A/HRC/35/31 2. Corruption, judicial accountability and the independence the justice system 75. The Special Rapporteur wishes to highlight how corruption affects the respect for and the protection of human rights, and calls on States to prioritize this issue. Being free from official corruption must be “a fundamental obligation that governments owe to every individual by virtue of being human, that trumps other policy considerations, and the violation of which is a grave affront to justice”. 4 Thus, corruption should not only be understood as affecting human rights, but also as a human rights violation in itself. The impact of corruption on the realization of human rights depends not only on the forms and severity of corruption, but also on its pervasiveness. Corruption is an obstacle to the realization of human rights in general and in specific cases it can also constitute a direct violation of specific human rights. 76. On the one hand, the existence of corruption in the judiciary directly undermines the rule of law and the ability of the judiciary to guarantee the protection of human rights. On the other, corruption can represent a very serious threat for judges, prosecutors, lawyers and other actors fighting against it and directly or indirectly impede the proper discharge of their professional functions. Systematic corruption enjoys impunity when institutions are unable to perform their functions. As mentioned by the Special Rapporteur, to effectively combat corruption support for the independence of the judicial system is crucial, as is the need for institutional and efficient security for all actors in the justice system, especially when dealing with cases of so-called grand corruption (see A/67/305, para. 4). 77. The Special Rapporteur will continue to pay special attention to the various manifestations of judicial corruption and the measures needed to fight it in line with international standards on judicial independence, as well as to the very serious challenges and threats faced by judges, lawyers, prosecutors and other legal professionals when confronting and combating corruption, and the safeguards that must be enforced to ensure their security and that they can carry out their duties independently. 78. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development refers to the need to have institutions at all levels of State that can be held accountable. Furthermore, to assure the independence of judges and lawyers, it is not enough to have institutions that can be held accountable; it is also important that they appear to be accountable in the eyes of the society as a whole. As stated by Giuseppe Di Federico, “the role of judges is inextricably tied to a set of characteristics and values that are essential for the very legitimacy of the judicial function … as judges are expected to behave with honesty and propriety”.5 79. Accountability is a concept inherent in the rule of law, which is at the heart of the principles promoted by the United Nations. The importance of accountability is also highlighted in article 1 (c) of the United Nations Convention against Corruption as a means to fight corruption. Within the judiciary, it implies the acceptance of responsibility by judges, prosecutors and lawyers for the failure to act according to the standards and principles that must be observed during the performance of their duties. 80. In a 2014 report (A/HRC/26/32), the Special Rapporteur set out a number of basic requirements for judicial accountability mechanisms to be put into practice: • The relationship between the justice operator to be held accountable and the forum, body or institution to which he or she must respond needs to be clearly defined. • The justice operator to be held accountable must have the means to properly explain and justify any conduct or action deemed inadequate, inappropriate or illegal through due process. • The forum, body or institution exercising judicial accountability must be entitled to pose questions and assess whether the justice operator should face sanctions or not. 4 5 Matthew Murray and Andrew Spalding, “Freedom from official corruption as a human right”, in Governance Studies at Brookings, January 2015. “Judicial accountability and conduct: an overview”, in Anja Seibert-Fohr, ed., Judicial Independence in Transition, 2012. 13