CCPR Centre
15 October 2019
Corruption is a major obstacle to the observance and implementation of human rights. Moving from an economic and political perspective on corruption towards a human rights approach involves a shift in perception whereby corruption is viewed not as being solely a misappropriation of wealth and distortion of expenditure, but rather as a potential violation of human rights.
This being said, anti-corruption practitioners rarely make this link and resort to United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms to address corruption and its impact on the enjoyment of human rights. Similarly, none of the UN human rights mechanisms has approached this issue in a systematic manner.
The Practitioners’ Guide on Human Rights and Countering Corruption, by focusing on how UN human rights mechanisms can be better used to report on corruption issues, fills this gap.
Published by the Geneva Academy and the Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR Centre), it intends to serve as a user-friendly practitioners’ manual and strategic advocacy tool to explore how a human rights-based approach, with its focus on the victims of corruption and state responsibility, can be used to complement and strengthen anti-corruption efforts.
To this end, it focuses primarily on how UN human rights mechanisms can be better used to report on corruption issues, and it provides guidance as well as practical recommendations on effectively integrating human rights into anti-corruption efforts.
This Guide is the outcome of research, several conferences and consultations carried out in partnership with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and is based on a draft initiated by OHCHR.
The Guide also received several inputs from legal and corruption experts, academics, NGO representatives and OHCHR staff. Its production has been possible thanks to the continued support by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
Global Torture Index
Via its DHRTTDs Directory, the Geneva Human Rights Platform provides a comprehensive list and description of such key tools and databases. But how to navigate them? Which tool should be used for what, and by whom? This interview helps us understand better the specificities of the current highlight of the directory: Global Torture Index
Geneva Academy
Participants from six countries across the Middle East and North Africa region joined our customized training on the Geneva-based United Nations human rights mechanisms
Adobe Stock
This side event will bring together stakeholders to discuss the growing concerning recurrence to short-term enforced disappearances worldwide, and the challenges they pose for victims and accountability.
Wikimedia
This evening dialogue will present the publication: International Human Rights Law: A Treatise, Cambridge University Press (2025).
UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.
Adobe
This training course, specifically designed for staff of city and regional governments, will explore the means and mechanisms through which local and regional governments can interact with and integrate the recommendations of international human rights bodies in their concrete work at the local level.
Victoria Pickering
This project aims at providing support to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association Clément Voulé by addressing emerging issues affecting civic space and eveloping tools and materials allowing various stakeholders to promote and defend civic space.
Olivier Chamard/Geneva Academy