The world celebrates on this day each year the International Anti-Corruption Day in response to the General Assembly of the United Nations’ resolution which provides for the assigning of this day for raising awareness on the gravity of the phenomenon of corruption and the need to fight it at all levels, in addition to raising awareness on the United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention adopted by the General Assembly on October 31st 2003, and entered into force in December 2005.

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The issue of corruption is one of the most complex problems facing the world, as it represents a phenomenon that extends to cover all aspects of economic, social, political, and cultural life. it is a dangerous phenomenon because of its negative impact on national economies . Corruption slows down the pace of economic development, discourages investment, and disattracts capital, thereby ultimately leading to low production. At the political level, corruption leads to undermining democracy and sends the will of the masses to absentia through influencing the electoral process and rigging people’s choices. At the level of morals, corruption helps the spread of bribery and the absence of self-censorship on the behavior of individuals.

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the phenomenon of corruption is directly linked with the system of governance, where the ideal environment for corruption are dictatorships in which elements  of good governance, including transparency, accountability , participation, and the rule of law , are absent. Looking into the latest report issued by Transparency International one can see how this relationship is clearly manifested to the extent of confirming that dictatorship is synonymous with corruption. Perhaps it will be useful, as we celebrate this day, to look at the map of corruption in the world according to the latest surveys and reports issued by Transparency International this year, where Denmark, Finland and Sweden stand on top of the least corrupt countries in the world, while Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia lie in the bottom of the list as the world most corrupt countries.

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In the Arab world, Somalia comes at the bottom of the list where it ranks 174, followed by Sudan, which ranks 173, and Iraq which ranks 169; while Qatar and the UAE rank 27, which puts them at the top of the list of least corrupt Arab states.

As for the Arab Spring countries, Libya is the most corrupt (ranking 160), followed by Yemen (ranking 156), Syria (ranking 144), Egypt (ranking 118), and finally Tunisia (ranking 75) as the least corrupt in this category. .

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Corruption is a phenomenon from which no state or society is completely free. Thus, the world desperately needs to fight this phenomenon through its governments, institutions, organizations and individuals without any hesitation because every minute spared in the fight against corruption will help to delay the realization of humanity’s well-being as well as arresting its development and growth. It is for this reason that the theme/slogan of this year came to address everyone "Fight corruption today “! We in the Geneva Institute for Human Rights join this theme/slogan, calling upon everyone – each within his/her own surrounding - to start the fight against corruption, in all forms, immediately today and never to delay the fight for tomorrow