The Right to Transparent Transactions
In a panel organised by the UN Human Rights Office on 13 March 2013, during the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council, the relationship between Human Rights and Corruption was discussed. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay stated that: “Corruption kills. The money stolen through corruption every year is enough to feed the world’s hungry 80 times over. Nearly 870 million people go to bed hungry every night, many of them children”.
This awareness of the devastating effect of high-level corruption is growing and becoming more universally acknowledged. The World Bank has identified corruption as “the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development”. The eleventh International Anti-corruption Conference in Seoul, in May 2003, recommended that large-scale corruption be considered a crime against humanity, as its effects place it in the same category as torture and genocide, given that all three rob humans of their dignity. However, though it has been discussed extensively, no further action has been taken to implement this suggestion.
This panel will discuss what the current proximity requirement between an action and it’s consequence in the form of is, and will discuss the feasibility of a broader approach to human rights. Is it right that we only protect human rights at a close proximity, generally on a relatively small scale? If so, what are the concerns of practicability surrounding the creation of stricter international control of corruption, and how could this be realised effectively?
Speakers
Leila Ullrich will Chair the panel. Leila is the Convenor of the Oxford Transitional Justice Research group
(OTJR) and PhD student in Criminology at the University of Oxford. Leila has worked at the International
Criminal Court (ICC), the German Mission to the United Nations in New York, the Peace Research Institute
Frankfurt (PRIF), the German Parliament (Bundestag) and the BBC World Service.
Professor Sheldon Leader is director of the Essex Business and Human Rights programme, a member of the Advisory to the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales and a leading contributor to the literature in the field of International Human Rights, among other things.
To find out more about Professor Leader and read some of his work here.
Tara Van Ho is a member of the Global Governance and Transactional Human Rights Obligations (GLOTHRO) Research Network, co-editing a book on the direct human rights obligations of corporations, and service on an expert Working Group updating the Tilburg Principles on the human rights responsibilities of the World Bank and IMF. Currently a Project Associate with the Essex Business and Human Rights programme, Tara will be starting Post-Doctoral research at the INTRAlaw Centre at Aarhus University in Denmark at the beginning of February 2015. Tara's formidable research projects have not prevented her from a career as an advocate too: she is a licensed legal practisioner in the State of Ohio. Find ou tmore information on Tara's work here.
Catie Shavin is a Programme Director with the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights. She leads
a business peer learning programme through which leading multinational companies operating across a
range of sectors and geographies share their work to implement the corporate responsibility to respect
human rights, and explore challenges relating to integration, business relationships and human rights
issues associated with particular operating contexts. She also works as an independent consultant,
and recently contributed to the development of the LSE Investment and Human Rights Learning Hub.
Catie previously practiced law at Allens, advising clients on global business challenges, regulatory
litigation and commercial dispute resolution.
