H.E. Ms. Nazhat Shameem Khan, President of the Human Rights Council

1 July 2021

Excellencies, Dear Colleagues,

Bula Vinaka and good day.

It is my honour to address you today at the opening of this virtual roundtable discussion and launch of the eLearning course entitled “Anticorruption and Human Rights: Mainstreaming Anticorruption for the Effective Promotion and Protection of Human Rights”.

At the outset, I would like to thank the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Centre for organising this roundtable. The roundtable aims to share good practices and challenges regarding the impact of good governance on building more equal, inclusive and prosperous societies. I am certain that today’s discussions will help guide all stakeholders as they consider how to best ensure good governance with a view to promoting and protecting human rights.

I also wish to commend UNITAR and ROLACC for having developed this eLearning course, which  will provide States and other stakeholders with a comprehensive understanding of the links between corruption and human rights.

The eLearning course accomplishes this through four insightful and instructive modules that examine the impact of corruption on human rights; the “domino effect” of corruption on all human rights; lessons learned by States and other actors regarding efforts to prevent and to combat corruption; and raising awareness regarding the detrimental effects of corruption on human rights.¹ I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all stakeholders to engage with this eLearning course in order to strengthen their understanding of corruption and human rights, and lessons learned in this regard.

This virtual roundtable and eLearning course builds on the important work of the United Nations to combat and prevent corruption, and its negative impacts on the full enjoyment of all human rights.

As former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote in his forward to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, corruption “undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish”.²

The Convention,  which entered into force on 14 December 2005 and has 187 Member States Parties.³    works to combat and prevent these negative impacts by outlining Member State obligations to, inter alia, “implement … coordinated anti-corruption policies”⁴ , “adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences”⁵ corruption “when committed intentionally”⁶ and “cooperate” with one another “in criminal matters in accordance with Article 44 [on extradition] and Article 50 [on special investigative techniques]”.⁷

Complementing this Convention, the Human Rights Council, over which I have the honour to preside this year, has shown a light on the connection between corruption and human rights. Indeed, since its 21st session in September 2012, the Council has adopted seven resolutions on the negative impacts of corruption on human rights.

Most recently, in June 2019 at its 41st session, the Council adopted a resolution entitled “The negative impact of corruption on the enjoyment of human rights”⁸, which mandated the United Nations High Commissioner 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”⁹.

This report, which was presented last June, found that “corruption is increasingly raised with United Nations human rights mechanisms as an obstacle to the realization of human rights and as a potential cause of human rights violations and abuse” and that “As part of their duty to make the maximum use of available resources so as to realize all human rights …  States have an obligation to combat corruption” ¹⁰.

Moreover, in March 2018, the Council adopted a resolution on “The negative impact of corruption on the right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.¹¹

Critically, this resolution recognizedthat “the prevalence of corruption, including in law enforcement and justice systems,  can have a negative impact on the fight against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”¹². The resolution calls “upon States to enhance their awareness of how the risks of corruption”¹³ in the work of law enforcement personnel, judges, prosecutors and other relevant public officials “may increase the risk of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”¹⁴.

I would also like to highlight two ways that the Council helps States implement these resolutions and  translate words into concrete improvements in the lives of people around the world.

First is the Universal Periodic Review, or “UPR” - a peer review process during which the human rights record of each UN Member State is examined. In the process, recommendations are offered on how the State under review could improve its human rights situation. To date, all 193 UN Member States have been reviewed twice and most have already completed their third review.  And many of the recommendations that have been given through the UPR process have addressed anticorruption efforts.

Second is the Council’s Agenda Item 10, which focuses on technical assistance and capacity building. The resolutions adopted by the Council under this agenda item provide technical assistance and capacity building to various Member States, often focusing on strengthening good governance efforts, which, in turn, reduces corruption and its negative impact on human rights.

I would like to conclude by encouraging you all, at this virtual workshop and during your engagement with the eLearning course, to engage with the array of Council resources on corruption and human rights. And, I would once again like to recognise UNITAR and ROLACC for organising this virtual workshop and for developing their innovative eLearning course.

Vinaka vakelevu and thank you.