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	Civil Society Under Pressure and the Role of the International Community by International Peace Institute   Statement by Un High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra''ad al Hussein at the International Peace Institute''s Symposium: Civil Society Under Pressure and the Role of the International Community, New York, 30 September 2015   This Symposium honours the memory of our first Secretary General, who once famously described his task as "the most difficult job in the world." But I believe that many of us in the human rights community would echo that description. It seems sometimes that we are surrounded by a rising tide of cruelty, deprivation and suffering. Frequently, the reports that cross my desk make for intolerable, even nauseating reading.   And yet, within this horror, I find inspiration in the courage and determination of grass-roots civil society activists and human rights defenders. These women and men, clear and principled, often brave great risks to claim their rights and those of their communities, in the face of violations, injustice and abuse.   In their voices, we hear what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims: "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government".   Their message is that government is a responsibility: those who are mandated to exercise power have the duty to promote the well-being and the dignity of the people whom they serve.   Their voices tell us: we, the people, are sovereign. We have the right to share ideas, to criticise, and to join with others to participate in decisions about our future.   This is a matter of binding legal principle: the current normative framework demands that people have the right to exercise fundamental freedoms. it is also a very deeply practical improvement.   When people can share ideas to overcome common problems – and in many areas, they do – the result is a better, more healthy, more secure and more sustainable State.   Today, in many regions, more and more governments are dismantling public freedoms. We see laws which forbid access to foreign funds; spurious prosecutions; smear campaigns; destruction of property; mass surveillance; disappearances and killings of civil society activists.   The ability of civil society actors to operate freely and safely is fundamental to building stable and thriving societies. It underpins every activity of the United Nations – and in particular, the human rights that enable truly sustainable development and peace.   So although our work to protect fundamental freedoms and deepen civic space is difficult, and even threatening, it is also one of the most meaningful tasks we can take on.   * Watch a live stream of the event via the link below. Visit the related web page
	British American Tobacco accused of bribing senior politicians to sabotage anti-smoking laws by The Independent, Transparency International   British American Tobacco accused of bribing senior politicians in order to sabotage anti-smoking laws. Several individuals involved with the WHO''s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control allegedly targeted, writes Jonathan Owen for The Independent.   British American Tobacco, one of Britain’s biggest companies, has been accused of bribing senior politicians and civil servants in a bid to sabotage anti-smoking laws.   The allegations by whistleblowers from the company, and supported by court documents, relate to the company’s operations in several African countries.   Paul Hopkins, who served in the Irish Special Forces before working for BAT, claims he broke the law for the tobacco firm. “I was a commercial hitman,” he said in an interview broadcast on BBC One’s Panorama.   Commenting on the practice of bribery, Mr Hopkins, who worked for BAT in Kenya for 13 years, said: “It was explained to me in Africa that''s the cost of doing business.”   Several individuals involved with the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) were allegedly targeted.   Under the UK Bribery Act, British companies can be prosecuted for bribery which takes place overseas. And anti-smoking campaigners are demanding the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) launch a criminal investigation into BAT.   “BAT is bribing people, and I''m facilitating it,” claimed Mr Hopkins, who no longer works for the company.   Before he left, he recorded conversations with his boss, Gary Fagan, BAT’s director for East and Central Africa, and a company lawyer Naushad Ramoly, discussing bribes. In an exchange in 2013, the lawyer said: “That’s what we are going to be paying. Yeah, ok, fine. Anything else that you think we’ll need to be paying for?” Mr Ramoly, who no longer works for BAT, denies involvement in illegal activities. And Mr Fagan denies giving permission for the payment of bribes.   Two FCTC representatives, Godefroid Kamwenubusa, from Burundi, and Chaibou Bedja Abdou, from the Comoros Islands, were both allegedly paid $3,000 (£2,000), according to the Panorama investigation. And Bonaventure Nzeyimana, a former FCTC representative from Rwanda, was allegedly paid $20,000. All three deny accepting bribes. But in court documents, BAT describes the payments to the three as “unlawful bribes,” according to the BBC.   Another allegedly bribed was Moses Watangula, former Minister of Trade, Kenya. The tobacco company paid for a business class return flight for his wife to London. He denies having had dealings with BAT.   And Dr Kasirivu Atwooki, a Ugandan MP who sat on a committee writing a report on a rival company, was allegedly given £20,000 to make amendments and give it to BAT in advance. He denies the allegations.   