Corruption and Human Rights in the Case Law of Inter-American Human Rights Treaty Bodies
Edyta Lis
Faculty of Law and Administration, Department of Public International Law, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University of Lublin , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1973-7198
Abstract
The first attempts to combat corruption date back to ancient times and had mainly moral connotation. Despite being an old phenomena, nowadays it takes new shapes and becomes a more common feature of social life, especially in the Latin America region. Corruption is a complex, and multidimensional phenomenon that negatively impacts human rights on many levels. Therefore, serious effort have long been made at global, regional and state levels to combat corruption. The United Nations and regional organizations have adopted numerous non-binding and binding documents with a view to stifling this phenomenon but none of them refer to the issue of impact of corruption on human rights. But it should be stressed that it is very hard to establish a link between corruption and human rights violations. Some efforts has been made by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAComHR). This article considers whether and how the IACHR and the IAComHR establish the link between corruption and violation of human rights in the inter-American system. It also determines which groups of people are, according the IACHR and the IAComHR, particularly affected by corruption, what measures should be taken to protect those exposed to acts of corruption, what obligations are incumbent on States with a view to preventing, combating and eradicating corruption.
Keywords:
corruption, human rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Commission on Human RightsReferences
Bacio-Terracino, Julio. “Linking Corruption and Human Rights.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting 104, (2010): 243–246. (Crossref)
Bacio Terracino, Julio. The International Legal Framework agaist Corruption: States’ Obligations to Prevent and Repress Corruption. Cambridge–Antwerp– Portland: Intersentia, 2012.
Baillet, Cecilia M. The Construction of the Customary Law of Peace: Latin America and Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Chetelnham–Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishig, 2021. (Crossref)
Balcerzak, Michał. “Korupcja jako zagrożenie dla społeczności międzynarodowej i praw człowieka.” In Świat wobec współczesnych wyzwań i zagrożeń, edited by Janusz Symonides. 534–547. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2010.
Cabrera Ormaza, Maria Victoria, and Martin Oelz. “The State’s Duty to Consult Indigenous Peoples: Where Do We Stand 30 Years after the Adoption of the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169?.” Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Online 23, (2019): 71–108. (Crossref)
Carr, Indira. “Fighting Corruption Through Regional and International Conventions: A Satisfactory Solution?.” European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 15, no. 2 (2007): 121–153. (Crossref)
Dąbrowski, Łukasz Dawid. “Typy przestępstw korupcyjnych w świetle dokumentów międzynarodowych.” Studia Prawnicze KUL 60, no. 4 (2014): 43–78.
Davis, Kevin E. “Corruption as a Violation of International Human Rights: A Reply to Anne Peters.” European Journal of Inernational Law 29, vol. 4 (2019): 1289–1296. (Crossref)
Devine, Thomas, Robert Vaughn, and Keith Henderson. “Model Law Protecting Freedom of Expression against Corruption.” Accessed November 7, 2022. http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/model_law_whistle.htm.
“Go for Zero Corruption.” Council of Europe, GRECO. Accessed November 7, 2022. https://rm.coe.int/factsheet-human-rights-and-corruption/16808d9c83.
Gutteres, António. “Inauguration of the 40th Anniversary Commemorations, July 16, 2018, Inaugural Adresses.” In Dialogue between Regional Human Rights Courts, Inter-American Court of Human Rights. 21–26. San José, 2020.
Hensgen, Leonie. “Corruption and Human Rights – Making the Connection at the United Nations.” Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 17, (2013): 197–219. (Crossref)
Estrada, Gaspard. “Opinion, Operation Car Wash Was No Magic Bullet: The largest anti-graft effort in the world couldn’t stop endemic corruption in Brazil.” The New York Times. Accessed February 26, 2021. https://www.nytimes.
com/2021/02/26/opinion/international-world/car-wash-operation-brazil-bolsonaro.
html.
Garcia-Gonzalez, Jorge. “The OAS and the fight against corruption in the Americas.” Accessed November 7, 2022. https://www.oecd.org/corruption/ethics/2731127.pdf.
Gedan, Benjamin N., and Santiago Canton. “Radical Transparency: The Last Hope for Fighting Corruption in Latin America.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Accessed April 1, 2022. https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2022/04/01/radical-transparency-the-last-hope-for-fighting-corruption-in-latin-america%EF%BF%BC/.
Goldstein, Donna M., and Kristen Drybread. “The Social Life of Corruption in Latin America.”Culture, Theory and Critique 59, no. 4 (2018): 299–311. (Crossref)
Gómez, Verónica. “Structural Challanges to Access to Justice in the Americas: An Overview of Standards Promoted in the Inter-American System.” In Equal Access to Justce for All and Goal 16 of Sustainable Development Agenda: Challenges for Latin America and Europe, edited by Helen Ahrens, Horst Fischer, Verónica Gómez, and Manfred Nowak. 187–206. Zürich: LIT Verlag GmbH and Co. KG Wien, 2019.
Herencia Carrasco, Salvador. “The rights of indigenos peoples in the jurisprudence of the American Court of Human Rights: A ‘Third World Approaches to International Law’ assesment to advance their protection in the Inter- American Human Rights System.” In Critical Indigenous Rights Studies, edited by Giselle Corradi, Koen de Feyter, Ellen Desmet, and Katrijn Vanhees. 160–177. London–New York: Routledge, 2018. (Crossref)
Kafteranis, Dimitrios. “The International Legal Framework on Whistle-Blowers: What More Should Be Done?.” Seattle Journal for Social Justice 19, no. 3 (2021): 729–758.
