WUNRN
Transparency International - The
Global Coalition Against Corruption
WEBSITE LINK INCLUDES 2 VIDEOS.
Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 -
By Country
8 March 2013 - Today is
International Women’s Day. To celebrate the occasion, Transparency
International is highlighting women corruption fighters around the world whose
courage, resilience, intellect and passion help them battle tirelessly to
promote transparency and integrity in their communities. These are three of
their stories.
Armed with pink saris and a lathi,
or stick, for self defence, these women activists are corruption fighters –
literally. Translated ‘Pink Gang’, the Gulabi Gang was
formed by Sampat Pal Devi in Uttar Pradesh in Northern India to stop domestic
violence against women. The scope of their work has expanded into an
anti-corruption agenda with an unconventional approach.
From hijacking a food tractor to ensure rationed grains for the
poor were delivered and not sold illegally, to holding meetings with local
citizens to demand much-needed roads, Sampat and the Gulabi Gang show no signs
of slowing down their fight against corruption and domestic violence.
Evronia Azer, 25, is a founding member of
the Egyptian group No Military Trials for Civilians
whose mandate is to demand transparency in military trials for arrested
citizens. In
Like most committed anti-corruption activists, she also has a
full-time job to make ends meet. Evronia is a software engineer by day, yet
manages to keep the hotline going. Evronia’s steely determination is evident
when she says:
On the personal level, it is sometimes really hard to handle the
trauma of families who have their sons sentenced to long years in prison
without a fair trial, but we will continue fighting until we end military
trials for civilians in
In 2004 Heather Brooke set about requesting details of the
expenses of UK Members of Parliament (MPs) – something she did in her former
years as a journalist in the
For two more years Heather launched appeals until the public was
finally given access to MPs’ expenses in 2009, an outcome which revealed a
gross abuse of public funds for private gain. A national scandal
ensued and major shifts in how citizens have access to information took shape.
Heather Brooke never set out to revolutionise the
Corruption hurts everyone – but women and the poor bear the
biggest brunt of this global problem. From sexual extortion to human
trafficking, corruption allows the current marginalisation and harmful effects
on women to continue. Tailored approaches to curb corruption risks are
therefore needed to curtail the significantly damaging impact on women.
True
Stories