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35 Geo. J. Int'l L. 207 (2003-2004)
Oil, Diamonds, and Sunlight: Fostering Human Rights through Transparency in Revenues from Natural Resources

handle is hein.journals/geojintl35 and id is 217 raw text is: OIL, DIAMONDS, AND SUNLIGHT: FOSTERING HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH TRANSPARENCY IN REVENUES FROM NATURAL RESOURCES ANDREANNA M. TRUELOVE* Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.' I. INTRODUCTION Government corruption provides both an incentive and a means for human rights violations. Corruption provides an incentive for govern- ment officials to engage in human rights abuses in order to retain their access to the public coffers. Corruption provides government officials with a source of wealth and power that can be harnessed to inflict human rights abuses on anyone who attempts to stand in their way. It is therefore not surprising that commentators have noted a clear link between government corruption and human rights violations.2 One of the best ways to combat such corruption is through transparency, for corruption does not grow well in sunlight. And some of the largest sources of the means and fruits of corruption are the industries that extract oil, gas, and minerals in natural resource-rich countries. Recently, a few non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have started to bring these connections between corruption and the extractive industries (the industries that extract, produce, or mine oil, gas, or minerals) into the public eye. In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report stating that transparency in oil revenue is necessary for the sound economic development of Angola.3 In commenting on that report, Human Rights Watch added that transpar- ency in oil revenue is a human rights issue in places like Angola, where oil revenues are used to finance civil wars in which hundreds of thousands of people die and over a million people are internally * 2004J.D. Candidate Georgetown University Law Center. I would like to thank Lowry Crook for his comments and encouragement. 1. Louis D. BRANDEIS, OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY 92 (1914). 2. See infra notes 3-8 and accompanying text. 3. See Public Information Notice by International Monetary Fund, Public Information Notice No. 00/62, IMF Concludes Article IV Consultation with Angola, (Aug. 10, 2000), available at http:// www.imf.org/external/np/sec/2000/pn0062.htm (last visited Oct. 10, 2003).

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