30th June 2025 – by Pablo Herrera, UNCAC Coalition Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean
The 20th Regional Meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), held on June 24, highlighted a core message: corruption is not an isolated phenomenon, but often a structural form of violence that directly affects the enjoyment of human rights. This time, civil society organizations (CSOs) from across the region convened to lend a human-rights perspective, sharing sobering realities and bold strategies. From the diversion of funds to the abuse of power, corruption produces concrete victims whose rights are violated – often with no effective mechanisms for recognition or redress. In this context, strategic litigation, case documenting and cross-border collaboration are emerging as crucial tools to expose these impacts, seek justice for victims, and drive structural reforms.
Updates on a shrinking civic space
A space to reflect on the recent developments undermining civic space in the region was facilitated by Clara Lucarella, Programs Coordinator of Asociacion Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), and LAC representative of the UNCAC Coalition’s Board. Japiqay, from Peru, contributed with a stark illustration of civic space realities: a new law restricting international cooperation now criminalizes civil society activities considered adversarial to government interests—including monitoring the implementation of international conventions. This escalation of state control over civic space was described as both an immediate threat and an opportunity to challenge the law’s constitutionality.
Japiqay explained that the broader impact of such measures is to continue shrinking the limited avenues for legal action. In Peru, the law recognizes only the state as a victim of corruption, preventing communities harmed by corruption from claiming reparations or demanding remedies. Against this backdrop, Gabriela Flores, Executive Director of Japiqay, underlined the urgency of documenting how corruption violates fundamental rights—including health and education. In their Archives of Corruption: Memoria y Ciudadanía, they have documented 127 such cases.
Bringing victims into focus: documenting harm and building cases
Japiqay’s approach demonstrates why this work is essential through sharing evidence-based insights. Flores highlighted the Qaliwarma Case, which involved the diversion of funds from a school meals program, and the Los Hospitalarios Case, where corruption deprived citizens of services and put lives at risk.
By gathering evidence, her organization seeks not only to expose wrongdoing but to create awareness on establishing clear links between corrupt practices and human rights violations. She outlined criteria and key elements for selecting and building cases, emphasizing the need to trace concrete harms and highlight victims’ experiences. She also reiterated how essential the work of community-based CSOs is for identifying and connecting with victims, and to adequately document the impact of corruption. This methodology aims to lay the groundwork for legal actions that demand both accountability and redress, making clear that corruption has direct, personal consequences.
Achieving standing and pursuing accountability
Following this contribution, Pablo Secchi, Executive Director of Poder Ciudadano (Argentinian chapter of Transparency International), shared how strategic litigation has helped CSOs secure a more active role in anti-corruption proceedings. Poder Ciudadano has achieved formal recognition as a plaintiff against the state, setting legal precedents for organizations’ legal standing to claim damages. This approach empowers civil society to move beyond the sidelines and to participate proactively in prosecutions.
Secchi highlighted that such breakthroughs are more feasible in democratic environments and should motivate other organizations to overcome fear and press for justice. He also stressed how litigation on access to information has been a vital tool for actually gaining access to certain public information—an essential building block for cases.
Beyond national borders, Secchi underscored the importance of collaborative strategies. Poder Ciudadano has begun working alongside other organizations, including UNCAC Coalition members, to build cases that span multiple jurisdictions and involve officials from different countries. These collaborations allow CSOs to share evidence, provide mutual legal support, and pursue sanctions and prosecutions that hold corrupt actors accountable wherever they operate. These strategies and good practices serve as examples of opportunities to learn from and adapt to other contexts in the region.
Fighting impunity under authoritarian regimes
If Argentina’s experience highlights the possibilities of litigation in supportive legal environments, Venezuela’s illustrates the challenges in repressive ones. Mercedes De Freitas, Executive Director of Transparencia Venezuela,who is operating as a CSO in exile since mid march this year, shared an unflinching account of systemic impunity in her country where justice is obstructed from within. She described how Transparencia Venezuela has spent over 15 years documenting the state’s role in shielding corruption through its project Suprema Injusticia, which chronicles how the judiciary itself enables wrongdoing. Yet, even in the face of these formidable hurdles, Venezuelan civil society has not given up.
With domestic pathways exhausted, Transparencia Venezuela has turned outward. De Freitas explained that her organization monitors 158 cases currently processed in 30 countries targeting the Venezuelan government’s transnational corruption networks. However, she warned that even this strategy has limitations: in some instances, foreign courts have accepted legal claims and/or judgements from Venezuela’s compromised judicial system, effectively endorsing impunity.
De Freitas identified the lack of independent courts as a fundamental barrier not only in Venezuela but across the region, and called attention to how these obstacles prevent victims from being recognized and assets from being recovered. Despite this, she points to the value of partnerships, describing how Transparencia Venezuela and Poder Ciudadano have joined forces to pursue cases together. She called for continued collaboration to share strategies, provide mutual legal support, and develop stronger alliances capable of confronting entrenched corruption networks. Only through strong, smart partnerships can civil society hope to outmaneuver the sophisticated, well-resourced networks that sustain grand corruption and impunity.
Looking ahead: building strategies and solidarity
Beyond the individual cases and country contexts, this regional meeting fostered a forward-looking dialogue about how to enhance the impact of strategic litigation against corruption, while integrating human rights and anticorruption frameworks, protecting victims, and overcoming systemic barriers like judicial capture and political interference. During the plenary, participants reflected on several critical questions that will shape their work going ahead:
- How do we build strong, airtight cases and legal strategies that can withstand political pressure and lead to convictions or reforms?
- How do we integrate human rights approaches into anti-corruption litigation, ensuring that legal actions highlight the violation of citizens’ rights and not just technical breaches of law?
- What challenges arise in protecting and representing victims of corruption within legal processes – from safety concerns to legal standing – and how do we overcome them?
- What structural or systemic barriers hinder strategic litigation in corruption cases (for example, lack of judicial independence, weak whistleblower protections, or insufficient resources) and how can civil society tackle these obstacles?
- Which alliances and partnerships are most effective for advancing corruption cases with a human-rights focus, and how can organizations better coordinate at national, regional, and international levels?
The exchange of experiences and ideas around these questions underpinned that, despite diverse national realities, LAC civil society faces many common challenges and should strive to share solutions. Whether operating in a relatively open democracy or under an authoritarian regime, CSOs in the region are finding that identifying victims, documenting corruption’s damage, building strategic partnerships and engaging in strategic litigation can transform anti-corruption work. It elevates their advocacy from denouncing problems to actively seeking justice and remedy, advancing a vision of accountability centered on human dignity and justice.
By recognizing the human cost of corruption and bringing victims’ voices into legal battles, Latin American and Caribbean civil society are pushing the anti-corruption movement into a new people-centered phase.
Looking ahead, the UNCAC Coalition will continue to support these efforts – fostering collaboration, disseminating legal know-how, and amplifying the stories of those affected by corruption.