Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa (Studies in International Law)

This important book provides a framework for complementarity between promoting and protecting human rights and combating corruption in Africa. The chapters make three major points regarding the relationship between corruption and human rights law. First, corruption per se is a human rights violation, insofar as it interferes with the right of the people to dispose of their natural wealth and resources and thereby increases poverty and frustrates socio-economic development. Second, corruption leads to a multitude of human rights violations. And finally, the book demonstrates that human rights mechanisms have the capacity to provide more effective remedies to victims of corruption than can other criminal and civil legal mechanisms. In the African context, the book takes up one of the pervasive problems of governance - large-scale corruption - to examine its impact on human rights and the degree to which a human rights approach to confronting corruption can buttress the traditional criminal law response. It examines major aspects of human rights in practice: the importance of governing structures in the implementation and enjoyment of human rights; the relationship between corruption, poverty, and underdevelopment; and the threat that systemic poverty poses to the entire human rights edifice. It is a significant contribution to the literature on good governance, human rights, and the rule of law in Africa. (Series: Studies in International Law - Vol. 52) [Subject: Human Rights Law, Criminal Law, International Law, Comparative Law, Trade Law, Public Law]