A/HRC/4/71
page 16
ethically because their action can be complained about and investigated. Government agencies
often establish their own internal procedures for handling public complaints that ombudsman
offices address, thereby adding another layer of scrutiny and transparency within the
Government. The possibility of an adverse finding by an ombudsman, which would damage a
person’s career and financial prospects, acts as a deterrent. Moreover, ombudsman offices often
view themselves as champions of improving and strengthening Government and as such act as
barriers to corrupt practices.
37.
Mr. Romaszewski, member of the Polish Senate, maintained that the fight against
“pathologies” like corruption always involves limiting, in one way or another, the human rights
and freedoms of citizens. The challenge, according to Mr. Romaszewski, is “proportionality”
between the anti-corruption measures and the hazards created by the corruption. He emphasized
the importance of good laws and the need for ordinary citizens to understand and to know how to
use them. He noted that often laws limit rights and liberties in some way. For example, Poland
adopted an act that permits and regulates lobbying. Mr. Romaszewski noted, however, that
lobbying per se is a violation of civil rights in a sense, because it permits those with financial
means to hire professional lobbyists to seek more influence on parliament’s decisions on the law.
Another mechanism that has been instituted and which entails limits to rights is the obligatory
declaration of incomes by public officials, which can be seen as violating the “presumption of
innocence”. A policy that Mr. Romaszewski believes Poland “got right” is the electoral
campaign financing law, which, by placing caps on monetary contributions and requiring that
they be proportionate to income, is aimed at preventing the purchase of influence over
government policies. Noting that corruption takes a variety of forms, Mr. Romaszewski
distinguished between high-level and low-level corruption, active and passive corruption, and the
giver and taker of bribes and recommended that sanctions and measures correspond to the nature
of the act. He further argued that, because it is rooted in greed, corruption should be subject to
material sanctions and penalties should involve forfeiture of assets. As for the means used to
detect corruption, Mr. Romaszewski observed that the privatization of enforcement techniques
(e.g.: wire-taps, surveillance), which has made them available for use by others (e.g.: the media,
employers), makes it difficult to limit Governments’ use of these techniques.
38.
Phil Matsheza, from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which is
mandated with implementing UNCAC and supporting Member States in their anti-corruption
efforts, began by posing two questions: (a) whether the relationship between fighting corruption
and protecting human rights is necessarily complementary, and (b) whether any inherent
contradictions exist between them. Mr. Matsheza affirmed that corruption undermines human
rights, particularly the principles of non-discrimination and the rule of law, and that it is rife
where the rule of law is weak. He pointed to the many principles that human rights, good
governance and anti-corruption work share: transparency, accountability, citizen participation,
rule of law, freedom of expression, right to information, separation of powers, equality and
non-discrimination, equity and fairness. Mr. Matsheza noted, however, the persistence of abuses
despite consensus regarding the relationship between corruption and human rights, and the
existence of shared principles. The question he then tackled was whether these abuses were a
result of flaws inherent in the norms and standards, or whether they were produced during
implementation by States. To answer this question he turned to State practices and the
normative framework.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents