Following the Money: Bridging Human Rights Policy Implementation Gaps in Criminal Justice through Anti-Corruption Advocacy

Over 60 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, domestic criminal justice institutions remain major sources of human rights violations, even in many democratic states. Case studies from Brazil and beyond demonstrate that corruption can be a key factor underpinning the stubborn persistence of such problems. Corruption was observed to be a contributing cause to police and prison abuse in a variety of ways: as intrinsic to a violation, as an underlying motive, as a related trigger, as a reform inhibitor, and as a political-economic enabler. These examples raise questions about the human rights movement's relative inattention to corruption in criminal justice and about its heavy reliance on a "crime of opportunity" theory for combating violations such as torture. Can anti-corruption advocacy and policymaking positively complement traditional human rights efforts by affording new approaches toward disrupting reform-resistant networks; enlisting constituencies of support; broadening grounds for legitimacy; and diversifying methods of investigation, reporting, prevention, and redress? Possible avenues for future research will be discussed regarding this question and the applicability of the case study lessons to other contexts.

Fernando Ribeiro Delgado is a Lecturer on Law and Clinical Instructor at the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. Delgado's work focuses on the inter-American human rights system and on human rights and criminal justice issues. Apart from teaching courses on these topics, he supervises students on related litigation, fact-finding, and reporting. Specializing in the documentation of prison and police abuse, Delgado has helped spur numerous local and national human rights reforms in his native Brazil. He has conducted oral arguments in several matters before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and is currently co-counsel in litigation concerning the Brazilian prison system before the Inter-American Commission and Court. Delgado has served as a Global Human Rights Fellow with Justiça Global and continues to be a collaborating attorney on their national prisons project. He previously worked as an Alan R. and Barbara D. Finberg Fellow and a Henry Richardson Labouisse '26 Fellow in the Americas and Children's Rights Divisions of Human Rights Watch, respectively. Delgado holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.