Corruption has been identified throughout the United Nations (UN) system as one of the main challenges to sustainable development and the realization of human rights.
The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) recognized that ‘transparent, responsible, accountable, open and participatory government, responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people, is the foundation on which good governance rests, and that such a foundation is one of the indispensable conditions for the full realization of human rights’. Additionally, as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) finds, a number of international documents signed under the auspices of both the UN and regional organizations have acknowledged the negative effects of corruption on the protection of human rights and on development.
This research project, conducted in partnership with OHCHR and the Centre for Civil and Political Rights, aimed at clarifying the conceptual relationship between human rights, good governance and anticorruption, demonstrating the negative impact of corruption on human rights, and providing guidance for effectively using the UN human rights system in anti-corruption efforts.
