The heart of human rights

On the heels of Anti-Corruption Day comes UN Human Rights Day, which is perhaps appropriate given the strong links they share in affecting quality of life and the advancement of a society. 

Sri Lanka has attempted to take strong steps on the human rights front, especially since it has made strong inroads on reconciliation. Releasing political prisoners, returning land to original owners, committing to a home-grown accountability mechanism and allow in stronger engagement in mainstream politics. Yet human rights also spill over into corruption as it prevents people from having equal access to resources.

Corruption severely undermines the realisation of the human rights of millions of people around the world on a daily basis. Corruption is a major hindrance to efforts made towards poverty reduction because the very funds being allocated to poverty reduction programs are too often diverted into the hands of corrupt elites or politicians. So corruption not only affects economic growth and discourages foreign investment, thereby indirectly affecting the poor, but reduces the net income of those living in poverty, distorts policies, programmes and strategies that aim to meet their basic needs, and diverts public resources from investments in infrastructure that are crucial elements of strategies to lift them out of poverty.

Where corruption is generalised, poor people are as exposed as others to the small-scale bribery of public officials (notably in the healthcare, law enforcement and judicial sectors) but the effect on their purse will be heavier. Large-scale corruption, meanwhile, damages the quality of public services on which the poor depend particularly, to meet basic needs. Here again they are disproportionately affected.

The capacity of the international community to reach the Millennium Development Goal to eradicated extreme poverty by 2015 is severely reduced and the risk of not reaching that goal is great unless corruption is tackled as an integral part of poverty reduction strategies. The Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted this year also relies heavily on anti-corruption measures. Considerations also have to be placed on gender and other forms of discrimination at the heart of the planning process of anti-corruption programs. Taking all forms of discrimination into account is a condition to make these programs effective, even though corruption undermines the rights of all affected by it, it has a disproportionate impact on groups such as indigenous peoples, migrant workers, persons with disabilities, those with HIV/AIDS, refugees and prisoners. Corruption impacts men and women differently and reinforces and perpetuates existing gender inequalities. Essentially because women are over-represented in the poorest social segments of society and under-represented in decision-making bodies corruption and bribery affect them in a particular detrimental way. 

Sri Lanka’s Government came into power with shinning promises of good governance, which is at the core of human rights. Such accountability, however, has fallen by the wayside with more and more people becoming disillusioned about not being able to participate in a sustainable development process. 

The fight against corruption is not merely to see powerful people suffer but to ensure equitable distribution of resources and participatory development. This is why the Government must not just push forward with specific investigations but also put in place systems and procedures to keep corruption at bay in the long term.