Harry Hummel, Nederland’s Helsinki Committee
• Dr. Pavel P Antonov, Conference Scientific Co-ordinator, BlueLink Foundation, Associated Member of the Open Space Research Centre, UK

For more information see http://eu-russia-csf.org/home/working-expert-groups/fighting-transborder-corruption/.

The BlueLink Foundation is a member of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum since 2015 and participates in its Expert Group for Fighting Trans-border Corruption.