The Arab Region Parliamentarians Against Corruption (ARPAC) - the Arab Chapter of GOPAC-was established in Beirut in November 2004 during a meeting entitled Parliamentarians against Corruption: Improving Transparency and Accountability in the Arab Region. This meeting was attended by 40 Parliamentarians representing 11 Parliaments: Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Palestine, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen and Lebanon. The meeting was organized in partnership with UNDP-Program on Governance in the Arab Region, Transparency International, Lebanese Transparency Association and the British Embassy in Beirut

Related Documents
	ARPAC Constitution
	www.arpacnetwork.org
	Palestinian Constitution
	Action plan
	Progress Report
	Yemeni Conference (May 2007)
	Controlling Corruption: A Parliamentarian's Handbook (Arabic Edition)

Objectives:

ARPAC’s main objectives consist of encouraging founding members to establish national chapters, persuading national chapters to build coalitions with the media, civil society movements and academics, and calling on the Arab governments to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). In addition, ARPAC arranges for national and regional workshops to promote methods for fighting corruption and to build the capacity of members of Arab parliaments to be better equipped to fight corruption and to promote transparency and accountability in the Arab region.

Current Projects:

• ARPAC will be leading a regional and global taskforce on political ethics and conflict of interest for parliamentarians and public officials at large;
• ARPAC will be leading a regional and global taskforce on UNCAC and will conduct gap analysis and will lobby for the ratification of UNCAC;
• ARPAC will be conducting projects which will focus on improving the capacityof Arab parliamentarians on budget analysis mainly on revenues.     

ARPAC Annual Conference To Be Held In Bahrain

After the success of the first Annual Conference which was held in Rabat, Morocco (May, 2006), ARPAC’s forthcoming Annual Conference will be held in Bahrain in November 2007 hosted by the Bahraini Chapter of ARPAC. The focus of the conference is the gap analysis studies for Lebanon and Kuwait and the role of Parliamentarians in the ratification of the UNCAC. This conference will be an opportunity to launch ARPAC’s new regional initiative on Resource Revenue Transparency. For more information please contact Dr. Khalil Gebara at Kgebara@arpacnetwork.org

National Chapter in Algeria was launched

A group of serving and former parliamentarians have set up in early December 2006 the Algerian branch of ARPAC.  During the launch ceremony in early September, the founders declared the mission and makeup of the new entity, which is headed by Mr. Mahi Bahi Ammar

For more information please contact Khalil Gebara at khalil@arpacnetwork.org

From June 2005 until May 2007 several ARPAC national chapters were launched and operated on the local level, coordinating activities with the Secretariat. These National Chapters are: Palestine, Yemen, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon.