An illuminating new report by our OECD partners on Responsible Business Conduct and Anti-Corruption Compliance in Southeast Asia illustrates three points we have long emphasised at the Basel Institute.
Business, conservation, anti-corruption, global trade, compliance and risk management. International law, organised crime enforcement, standard-setting, political economy analysis and social norms. The inaugural Corrupting the Environment dialogue used all these lenses to examine the “vicious triangle” that undermines sustainable development: corruption, illicit trade and environmental degradation.
News
Connecting corruption and human rights compliance in a UN Global Compact virtual dialogue, 8 July
Gemma Aiolfi, Head of Compliance and Collective Action, will explore some thorny areas of anti-corruption and human rights risk assessment and compliance during a forthcoming virtual “pre-evening dialogue” of the UN Global Compact Network in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
The focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with limited resources to address due diligence, and more broadly compliance risks. The topic, though, is relevant to all companies who need to address both corruption and human rights risks in their international business operations.
Publication
It Takes a Community: Collective Action Initiatives Confronting Corruption and Forced Labour
This report presents the findings of a study regarding the types of Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs) that have formed around anti-slavery and anti-corruption that operate in 15 particular countries, and further focuses on characteristics identified both in terms of what makes initiatives effective. The study was funded by the UK Department for International Development.
Publication
Quick guide 16: Gold laundering
Mark Pieth, President of the Board of the Basel Institute on Governance and author of the book Gold Laundering, offers an insight into the risks of human rights and environmental harms in gold supply chains. Where are the risks and responsibilities?
Collective Action with gold refiners, suppliers and other stakeholders, he concludes, can help to clean up the industry.
Child labour. Forced evictions. Confiscation of migrant-worker identity documents. Crackdowns by security forces on peaceful assemblies. Serious illness resulting from corporate pollution.
These are all examples of human rights abuses that might arise in business operations or supply chains, knowingly or unknowingly, in a company’s home country or abroad.
In this eye-opening book, Mark Pieth gives an in-depth insight into how the global gold market works, what role Switzerland plays in it, where the hidden abuses lie and how human rights in the gold industry can be protected in a credible way.
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.
This chapter appears in International Law and Standards Applicable in Natural Disaster Situations edited by Erica Harper.