A/HRC/4/71 page 9 need to simultaneously move forward on four fronts - anti-corruption, good governance, human rights and economic development - and that a failure to do so might result in terrible distortions of the kind that had occurred in Rwanda. The need for development to reduce corruption was echoed in several comments that pointed to poverty among poorly paid government officials as a reason for “petty corruption”. It was noted, however, that development itself may also be part of the problem if international financial institutions and donor governments do not control the allocation of their funds which may be misused to pay off corrupt officials. Therefore, any discussion of corruption should include the “corrupted”, the “corrupting”, and the “intermediaries”. Donor countries need to be more transparent and to monitor more carefully the activities of their multinationals. 17. Another area that requires attention is the weakness of civil society in developing countries, which prevents them from fighting corruption. A question was raised regarding what weak civil society organizations can do when the institutions that exist to fight corruption are appointed by or connected to the government. Another question was how to improve the role of civil society in the fight against corruption in a country that gives importance to human rights, but where corruption remains. It was observed that most government anti-corruption measures focus on “petty corruption” rather than “grand corruption”. In his response to the questions raised, Mr. Rodriguez-Veltze noted the importance of ensuring full access to the judiciary, including in the rural areas where delivery is generally poor. He also noted that many countries still need to update their legislative systems, often inherited from colonialism. He welcomed a number of new trends, such as speedy trials, oral accounting, and others, but noted that there was still a long way to go. Civil society has become an important actor that is getting the ear and attention of political parties, yet some unions and groups have corporatist rather than public interests and, in a representative democracy, the balance is crucial. He concluded by noting that promoting democratic culture is the best practice on a day-to-day basis and for the long-term promotion of both “respect for the rule of law and respect for neighbours”. 18. The session moderator drew the following conclusions. First, the human rights-based approach to fighting corruption appears to be very promising in addressing the complexity of the issues. Second, a correlation exists between the level of corruption and violations of human rights, although more data is needed to assess it. Third, corruption leads to violations of human rights, but the legal consequences need further elaboration. The moderator suggested including as conference recommendations: (a) the need to collect evidence to show the positive work that has been done in fighting corruption and its impact on human rights and to develop indicators to capture this correlation; and (b) the need to develop more rules regarding access to information and related areas. III. HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION 19. Robert Archer, Executive Director of the International Council on Human Rights Policy, introduced the session on the usefulness of applying human rights principles and practice to strengthen, improve and reinforce anti-corruption policies.