Fighting Grand Corruption and State Capture: Human Rights-Based Tools and Strategies

Grand corruption and state capture remain some of the most pervasive threats to democracy and human rights around the globe. When public power is diverted for private gain, governments lose their ability to educate, feed, and protect their people. Impunity deepens, public trust erodes, and space opens for authoritarianism and instability.

This discussion will reflect on current trends and highlight tools and strategies—many inspired by human rights advocacy and frameworks—that hold promise for advancing accountability and fostering enduring change.

This event is part of “Stronger together: Justice for victims of corruption” –  a common roadmap to advance victims’ rights in corruption cases, promoted jointly by: the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, the Due Process of Law Foundation, Lawyers Without Borders Canada, PROETICA, the UNCAC Coalition, and TOJIL.

Date: Thursday, October 23, 6:15–8:00 pm
Venue: NYU School of Law – Furman Hall, 245 Sullivan Street, Room 212
RSVP required: https://forms.office.com/r/RX95UUKxZY

Live streaming on Youtube/@dplf_info

Speakers:

Naomi Roht-Arriaza. Distinguished Professor of Law (emerita) at the University of California School of Law, San Francisco; President of the Board of the Due Process of Law Foundation; and a member of the Coordinating Committee of the UN Convention Against Corruption Civil Society Coalition.  Author of the book: “Fighting Grand Corruption: Transnational and Human Rights Approaches in Latin America and Beyond“, where she explores how corruption has changed, and how new anti-corruption thinking, especially in Latin America, centers human rights, victims’ access to justice, and reparations. Roht-Arriaza shows how activists have used outside pressure and support for local actors where state institutions have been captured and foregrounds anti-corruption considerations in dealing with transitional justice and atrocity crimes.

Michael Posner. Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is the Director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the School, the first-ever human rights center at a business school. Previously, Posner served in the Obama Administration from 2009-2013 as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In 2010 he chaired the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. From 1978 to 2009, he led Human Rights First, a New York-based human rights advocacy organization. Throughout his career, Posner has been a prominent voice in support of human rights protections in global business operations in the manufacturing supply chain, the extractives industry, and the information and communications technology sector.

Aryeh Neier. President emeritus of the Open Society Foundations, where he served as president from 1993 to 2012. He previously led Human Rights Watch as executive director for 12 years, after co-founding the organization in 1978, and earlier spent 15 years at the American Civil Liberties Union, including eight as national executive director. He has authored seven books, contributed to hundreds of articles and op-eds, and taught at universities, including New York and Georgetown universities, and Sciences Po in Paris. He has received seven honorary degrees and numerous awards from organizations around the world.

Moderator: Margaret Satterthwaite. Faculty Director of the Robert and Helen Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU School of Law; and UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.