Corruption, human rights and extraterritorial obligations

Abstract

Anti-corruption and anti-bribery are among issues that States have recognised a regulatory role with respect to extraterritorial acts of their natural and legal persons. Examples of domestic legislation designating bribery and corruption abroad as offences include the 1977 US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In addition, there have been a number of important international anti-bribery conventions on this topic, including: Inter-American Convention Against Corruption (1996), the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (1997), the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (1999), the Council of Europe's Civil Law Convention on Corruption and Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (1999), the UN Convention against Corruption (2003) and the SADC Protocol Against Corruption (2001). This chapter explores the developments on extraterritorial obligations (ETOs) in the anti-corruption/anti-bribery field. In that regard, the chapter examines the various international and regional treaties and instruments adopted to curb corruption and investigates the extent to which these instruments impose obligations binding beyond a states’ territorial borders, that is, ETOs to adopt legislative, investigative, adjudicatory and other measures, not only to avoid perpetrating acts of bribery and corruption abroad but also to prevent individuals and corporations within its jurisdiction from engaging in acts of corruption abroad. It also engages with human rights ETOs around anti-corruption and anti-bribery and links them with debates on the fulfilment of State human rights obligations.