A/HRC/26/42
requires transnational and international efforts. The Guiding Principles on Business and
Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy”
Framework,6 which were aimed at ensuring the implementation of human rights in relation
to business entities, failed to draw the link between business, human rights and corruption.
Consequently, the human rights approach to corruption established in the present report can
add a new aspect to the existing guidelines.
III. In what respect does corruption have a negative impact
on the enjoyment of human rights?
9.
A link between human rights and corruption can be established in two different
ways:
(a)
There can be a violation of human rights through a corrupt act;
(b)
There can be a violation of human rights through anti-corruption measures.
10.
Although it is important not to forget the second aspect (the violation of human
rights through anti-corruption measures), especially if instruments of criminal prosecution
are applied in combating corruption, the report — in line with the request by the Human
Rights Council — focuses on the first aspect.
11.
As a result of developments over the past years, it has now been clearly established
that impairment of the enjoyment of human rights is among the negative impacts of
corruption. For example, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) stated in November 2013:
“In recent years, United Nations and regional organizations have increasingly
recognized the negative impacts of corruption on the enjoyment of human rights.”7
12.
As corruption can occur in many forms and contexts, it is nearly impossible to
identify all of the human rights that can be violated by corruption. To give some examples:
If there is corruption in the education sector, the right to education can be violated. If there
is corruption in the judiciary, the right to access to court and the right to a fair trial can be
violated. If there is corruption in the health sector or the social welfare sector, the right to
access to medical service or the right to food can be violated (among others). Moreover, the
principle of non-discrimination can be affected if a person has to bribe someone in order to
get a public merit or access to a public service. It is difficult to find a human right that
cannot be violated by corruption.
13.
This view is supported by many of the responses to the questionnaire, by different
stakeholders. The responses make it clear that corruption has a negative impact on the
enjoyment of human rights. They show that a wide range of human rights can be violated
by corruption. These include economic and social rights, such as the right to work, the right
to food, the right to housing, the right to health, the right to education, and the right to
public services; the right to development; and the principle of non-discrimination; as well
as civil and political rights, such as the right to a fair trial and the right to public
participation. The responses to the questionnaire indicate that nearly every human right can
6
7
The Guiding Principles were developed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the
issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (see the annex to
the final report of the Special Representative to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/17/31)) and were
endorsed by the Council in its resolution 17/4 of 16 June 2011.
OHCHR, The Human Rights Case Against Corruption (Geneva, 2013), p. 4.
5
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