Tag Archives | Brazil

A watershed in Brazil

**UPDATE** After a wait of just over one month, Brazilians found out last week that their judicial system is serious about sending a message that those in power can be held to account. On November 13 the Supreme Court in Brazil sentenced one of the leading politicians in the country, José Dirceu former chief of […]

Read full story Comments { 9 }

The power of journalism as an anti-corruption tool

From 7-10 November 2012, more than 1,000 people from around the world will gather in Brasilia for the 15th International Anti-Corruption Conference. Brazil is a particularly interesting setting for the conference. Whilst discussing and debating some of the most pertinent corruption problems and solutions, one of Brazil’s biggest corruption cases in history – the Mensalão […]

Read full story Comments { 1 }

Secret Diaries: How four investigative journalists triggered one of Brazil’s biggest corruption scandals

October 12 will see the announcement of this year’s Latin American Investigative Journalism Award, awarded jointly by Transparency International and Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (Press and Society Institute).The prize honours outstanding journalism in Latin America or Caribbean media contributing to greater transparency. As we await the results, Catalina Vazquez takes a look back at the […]

Read full story Comments { 3 }

Codes of conduct in action: continental law states

As the previous post in this series revealed, examples of codes of conduct from common law countries show how the same issues – such as gifts and asset disclosures – are handled differently by different countries. A similar divergence can be seen in continental law countries. This is the fifth post in our series on […]

Read full story Comments { 4 }
Image of compass

Codes of conduct: benefits and challenges

What are the benefits of a code of conduct? Ensuring better conduct by public officials is integral to building greater integrity. This is the logic behind having a code of conduct. This post is part of our series on codes of conduct. To read the first post in the series, click here. Also, be sure […]

Read full story Comments { 7 }

Codes of conduct: a tool to clean up government?

The following post is one in a series of blogs that will focus on codes of conduct over the coming weeks. The posts will look at the key features of a code of conduct, their different applications in different country contexts, the public officials that they cover, and their overall effectiveness. Most importantly, they will […]

Read full story Comments { 12 }

Open Government Partnership: From openness to transparency?

Spanish version / ver en español The following is adapted from a speech by Elisabeth Ungar, Member of Transparency International’s Board of Directors and Executive Director of Transparencia por Colombia, at the Open Government Partnership‘s annual meeting in Brasilia on 15 April 2012. The full speech is available here. I hope that the Open Government […]

Read full story Comments { 3 }

On a Plane to Brazil

A few weeks ago I traveled to Brazil. Early Sunday morning I got on a plane from Amsterdam to São Paulo. My seat was in row 62, the last one just next to the toilets. This is not a fun experience when you have to fly for more than ten hours. As I sat down […]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

A Green Resource Curse: rare earth metals

A global trade dispute is brewing over the rare metals inside many of our favourite technologies such as smart phones or hybrid cars. Last year, an article published in Transparency International’s Climate Change edition of the Global Corruption Report warned about the corruption risks in the countries where many of these valuable raw materials are […]

Read full story Comments { 1 }

Paying a high price for transparency – journalists under fire

For two decades, Sri Lankan journalist Poddala was renowned for exposing corruption in health, education and transport. He uncovered one of his country’s biggest ever tax scams. That was until he was abducted and brutally beaten. His fingers on his right hand were crushed and burned severely, making him another tragic example of the brutal […]

Read full story Comments { 2 }