The documentary features another whistleblower. Solomon Muyita, a former lobbyist in Uganda, claims he was told to pay off dozens of people, and is suing the company for wrongful dismissal.   Court documents from his case claim that David Bahati, a Ugandan MP who proposed an anti-tobacco bill, had been recruited to spy on anti-smoking activists. The politician was in favour of “…having most of our views accommodated in the proposed tobacco law,” according to a record of a meeting between BAT and the MP. Mr Bahati did not respond to requests for comment from the BBC.   Dr Vera da Costa e Silva, head of the WHO FCTC secretariat, accused BAT of “using bribery to profit at the cost of people’s lives.”   And Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “Panorama’s shocking evidence must be investigated without delay. If true, it is hard to imagine any more disgusting act for a British company than to pay decision makers in Africa to prevent legislation being passed to protect children and young people from a future of addiction, disease and premature death caused by smoking.”   She added: “We will be writing to the Government to demand that a criminal investigation under the Bribery Act is launched at once.”   In a statement, a BAT spokesperson said the allegations were from “former employees whose employment was terminated in acrimonious circumstances and who present a false picture of the way BAT does business.”   Mr Hopkins plans to meet with SFO investigators this week. A spokesperson for the SFO said: “We are aware of the general allegations but cannot comment further at this stage.”   Nov. 2015   Corruption in Africa: 75 million people pay bribes. (Transparency International)   In many countries you can pay off police officers to ignore any crime, however horrific and devastating – it’s just a matter of price. In Zimbabwe a nine-year old girl was raped on her way to school by a man who infected her with HIV. The police initially arrested her attacker, but then released him in secret. The reason: he paid a bribe.   Nearly 75 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are estimated to have paid a bribe in the past year – some to escape punishment by the police or courts, but many forced to pay to get access to the basic services that they desperately need.   For our latest report People and Corruption: Africa Survey 2015, we partnered with Afrobarometer, which spoke to 43,143 people across 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.   "Corruption creates and increases poverty and exclusion. While corrupt individuals with political power enjoy a lavish life, millions of Africans are deprived of their basic needs like food, health, education, housing, access to clean water and sanitation”, says José Ugaz, Chair, of Transparency International.   The majority of Africans (58%) say that corruption has increased over the past year. This is particularly the case in South Africa where more than four-in-five citizens (83%) say they have seen corruption rise recently.   There is no government which is rated positively on its anti-corruption efforts by a clear majority of its citizens. Out of 28 governments, 18 are seen as completely failing to address corruption.   Across the region, the police and business executives are seen to have the highest levels of corruption. The police have regularly been rated as highly corrupt, but the strongly negative assessment of business executives is a new development.   22 per cent of Africans who came into contact with a public service in the past 12 months say they paid a bribe. The situation is worst in Liberia where 69 per cent paid a bribe. Across the region, poor public service users are twice as likely as rich people to have paid a bribe.   Out of six key public services, people who come into contact with the police and the courts are the most likely to have paid a bribe. This is consistent with our previous surveys and highlights the lack of progress made in addressing bribery in these two institutions, which are crucial for citizen security and the rule of law.   People in the region are divided as to whether ordinary people can make a difference in the fight against corruption – just over half of people think that they can (53 per cent), while 38 per cent think they cannot. Only roughly one-in-ten people who paid a bribe actually reported it.   There are a few countries in which citizens see low levels of corruption in their public institutions and see corruption as on the wane in their own country. The views of citizens in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Lesotho and Senegal are particularly positive.   The region faces a serious challenge in ridding itself of corruption: although people told us that reporting incidents of bribery is one of the best ways to stop corruption from happening, they also told us that many people do not report bribery because they are scared of suffering retribution and think reporting mechanisms are ineffective.   In order to effectively prevent corruption in the region greater efforts need to be made to protect whistleblowers from retribution, improve the effectiveness of reporting channels, and raise public awareness about how and where they can report corruption.   Many countries in the region have seen threats and violence against civil society, making it dangerous to operate and difficult to hold governments to account. Governments must create safe conditions for civil society to undertake anti-corruption work, and governments need to guarantee the operational and physical freedom of such organisations.   * Access the report via the link below. Visit the related web page
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