in authority found guilty of sexually assaulting victims of trafficking in their custody.237 CORRUPTION IN INTERNATIONAL LAW Principle 6 and the treaties cited above are compatible with the growing body of international law that seeks to address corruption more generally, particularly those corrupt practices with transnational reach or effect. The most important instrument in this regard is the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which entered into force in 2005. The Convention seeks to promote and strengthen measures to combat public-sector and private corruption at both domestic and international levels. It represents a broad international consensus on what is required with respect to the prevention and criminalization of corruption and in terms of international cooperation and asset recovery. It applies to all the forms of traffickingrelated corruption and complicity identified at section 6.1 above. In that context, the most important provisions of the Convention are as follows: • States parties are required to establish specific corruption-related offences including bribery, embezzlement of funds; abuse of functions; trading in influence; and the concealment and “laundering” of the proceeds of corruption (arts. 16-19, 23 and 24); • States parties are required to establish “obstruction of justice” – defined as the use of corrupt or coercive means to interfere with potential witnesses or to interfere with the actions of judicial and law enforcement officials – as a criminal offence (art. 25);238 General Assembly resolutions 61/144 (para. 7), 59/166 (para. 8), 57/176 (para. 8), 55/67 (para. 6), 52/98 (para. 4) and 51/66 (para. 7). 237 Note that article 23 of the Organized Crime Convention also requires criminalization of the obstruction of justice in a context that would directly cover proceedings related to trafficking in persons cases. 238 • States parties are required to put in place a range of preventive measures directed at both public and private sectors. These include preventive anti-corruption policies, systems, procedures and institutions that promote the participation of society and reflect basic principles of the rule of law, proper management of public affairs and public property, integrity, transparency and accountability (chap. II); and • States parties are to cooperate with one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption including prevention, investigation and the prosecution of offenders. Countries are bound to render one another specific forms of mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence for use in prosecutions, to extradite offenders and to support the tracing, seizure and confiscation of the assets of corruption (chap. IV, especially arts. 43-44). The United Nations Convention against Corruption builds on and reinforces a number of regional agreements on these issues including the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption and Related Offences; the Inter-American Convention against Corruption; the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions; the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (criminalizing acts of corruption); and the Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption (providing for compensation for victims of corruption). 6.3. STATE RESPONSIBILITY AND DUE DILIGENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLICSECTOR COMPLICITY IN TRAFFICKING Principle 6 confirms that States are responsible for identifying and responding to public-sector complicity in trafficking. Under Principle 2 and related guidelines, this Commentary set COMMENTARY 119