Anti-corruption campaigners condemn lethal link between corruption and human rights abuses at moving ceremony attended by Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson and Graça Machel
Transparency International’s Managing Director, Cobus de Swardt today joined a group of former world leaders such as Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson and Graça Machel in a moving ceremony held in Cape Town’s historic former slave quarter to launch the Every Human Has Rights campaign and mark International Human Rights Day. De Swardt’s unmistakable message: “Every human has the right to live in a society free of corruption. And no corrupt society can guarantee human rights.”
“Corruption has greased the wheels of exploitation and injustice since time immemorial, and the great human tragedies of recent history – genocides and institutionalised racism – have likewise been welded to abusive systems that twist the public trust for private gain. That is why we say today, the fight against corruption is not a footnote in the struggle for human rights,” stated de Swardt.
That Human Rights Day directly follows International Anti-Corruption Day, on 9 December, is deeply symbolic. The fight against corruption and for human rights, are mutually dependent. The Seoul Findings of the 11th International Anti-Corruption Conference declare that corruption, particularly on a grand scale, should be designated as a crime against humanity, as “it is immoral, unjust and repugnant to the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
See full Press Release.
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