The role of world community to fight corruption in developing and third world countries

It is time that corruption should be declared as a crime against humanity under the auspices of the United Nations. All developed countries should join hands to eradicate this menace from the world once for all, as this is how other social problems like poverty and injustice can be tackled.

Whenever we talk about poverty, illiteracy, social injustices and backwardness in third world countries, these ills cannot be detached from corruption. As matter of fact the main cause of all the problems, particularly the poverty, is corruption. While the rulers and their cronies indulge unabated in corrupt practices in third world countries, it is surprising that corruption is rampant in developing countries as well. The main reason of corruption is the autocratic rule by the dictators which they always strive to keep shrouded from transparency and public accountability. The rulers do it with total impunity because the whole state machinery including police, army, judiciary, media and intelligence remains in the tight control of the sitting rulers.

Logically speaking the most important step for the developing or the third world countries is to form a formidable front to eliminate corruption if they really want to get rid of the curse of poverty, illiteracy and backwardness. But it is easier said than done. The victim countries neither have a mature democratic political system nor have strong public awareness about their basic rights that can challenge the dictators. Such evolutionary process may take decades if not centuries to materialize.

The developed countries of the world including the G 20 nations, the World Bank, IMF and other financial institutions of the United Nations are trying to eradicate poverty from the affected countries. They spend billions of dollars on this account and put in lot of efforts to achieve their objectives. Despite all this the results are always illusive and remain much below the desired level. The reason is the route cause- the corrupt system of these countries remains intact to spoil the small gains achieved. Apart from many local factors, the developed countries are also to be blamed for this. In order to achieve their goals they overlook the corrupt practices of the rulers and give them a red-carpet welcome whenever they meet. The developed countries will have to amend their attitude towards the corrupt rulers for the greater benefit of humanity.

It is high time that corruption should be declared as a crime against humanity and a clause to this effect be added in the UN charter. The corrupt regimes and their rulers must be openly denounced and all sorts of sanctions be imposed on them. The corrupt rulers should be denuded of all protocols outside their countries, their foreign assets should be frozen and the membership of such rouge regimes in international organizations be suspended. Such punitive actions against unpopular and dictatorial regimes taken by the international community have already produced positive results and have effectively discouraged the military coups in developing countries.