UN – human rights and corruption
It was a bit of surprise to see that the UN has recognized the harmful impact of corruption on human rights, which hadn’t happened earlier. Corruption Watch has highlighted a resolution that was adopted by the UN General Assembly in July, titled “The negative impact of corruption on the enjoyment of human rights”. As we all know, corruption has an extremely adverse influence on society, but the resolution clearly notes that “[c]orruption frequently results in discriminatory access to public services and goods, and renders those in vulnerable situations more prone to adversely suffering from the negative social and environmental impact of economic activities.” Additionally, the resolution highlighted media protection, noting the need for media to operate without fear when reporting on and exposing corruption as well as increasing public awareness of the link between corruption and human rights abuse.
Why is this important? This highlights the fact that corruption is not merely an economic crime, but one that affects the vulnerable when they are most in need of support. For all anti-corruption practitioners working in challenging environments, this resonates, as some of us have seen and heard of corruption in humanitarian aid situations, as well as corruption targeting vulnerable populations. So many times, we have had to explain how women in Afghanistan had to participate in sextortion simply because they needed food for their families, and that this is another disturbing corrupt action by humanitarian actors. Even though this resolution would seem to be self-evident, in this day and age, this is still needed and is a very positive action by the UN.
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