US Congress hearing discusses measures against corrupt foreign leaders

'They are criminals and shouldn't be treated as honored members of the international community at summits"

US lawmakers and human rights groups are discussing measures to boost international cooperation in an effort to combat corruption and its impact on human rights at the international level.

Azerbaijan, along with Angola, Nigeria and several others, are among top countries that draw special concern amid their increasing corruption and deteriorating human rights records, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"Azerbaijan remains a place where if you attempt to expose the corruption of the ruling regime you're at a great risk of being arrested and thrown in jail on spurious charges," explained John Sifton, Human Rights Watch's deputy Washington director, in his testimony during a hearing organized by the Congressional bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, on Thursday, June 16.

The recent Panama leaks, he said, exposed dramatic scale of corruption in the country involving high level officials, even the first family.

In the meantime, he said, the Azeri government has essentially been waging a repressing campaign "against anybody who has been attempting to expose their corruption for the last few years."

"The reason [why] dozens of activists have been released in Azerbaijan in recent weeks and months, is because of the international pressure," he added urging the western government to continue raising their concerns over crackdown against independent voices in Azerbaijan.

For Sifton, one of vital tools that the US Congress could use in an effort of curbing corruption and protecting human rights globally is passing the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. It would deny human rights violators and corrupt officials entrance to the US and access the US property transactions.

Stephanie Ostfeld, acting head of Global Witness' US Office, agreed. In her testimony, she encourage Congress to pass two bipartisan measures: Magnitsky Act and the Incorporation transparency law enforcement assistance act, which would end hidden company ownership and prevent corrupt money from entering the US.

"We should stop rolling out a red carpet to the corrupt," she said.

In his testimony senior US District Judge Mark Wolf, chair of Integrity Initiatives International, made it clear that if elected officials -- no matter whether they hold president or minister positions -- are killing people who are exercising their universal right to free speech and exposing corruption, they are criminals and they shouldn't be treated as honored members of the international community at the summits or elsewhere.

"Corruption exist because of culture of impunity in many countries, with the kleptocratic rulers who do not fear prosecution or punishment because they control the police, prosecutors, and they direct the courts. And they're not going to permit the administration of justice to prosecute and punish their colleagues, families and their friends and more often, themselves."

Opposing corruption globally should also be in the interest of US national and international security. Corruption, he said, is "destabilizing our allies and creates more dangers against international security."

In his speech, Congressman Jim McGovern, co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission said that there is growing recognition around the world of the impact of corruption on human rights.

Most recently US anti-corruption efforts are focusing on kleptocracy, and extreme form of high-level public corruption that often involves states, business elites, and corrupt foreign actors.

The Obama Administration announced additional anti-corruption commitments related to financial transparency, following the Panama Leaks in April.

"The questions that concern us today are whether we're doing enough and whether what we are doing adequately addresses the relationship between corruption and human rights," he said. "This commission is specially interested in corruption because it's widely acknowledged to be linked to human rights abuses."

Corruption, he added, can reduce a political will of the government to respect, protect and fulfill human rights obligations, as well as the financial capacity of the government to provide basic services to its citizens.

A.Raufoglu

Washington, DC