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The impacts of corruption on LGBTQI+ rights

Risks and opportunities in addressing discriminatory corruption against LGBTQI+ individuals

Corruption and discrimination exacerbate each other. Laws, policies, and practices that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics leave LGBTQI+ individuals more exposed to coercive corruption. They provide public officials, especially police officers, with an opportunity to extract (illicit) revenue from these individuals. Anti-corruption activists and LGBTQI+ rights defenders are some of the most at-risk human rights defenders (HRDs) in the world. Individuals and organisations working on the intersection of those issues can expect to encounter risks that both sets of HRDs face. Including an LGBTQI+ perspective into anti-corruption programmes requires following two fundamental principles: “nothing for us without us” and “do no harm”. An intersectional approach is also necessary to promote substantive equality. There is a need for projects that are designed to understand more clearly and to articulate the impacts of corruption on LGBTQI+ rights and to propose measures to address discriminatory corruption.

14 September 2022
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The impacts of corruption on LGBTQI+ rights

Main points

  • Corruption and discrimination exacerbate each other. Laws, policies and practices that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics leave LGBTQI+ individuals more exposed to coercive corruption.
  • Cases of extortion or sextortion of LGBTQI+ individuals by police officers have been reported in several countries.
  • LGBTQI+ people are made more dependent on public services and, as such, corruption disproportionately impacts them.
  • LGBTQI+ individuals do not regularly report abuses to the police for a range of reasons, including, for example, their fear of exposure and extortion and due to systematic impunity.
  • Anti-corruption activists and LGBTQI+ rights defenders are some of the most at-risk human rights defenders.
  • Two principles should be followed when including an LGBTQI+ perspective into anti-corruption programming: “do no harm” and “nothing for us without us”. An intersectional approach is also necessary.

Cite this publication


France, G. (2022) The impacts of corruption on LGBTQI+ rights. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2022:11)

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Guilherme France

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All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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