The Importance of fighting corruption from the perspective of the American Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

This article aims to relate, in the context of the American Convention on Human Rights, the little-addressed consequences between corruption and its relationship with human rights. To this end, it seeks to address the main international standards in this regard as well as the most recent judgments. As is known, corruption is not a current problem and has been faced over the years mainly by economics and criminology. It is a topic addressed by the United Nations through the 2030 Agenda in Sustainable Development Goals 16. However, the importance of combating corruption from a human rights perspective has only recently been addressed in legal literature, legislation and the jurisprudence of International Courts. In the research on the decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, it was found that there are very few judgments that seriously face this connection, highlighting the case Ramirez Escobar and others vs. Guatemala of 2018 and the case of Viteri Ungaretti and others vs. Ecuador 2023. To develop this topic, the most important primary sources on the subject were verified and a thorough research was carried out in the Jurisprudence Booklets of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and on the Court's website. Finally, monographic, hermeneutic and hypothetical-deductive methods were used.