A/HRC/44/27 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 41/9, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a report on the challenges faced and best practices applied by States in integrating human rights into their national strategies and policies to fight against corruption, including those addressing nonState actors, such as the private sector, and to submit the report to the Council at its fortyfourth session. 2. In follow-up to this request, OHCHR wrote to all Permanent Missions to the United Nations Office at Geneva, relevant international organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society organizations to solicit input for the preparation of the present report. 3. OHCHR received responses 1 from Austria, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Mauritius, Morocco, North Macedonia, Paraguay, the Philippines, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, Senegal and Serbia, as well as the State of Palestine. The European Union also provided a response. The following international organizations submitted contributions: OHCHR, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The following national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights submitted contributions: the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico and the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights. The following civil society organizations submitted contributions: the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, the Center of Analysis and Research in Human Rights jointly with the International Network of Human Rights, the Centre africain de recherche industrielle, Penal Reform International (PRI) and the Public Organization “Public Advocacy”. 4. The report takes into account recommendations from United Nations human rights mechanisms and the Implementation Review Group of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. It complements the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on best practices to counter the negative impact of corruption on the enjoyment of all human rights (A/HRC/32/22). 5. The issue of the negative impact of corruption on the enjoyment of human rights has also been addressed by the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee (A/HRC/28/73). While that issue is not the focus of the present report, it was emphasized in several submissions, including that of Paraguay, in which it was pointed out that there was a lack of scientific research to measure the negative impact of corruption on the enjoyment of human rights. 6. Anti-corruption efforts can conflict with international human rights standards. Where relevant, these are indicated as challenges for integrating human rights into national anti-corruption strategies. 7. The present report is structured along the substantive pillars of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, namely those on preventive measures (chap. II), criminalization and law enforcement (chap. III), international cooperation (chap. IV) and asset recovery (chap. V). It focuses on the complementarity between anti-corruption measures and commitments made under international human rights instruments. Each section highlights the challenges faced and the best practices applied by States in integrating human rights into anti-corruption efforts. The four substantive sections are preceded by a section on general observations and a section on States’ duty to combat corruption as a corollary of their duty to make the maximum use of available resources to realize all human rights. The report ends with conclusions and recommendations for further mainstreaming the anti-corruption and human rights agendas. 1 2 All contributions are available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/CorruptionAndHR/Pages/Challenges.aspx.