Limongi, Fernando. “From birth to agony: The political life of Operation Car Wash (Operação Lava Jato).” University of Toronto Journal 71, Suppl.: 1 (2021): 151–173. (Crossref)
Llamzon, Aloysius P. “State Responsibility for Corruption: A return to Regular Order.” European Yearbook of International Economic Law 11, (2020): 107–174. (Crossref)
Miller, Seumas. Institutional Corruption: A Study in Applied Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. (Crossref)
Moyo, Khulekani. “Corruption as a Human Right Violation.” In Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty, edited by Martha F. Davis, Morten Kjaerum, and Amanda Lyons. 506–520. Chetelnham–Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021. (Crossref)
Nash Rojas, Claudio. “Nuevos desarrollos sobre corrupción como violación de Derechos Humanos. El Informe “Derechos Humanos y Corrupción” de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.” Revista Mexicana de Derecho Constitucional, no. 45 (Julio-Diciembre 2021): 205–235.
Nash Rojas, Claudio, Pedro Aguiló Bascuñán, and María Luisa Bascur Campos. Corrupción y Derechos Humanos: Una mirada desde la Jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. Chile: Centro de Derechos Humanos Facultad de Derecho Universidad de Chile, 2014.
Ngugi, Joel M. “Making the Link Between Corruption and Human Rights: Promises and Perils.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting 104, (2010): 246–250. (Crossref)
Olaniyan, Kolawole. “The Implications of Corruption for Social Rights.” In Research Handbook on International Law and Social Rights, edited by Christina Binder, Jane A. Hofbauer, Flávia Piovesan, and Amaya Úbeda de Torres. 355–374. Cheltenham–Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020.
Kolawole, Olaniyan. “Towards a Human Rights Approach to Corruption.” In The Cambridge Handbook of New Human Rights: Recognition, Novelty, Rhetoric, edited by Andreas von Arnauld, Kerstin von der Decken, and Mart Susi. 531–538. Cambridge: (Crossref)
Cambridge University Press, 2020. (Crossref)
Pearson, Zoe. “An international human rights approach to corruption.” In Corruption and Anti-Corruption, edited by Peter Larmour, and Nick Wolanin. 30–61. Canberra: ANU Press, 2013. (Crossref)
Peters, Ann. “Corruption as a Violation of International Human Rights.” European Journal of International Law 29, no. 4 (2019): 1251–1287. (Crossref)
Reyes, Jimena. “Symposium on New Directions in Anticorruptional Law: State Capture Through Corruption: Can Human Rights Hep?.” AJIL Unbound 113, (2019): 331–335. (Crossref)
Rose, Cecily. “Corruption and Global Security.” In The International Global Security, edited by Robin Geiβ, and Nils Melzer. 140–157. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. (Crossref)
Rose, Cecily. “The Limitations of a Human Rights Approach to Corruption.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 65, no. 2 (2016): 405–438. (Crossref)
Rossi, Valentina. “Government Transparency and the Right of Access to Information: Evolving International and European Standards and Their Implementation in the Italian Legal System.” Italian Yearbook of International Law 28, (2018): 181–207. (Crossref)
Russell, Benjamin. “Anti-Corruption: Legal Trouble for Latin American Presidents.” Accessed May 9, 2019. https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/legal-trouble-for-latin-american-presidents/.
Ruiz Fabri, Helene, and Joshua Paine. “The Procedural Cross-Fertilization Pull.” In Beyond Fragmentation: Cross-Fertilization, Cooperation and Competition among International Courts and Tribunals, edited by Chiara Giorgetti, and Mark Pollack. 39–86. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. (Crossref)
Shelton, Dinah. “The Right of Indigenous People: Everything Old is New Again.” In The Cambridge Handbook of New Human Rights: Recognition, Novelty, Rhetoric, edited by Andreas von Arnauld, Kerstin von der Decken, and Mart Susi. 217–232. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. (Crossref)
Spalding, Andrew. “Anti-Corruption: Recaptured and Reframed.” In The Cambridge Handbook of New Human Rights: Recognition, Novelty, Rhetoric, edited by Andreas von Arnauld, Kerstin von der Decken, and Mart Susi. 517–530. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. (Crossref)
“The President of the Inter American Court of Human Rights Judge, Ricardo C. Pérez Manrique in the Opening of the 2022 Inter-American Judicial Year.” Accessed November 7, 2022. https://www.corteidh.or.cr/mensaje_presidencia.cfm?lang=en.
Wood, Tim. “State Responsibility for the Acts of Corrupt Officials: Applying the ‘Reasonable Foreign Investor’ Standard.” Journal of International Arbitration 35, no. 1 (2018): 103–117. (Crossref)
“Yenina Esther Martínez Esquivia v. Colombia”, Open Society Foundation. Accessed November 7, 2022. https://www.justiceinitiative.org/litigation/yenina-esther-martinez-esquivia-v-colombia.
Yriart, Monica. “Jurisprudence in a Political Vortex: The Right of Indigenous Peoples to Give or Withhold Consent to Investment and Development Projects – The Implementation of Saramaka v. Suriname.” In The Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Theory and Practice, Present and Future, edited by Yves Haeck, Oswaldo Ruiz-Chiriboga, and Clara Burbano-Herrera. 477–545. Cambridge–Antwerp–Portland: Intersentia, 2015.
Zhang, Sheldon X., and Samuel L. Pineda. “Corruption as a Causal Factor in Human Trafficking.” In Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies, edited by Diana Siegel, and Hans Nelen. 41–55. New York: Springer, 2008. (Crossref)
Faculty of Law and Administration, Department of Public International Law, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University of Lublin
Dr. Associate Professor, Faculty of Law and Administration, Department of Public International Law, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University of Lublin; correspondence address: Plac Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 5, 20-031 Lublin, Poland.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1973-7198
