THE FUNDAMENTALS OF LAW AND CORRUPTION

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, passed by our Parliament in 1990, begins with very strong language, setting out the Act's reason for existence with these words, in boldface:

....
NEW ZEALAND BILL OF RIGHTS

An Act--
(a) To affirm, protect, and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms in New Zealand; and
(b) To affirm New Zealand's commitment to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
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To affirm means to make strong. To commit means to entrust, consign for treatment or safe keeping. Thus to proclaim before the world, on top of signing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICOCAPR), that you are affirming your commitment to it, could not state things more powerfully.

ICOCAPR, like all United Nations instruments, begins with a very powerful statement of the fundamentals of a free society, of law, of human rights:

'Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world'.

Then it underlines the fundamental of fundamentals: 'Recognising that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person'.

Different United Nations instruments use slightly different wording to state that absolute fundamental. Some say 'inherent dignity'; the United Nations Charter says, 'inherent dignity and worth', which nicely underlines the central point by doubling it. But that is the explicitly stated bedrock of law. Every good law, every good official act in society has as its aim the fulfilment of that principle.

'Recognition of the inherent dignity and worth of the human person' is the sharp, clear dividing-line between the light of human rights and the darkness of human wrongs. Judgements are therefore very simple. If an action or expression recognises the inherent dignity and worth of the human person it is a right; if not it is a criminal wrong.

Corruption in all its forms is a denial of the inherent dignity and worth of the human person. It is therefore a denial of the fundamental principle of human rights, a denial of the fundamental principle of law, a denial of the fundamental truth of what it is to be human. It is a monstrous lie, which is why it must be implacably resisted wherever it shows itself. Lies damage or destroy human life.

That is the point starkly made by another United Nations instrument, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says: 'disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which outraged the conscience of all mankind'.

That puts in a nutshell the fundamental cause of all barbarous acts: disregard and contempt for human rights--in particular the bedrock of human rights, 'recognition of the inherent dignity and worth of the human person.'

Therefore to rid ourselves of a particular barbarous act that outrages the human conscience we need only to identify and eliminate the particular human right that is being disregarded and contemned. We need to identify where and how the inherent dignity and worth of the human person is being denied, then take whatever action is necessary to change denial to recognition.