PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS

Protecting Human Rights

Protecting Human Rights

Introduction

Regional interaction is not new to the Americas. At the beginning of the 19th century, South American freedom fighter Simón Bolívar attempted to create an association of states from the hemisphere during the 1826 Congress of Panama. Later that century, in 1890, the First International Conference of American States was held in Washington, D.C., where the International Union of American Republics and the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics were first established. The Commercial Bureau, which turned into the Pan American Union in 1910, was a predecessor of the OAS. (Esposito, 2005, 87)

Key differences between three regional systems for protecting human rights

The 21 participants in the Ninth International American Conference signed the OAS Charter on April 30, 1948 in Bogotá (Colombia), thus transforming the Pan American Union into a new regional organization. Included in the Charter was an affirmation of the nations' commitments to common goals and respect for one another's sovereignty. (Esposito, 2005, 87)

Over the years concerted efforts have been made at the regional and multilateral levels to combat corruption. The following are some of the recent regional instruments:

(a) The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, adopted by the Council of Europe on 27 January 1999. The Convention deals with the active bribery of domestic public officials, passive bribery of domestic public officials, bribery of members of domestic public assemblies, bribery of foreign public officials, bribery of members of foreign public assemblies, active bribery in the private sector, passive bribery in the private sector, bribery of international organizations, bribery of members of international parliamentary assemblies, bribery of judges, trading-in influence, money-laundering of proceeds from corruption, etc. One of the most significant provisions of the Convention is article 23 (3) which states that "bank secrecy shall not be an obstacle to measures to facilitate the gathering of evidence and the confiscation of proceeds". Mutual assistance is the cornerstone of the Convention; (Salevao, 2005, 65)

(b) The 1997 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions provides for much the same measures against corruption except that it is more focused on bribery of foreign officials. With regard to mutual legal assistance article 9 of the Convention provides that " a party shall not decline to render mutual legal assistance for criminal matters within the scope of this Convention on the ground of secrecy"; (Salevao, 2005, 65)

(c) The EU Convention on the Fight against Corruption involving officials of the European Communities or Officials of Member States of the EU provides for cooperation among member States of the Union in combating active/passive corruption, extradition and prosecution, penalties and jurisdiction;

(d) The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, adopted by the General Assembly in November 2000, provides for the criminalization of corruption by States parties and measures to be taken against corruption (arts. 8 and 9). Article 12 (6) of the Convention provides that "each State party shall empower its courts or other competent authorities to order that bank, financial ...