UNODC
As the world celebrates the international anti-corruption day and the 24th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders on this day, 9 December 2022, ISHR and 81 other organisations and individuals co-signed this public statement.
We, the undersigned organisations and individuals, urge all UN Member States to end reprisals against anti-corruption human rights defenders, and to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the human rights of everyone including those working to promote and defend the rights of other people and to fight and expose corruption.
Anti-corruption human rights defenders – journalists, members of civil society organisations, whistleblowers, and others – play a crucial role in the prevention of and in the fight against corruption and the promotion of human rights. Over the years, they have been instrumental in investigating and exposing corrupt practices and in demanding transparency and accountability and the protection of human rights. We observe, however, that those who work to expose corruption are often not recognised as human rights defenders, and their efforts may be invisible to the wider human rights community or seen as separate from or peripheral to human rights work.
We note that the role and active involvement of anti-corruption human rights defenders in anti-corruption efforts has been widely recognised in many international and regional anti-corruption instruments, including the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) adopted in 2003. Among other things, UNCAC requires States parties to promote the “active participation” of anti-corruption defenders, by “respecting, promoting and protecting the freedom to seek, receive, publish and disseminate information concerning corruption” (Article 13). In addition, the political declaration on corruption adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2021 reaffirmed the commitment of the international community to recognise the important role that civil society, academia, the private sector and the media play in the detection, prevention and fight against corruption.
We are seriously concerned about the escalating reports of violence, threats, harassment, intimidation, attacks and persecution of anti-corruption human rights defenders and the impunity following this persecution in several States. Anti-corruption human rights defenders continue to face a real risk of physical attack, arbitrary arrest, and prosecution simply for exercising their human rights including freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. And States continue to pass laws to restrict access to information while failing to take effective actions to prevent harassment, intimidation and attacks against those who dare to expose corruption and its impacts on human rights, and to bring suspected perpetrators of the attacks to justice.
We note that the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in her recent report documents several cases of violence, threats, intimidation, harassment, attacks and persecution against anti-corruption human rights defenders. According to the report, hundreds of defenders all over the world face smear campaigns, criminalisation, and judicial harassment, and are killed every year for their peaceful work in defense of the rights of others. Very few perpetrators are brought to account for these murders, which only enables the cycle of killings to continue.
We also note that some attacks on defenders are gender-based and that many defenders have been targeted for their work in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic or for fighting against corruption affecting their local communities. Women human rights defenders working against corruption are also often attacked not only for what they do but for who they are.
We continue to receive reports of increasing threats and attacks against anti-corruption human rights defenders, including whistleblowers. These constitute clear violations of internationally recognised human rights including life, freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, access to information and media freedom.
The threats, intimidation, harassment and persecution also amount to a breach of the legal obligations of States under the various human rights treaties to which they are parties. We believe it is imperative to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights of anti-corruption defenders to ensure the effective promotion and protection of the rights of other people, and to improve the implementation of States’ legal obligations under the various human rights and anti-corruption treaties to which they are parties.
We therefore call on all UN Member States to:
Civil society in the Americas has issued an urgent call to accelerate the implementation of the Plan of Action on Human Rights Defenders of the Escazú Agreement, which was adopted five months ago.
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In a series of groundbreaking rulings in early 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Colombia set new precedents that significantly enhance protections for human rights defenders across Latin America.
