In 2023, Resolution 10/10 adopted at the Tenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (CoSP10) recognised sexual corruption as a distinct form of corruption. The Resolution calls on States Parties to take concrete measures to address sexual corruption, including by closing legislative gaps. Yet, most countries still lack specific legislative provisions on sexual corruption.
Out of the 38 countries analysed so far, only four have legislative provisions that explicitly deal with sexual corruption: Madagascar, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.
The database serves as a global resource for governments, civil society, activists, and legal practitioners working to close legislative gaps on sexual corruption and advance the goals of Resolution 10/10. By making the existing legal landscape visible, it aims to strengthen advocacy, research and support reform and empower action against sexual corruption worldwide.
DEFINITION OF SEXUAL CORRUPTION
Sexual corruption occurs when a person abuses their entrusted authority to condition a service or benefit connected to that authority on a sexual act.
Sexual corruption thus includes three components:
- Abuse of authority: Power is abused by someone with entrusted authority for sexual gain.
- Quid pro quo/This for that: A service or benefit connected to the entrusted authority is conditioned on a sexual act.
- Sex as a currency: The currency of the transaction is a sexual act.
(Adapted from: Bjarnegård, E., Calvo, D., Eldén, Å., Jonsson, S., Lundgren, S. 2024. Sex instead of money: Conceptualizing sexual corruption. Governance, 37(4), pp. 1349–1367.)
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Uppsala University, the International Lawyers Project, Hogan Lovells and the Coalition’s Gender Inclusion and Corruption Working Group for their work in collecting and analysing the data that made this database possible.
Disclaimer
The Global Civil Society Coalition for the UNCAC accepts no liability for the correctness, completeness, or reliability of the information shared in the Sexual Corruption Legal Mapping Database.
The Global Civil Society Coalition for the UNCAC assumes no responsibility for any direct or indirect loss suffered by users or third parties in connection with the use of the database. Any reliance you place on such information is, therefore, strictly at your own risk.
The information contained in the database is crowdsourced through an open-call questionnaire from experts, organisations, and the general public. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, or reliability of the database or the information or related graphics contained on the Sexual Corruption Legal Mapping: dataset and codebook website page and related documents for any purpose.
