“Refusing to look at the link between corruption and human rights abuse is treating diarrhoea among poor children while refusing to look at the water supply,” said a Malaysian Human Rights activist when I raised the issue of the link between corruption and human rights abuses.

Corruption is a human rights issue. Anti-corruption activists who are human rights activists as well have said that “It is a timely coincidence that Dec 9, International Anti-Corruption Day, is followed on Dec 10 International Human Rights Day, because corruption is a human rights issue”.

Rights and corruption

Corruption denies people the fundamental economic and social rights guaranteed to them by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With the existence of a comprehensive international legal regime on human rights, UN member states have the obligation to promote and protect the human rights of their people. Only countries that are  corrupt  fail to provide the social, economic, political and cultural rights ,

Corruption leads to a violation of human rights in at least three respects - corruption perpetuates discrimination, corruption prevents the full realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights, and corruption leads to the infringement of numerous civil and political rights.

The International  Covenant  on  Economic, Social and Cultural  Rights (ICESCR) relates  to all economic, social and cultural  rights. When UN member states  become parties to the ICESCR, they accept a general legal obligation which relates to all rights in that covenant.

Governments must take deliberate, concrete, and targeted steps towards the goal of full realisation of the relevant rights such as access to education, health care, water, affordable housing , cultural rights , the right to free and fair elections, right to information and for access to a fair and free media.

Within civil society , it is important for human rights organizations to link with groups working to combat corruption in the country.

Says Professor C Raj Kumar, "The gravity of human rights violations resulting from corrupt practices is no less than that of custodial violence or any other form of violation of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights” Prof Raj Kumar is a lawyer and vice-chancellor of OP Jindal Global University in India. He has been advocating for  the Human Rights Commission of India  “to examine human rights violations from a corruption standpoint”.

“Corruption violates the legal and regulatory framework. While there are laws against corruption in countries in South Asia, the gap between the law in the books and the law in practice is wide”, said the well-known anti-corruption and human rights lawyer during a roundtable meeting in Bangkok in 2012. This is true of many countries including Malaysia, not just India .

Open and transparent state

Mary Robinson, the former UN High Comissioner for Human Rights  states, “There is no longer any doubt of the linkages between corruption, poverty and human rights abuses. An open and transparent state will provide for fuller realisation of economic, social and political rights. There will be fewer secrets, less discrimination, and more equal access to public services like education and health care, as well as to fair treatment by the police and judiciary.”

For example, all persons should possess a degree of legal  security of tenure which guarantees protection  against forced eviction, harassment and threats. This can be undermined by corrupt practices. Corruption  is sometimes  responsible for evictions. This happens if a company  is interested in a piece of land for commercial purposes like plantations but the land is owned by indigenous people or an urban poor area where people have made their homes.  

Companies may pay bribes to authorities to evict the people living in these areas.
 
Access to rights

The access to  clean water is a fundamental human right. Recently on a visit back to Tasik Chini where I was involved in a campaign  for the rights of the Orang Asli to their land and to save Malyasia’s only Unesco Biosphere Reserve from dying, the rights of the Jakun community who have lived there for generations continue to be violated on a daily basis.

Kampung Melai’s only source of clean water, until months ago, a clear stream is now filled with waste from iron mining activities. There is no access to piped water for the Orang Asli community in this village. Tasik Chini is in the prime minister’s constituency of Pekan.
 
Corruption and human rights violations can occur in any constituency as long as institutions entrusted to protect people are weak and powerless.
 
Integrity of the electoral process is a prerequisite for a democratic political process.

The concept of free and fair elections is often marked by corrupt practices such as fraud, money politics, abuse of state resources, rigging and preventing voters from reaching polling stations on time. However, as we have seen, election petitions are not effective in addressing these abuses.
 
Corruption is about human rights and gender, too

VC Wilemunia, the chair of Transparency International Sri Lanka and a board member of Transparency International, is a well-known public interest and constitutional lawyer who has written and spoken widely on the link between corruption and abuse of human rights.

In the autumn of 2011, along the corridors of the annual general meeting of TI in Berlin, he gave a number of us in the Asia Pacific region some excellent insights why corruption is a human rights issue.
 
He has written and spoken on the gender dimension of corruption and abuse of human rights. He states, “The non-controversial view in this debate is that corruption impacts men and women differently. Due to lack of (or insufficient) access to political and economic power, corruption affects women differently than men.

“In many societies, women are seen as the home managers and, therefore, women are confronted with different types of corruption. Extorting sexual favours from women as against financial bribery is often observed.

“There is also an aspect of harshness of corruption on  women who often face social, cultural, political and institutional discrimination. It is likely that women will face even more repression in a corruption-ridden society. In other words, if access to such institutions is restricted by gender considerations, corruption compounds this by making it even more difficult for women to access public goods including services”.
 
I could not agree more with Wilemunia. Women’s organisations in Malaysia have generally not taken up the anti-corruption agenda. This is unfortunate as the human rights discourse is closely linked with the anti corruption discourse. Interdependency and universality of both discourses is also apparent, emphasises Wilemunia..
 
Strong human rights regime and elimination of corruption

A strong and sustainable human rights regime is only possible by eliminating or at least reducing corruption. It is a fact that elimination of corruption improves human rights situation in any society. The messages from the Arab Spring protests were about corruption, human rights violations and democracy.
 
Human rights tools can improve governance structures and  combat corruption more effectively. Political morality cannot be brought about without the development of individual morality. Citizens must value ethics and integrity and demand for a corruption-free governance.

As Wilemunia says, “Both gross abuses of human rights and intolerable corruption do not set in at once. It comes slowly when we tolerate it, ignore it and are ignorant of it. Sometimes, it comes early, not when the atrocious and dishonest people do wicked things but when honest and honourable people keep silent.”

JOSIE FERNANDEZ is an anti-corruption, environmental and indigenous peoples’ rights activist. She is an Asian Public Intellectual Fellow.