Keeping citizens safe: an anti-corruption agenda for the Americas
When people live in fear of violent crime and in states where organised crime has co-opted the institutions that are supposed to protect them, they are denied their basic human rights. These include the right to liberty, security of person, equal protection before the law, and freedom of peaceful assembly.
Crime and violence in the Americas are at unacceptable and worrying levels. According to the Pan American Health Organization, crime rates have doubled in the past 25 years in Latin America. The recent drug related violence in Mexico has made gruesome headlines around the world.
Ordinary citizens also lose out financially when crime damages a state’s ability to fight poverty and inequality. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates the cost of violence generated by organised crime in Latin America at US$168 billion - equivalent to 15 per cent of Latin America’s gross domestic product (GDP). The most extreme cases are El Salvador and Colombia where the cost of violence is calculated at 25 per cent of their GDP for 2007.
Corruption lies at the heart of the problem, both as a cause and facilitator.
Citizen security: the social situation in which all people can freely exercise their fundamental rights.
Corruption and security
Corruption damages the pillars of society — political, military, social, economic and environmental — that are supposed to protect citizens. The ‘buying’ of political candidates, the judiciary and local police forces by organised crime destroys the ability of a state to function on behalf of all its citizens.
In the worst cases, corruption has facilitated state capture by criminals and illegal actors who seek to ensure impunity for their acts and to secure the free flow of illegal trafficking and cash across borders.
TI’s 2010 Global Corruption Barometer reveals that almost a quarter of all people questioned in Latin America paid a bribe to the judiciary; 19 per cent said they paid bribes to the police. A national survey by TI’s chapter in Peru, Proética, shows that 69 per cent of Peruvians believe the police to be corrupt.
What can be done?
On the eve of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in El Salvador (5-7 June 2011), Transparency International submitted a series of recommendations to fight corruption and strengthen citizen security in the Americas.
When the leaders of the 34 member countries to the OAS meet, they will discuss how they can work together at the regional level because so much crime and corruption occurs across borders through complex transnational criminal networks. They will also address national strategies for greater citizen security.
TI’s recommendations include:
- Building anti-corruption measures into the work of security forces: Corruption in security institutions, mainly the police, hinders the implementation of effective responses to crime. TI is calling for increased professionalism among members of the security forces by establishing improved systems of evaluation and performance for personnel.
- Involving civil society in ensuring governments fulfil their commitments to fight corruption: The OAS adopted a convention against corruption in 1996 but TI monitoring reports show there are serious gaps in its implementation. Civil society should play a role as an independent monitor of this implementation. TI is lobbying for restrictions on civil society monitoring to be lifted.
- Greater access to information to enable civil society and community monitoring: Effective citizen security policies require public scrutiny and the involvement of civil society in their design, implementation and assessment. For example, TI is working with communities in Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru to empower local citizens to monitor Conditional Cash Transfer programmes to eliminate corruption. As the supposed beneficiaries of these programmes, people are best placed to monitor delivery and identify when the system is not working.
Last year the first Central America and Dominican Republic Transparency Forum brought together more that 150 representatives from the executive, legislature, judiciary, monitoring institutions, media, civil society and private sector representatives. The Forum built on the Guatemala Declaration which was signed in 2006 by eight countries in Central America and the Caribbean to develop concrete responses to the challenges posed by crime and insecurity in the region.
Related links
TI recommendations to the 2011 OAS General Assembly
Stronger anti-corruption measures needed to ensure citizen security in the Americas
Panorama Regional en material de seguridad y corrupión en Centroamérica
(Regional overview of security and corruption in Central America)
First Central America and Dominican Republic Transparency Forum
La Captura y la Reconfiguración cooptada del Estado en Colombia
Working Paper: Corruption and (In)security
On our blog - In Pictures: working with vulnerable communities in Latin America
On our blog - Corruption challenges wait for Peru's new government
41st OAS General Assembly: Citizen Security in the Americas website
Follow Transparency International's activities on Twitter
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