A/HRC/40/59 of the requisite normative and institutional framework against both corruption and torture or ill-treatment, and/or of the political will and systemic capacity to make it effective, is a fundamental impediment to the eradication of such abuses and their mutually reinforcing manifestations. 3. Insufficient accountability of corporate actors 54. The past 30 years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number and influence of transnational corporations, growing investment and trade flows between countries and the emergence of global supply chains. In addition, major development projects have increasingly involved corporate actors and private investments, often in the form of publicprivate partnerships between State agencies and foreign private investors. This trend has given rise to various standard-setting processes aiming to address the increasing human rights impacts of business activities including, most notably, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework. While the Guiding Principles do not focus on the interrelations between business, human rights and corruption, States clearly have a positive duty to protect against human rights abuses related to corporate practices, including those involving corruption. 55. The interrelation between corruption and torture or ill-treatment in such contexts can include a wide range of practices, from acts or threats of violence on the part of State officials or private security personnel against protesters, journalists and human rights defenders to the harassment and forced eviction of local inhabitants, indigenous peoples and others perceived as an obstacle to corporate interests and expropriation of their property, and can even extend to manipulating the administration of justice in favour of unchecked corporate power. In practice, acts or threats of violence, forced labour, modern slavery, inhuman working conditions and human trafficking at the hands of corporate actors are often facilitated and enabled by corruption and lack of transparency in complex corporate supply chains, in contexts such as agricultural farming of raw materials like sugar, cotton, cocoa and tobacco, but also in construction, mining and quarrying, as well as garments and textiles (A/HRC/30/35). In view of the often very substantial sums of money and other benefits involved in corporate investment projects, this is an area particularly prone to grand corruption involving the top level of Government and corporate leadership in both developing and developed States. 4. Inadequately resourced public services and institutions 56. It is widely recognized that inadequate funding of public services, including poor infrastructure and equipment, and insufficient number, remuneration and training of staff significantly increase the risk of corruption and abuse. The risks of torture and ill-treatment arising in conjunction with corruption are particularly high where insufficiently resourced public services and institutions are authorized to use force and coercion, such as military and police forces, border guards, prison staff and, in some contexts, publicly mandated private security contractors. In detention facilities, inadequate staffing, infrastructure and supplies often significantly downgrade the general conditions of detention and create fertile ground for cycles of corruption, discrimination and torture or ill-treatment. In such facilities, prison staff tend to delegate part of internal discipline to dominant inmates and to establish systems of corrupt exchanges in which money or favours are exchanged for “privileges” such as protection from violence, alleviating cruel, inhuman or degrading detention conditions or providing access to sufficient food, water, hygienic articles and medical care, or visits by lawyers and family members. Conversely, rigorous recruitment and training processes and appropriate remuneration of prison staff have been found to contribute towards reducing or eradicating endemic corruption and torture or ill-treatment.16 16 See, further, UNODC, Handbook on Anti-Corruption Measures in Prisons, chap. 4. 15

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