A guest blog by Ryan Carter, a law student at Arizona State University who is undertaking a legal research internship at the Basel Institute on Governance.
A newly amended law in the Seychelles will enable our partners at the Anti-Corruption Commission of Seychelles (ACCS) to more effectively prosecute corruption and associated money laundering cases, as well as to seize and confiscate proceeds of crime.
This annex is a compilation of all the relevant legislative instruments located during the research process behind the book Illicit Enrichment: A Guide to Laws Targeting Unexplained Wealth by Andrew Dornbierer, published by the Basel Institute on Governance in June 2021.
In line with the definitions contained in Part 1 of the main publication, the laws included in this annex have been categorised as either:
At a Basel Institute-hosted webinar on illicit enrichment on 30 June 2021, practitioners from Uganda, Kenya and Mauritius agreed that illicit enrichment laws have significant potential to help their countries – and others – target corruption and recover stolen assets. But, they say, significant hurdles still need to be overcome, especially in transnational cases.
Both in investment and in commercial arbitration, arbitrators face considerable challenges if a party alleges – or the arbitrators suspect – that corruption has influenced the underlying dispute.
The Basel Institute's Vice-President, Prof. Dr. iur. Anne Peters, has published an illuminating paper on "Corruption as a Violation of International Human Rights".
Published in the European Journal of International Law, the article asks two basic questions:
- Can we legally view corruption as a violation of human rights?
- Should we?
Peters' clear writing and examples make this an essential read for anyone concerned about corruption, human rights and the link between the two.
States perceived to be highly corrupt are at the same time those with a poor human rights record. International institutions have therefore assumed a negative feedback loop between both social harms. They deplore that corruption undermines the enjoyment of human rights and, concomitantly, employ human rights as a normative framework to denounce and combat corruption. But the human rights-based approach has been criticized as vague and over-reaching.
Recent corruption scandals have shown the negative effects that corruption may have in countries around the world, including those of the Latin American and Caribbean region. The Inter-American Development Bank has therefore convened an independent group of experts composed by eight governance and anti-corruption scholars and practitioners to identify innovative and effective approaches to combat corruption in the region.
The Basel Institute on Governance participated in several workshops between 8 and 9 October 2012 with key stakeholders of the South African anti-corruption system (Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority, Special Investigating Unit, Department of Public Service Administration, South African Revenue Services, National Treasury, Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations of the South African Police Services) at a special session hosted by the Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACTT).
Publication
Working Paper 20: Corruption and human rights
It is a fact that states with a high corruption rate (or a high corruption perception) are at the same time those with a bad human rights situation. Beyond this coincidence, the paper seeks to identify a concrete legal relationship between corruption and deficient human rights protection. This seems relevant and practical terms, because the extant international norms against corruption have so far yielded only modest success; their implementation could be improved with the help of human rights arguments and instruments.
This paper therefore discusses a dual question: