In this issue of "Awareness" attempt will be made to single out and treat the impact of corruption on the realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The article will give particular emphasis on how corrupt practices affect the right to health, the Right to education, the right to housing and the right to work.

Considering the political instability and the economic stagnation that has continued for years, it may seem a folly to demand the realization of economic social and cultural rights in the African Context. The irony, however, is that there is no continent save for Africa that desperately needs the enforcement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Certainly Africa is the most vulnerable continents to recurrent draught. It is a continent where millions of children, women and aged people often go to be starved and hundreds and thousands die as result of famine that pays a regular visit.

Evidently, international human rights laws are "designed to protect the full range of human rights required for people to have a full, free, safe, secure, and healthy life." State parties to the covenant on Civil and Political Rights are bound to respect fully all the obligations stipulated in the document. In line with this, one of the fundamental provisions in the covenant on Civil and Political Rights is the right to life wherein state parties are committed to protect citizens from summary or extra judicial killings.

Although refraining from arbitrary or extra judicial killing is one of the most important procedural safe guards, it cannot be the sole mechanism that guarantees citizens the right to life. Governments should not be content with their human right records on this account only. As a matter of fact, not only extra judicial measures abut also lack of food and absence of proper health care pose a threat to individuals' rights to life. State parties who ratified the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights are primarily responsible to protect their citizens from famine as well as epidemic and endemic diseases, which cause a heavy loss of human life. Ensuring food security and providing adequate health service is a legal and moral obligation of governments so as to guarantee the right to life enshrined in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Accordingly, demanding for the enforcement of the right to food and health is not a luxury nor is something that could be postponed until the economy reaches a certain level of development.

The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health enshrined in article 12 of the Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights is one of the provisions facing implementation problem. The covenant imposes obligation on state parties to ensure "the highest attainable standard of health to their respective citizens and emphasizes on "equal access to health care and minimum guarantee of health care in the event of sickness".

In a society where corruption overrides, state revenue consistently decreases and governments stagger even to pay salary to civil servants let alone allocate increasing budget to expand the health sector. One of the major causes for governments' failure to expand the health sector is the act of fraudulent public officials who misappropriate the meager resource of a country that hardly affords to lose it for private gain.

As corrupt officials who dip their hands in the public purse spend the money earmarked for the sector other than the purposes set to it, it would be impossible to expect improvement in the provision of health services. If at all health centers, clinics or hospitals are built, they may not meet the required standards. More over, they lack the necessary equipment and trained human resource indispensable to render the proper service in the event of sickness. This in turn forces the public to over-crowd the existing handful health institutions whose services are constantly deteriorating.

People who are dwelling in the countryside in general and women and children in particular are the most vulnerable social groups to the consequence of the absence or low quality of health services. For there are only few health centers and clinics, most people in the countryside do not have access to health service. For instance women, most of the time, get treatment during delivery from traditional birth attendants, which more often than not, leads to high maternal death. Epidemic diseases that can easily be cured or eradicated or prevented cause high infant mortality rate. By draining resource that could have been spent to the expansion of health service, corruption, thus, deprives, the entire public in general and the poor, women and children in particular, the right to the minimum guarantee of health care in the event of sickness.

The other important right set forth in the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights is the right to education. Article 13 of the covenant states that education nurtures "the full development of human personality and the sense of dignity". It strengthens not only "the fundamental rights and freedoms of persons" but also enables all human persons to actively promote".... understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial ethnic or religious groups". The primary responsibility of states that ratified the covenant is, therefore, to "guarantee all children a right to free and compulsory primary education wherever they may live".

In order to realize the right to education, governments are expected to show their commitment by allocating an increasing budget. The necessary infrastructure for the expansion of education has to be laid down. Schools should be built. Teachers should be trained. A law that makes a primary education free and compulsory has to be enacted. To meet these needs governments should raise funds from tax; seek international assistants in the form of aid, and loans. The sad thing, however, is that since tax evasion is the rule but not the exception, it would be difficult to raise sufficient fund from tax. Loans or donations will either be embezzled out rightly or miss-appropriated in a very subtle way in the form of payment to "ghost worker", inflated public work contracts or government procurement.

As a result, the plan to construct schools will be aborted. No significant change will be seen in human resource development, particularly in the number of trained teachers. Teachers' salary is either in sufficient or not paid in time. If at all schools are built, they are inferior in quality; no teaching material, no reference books, no library, no water and no toilets. This creates not only inconvenience to the smooth teaching learning process but also results in poor quality of education.

Failure to construct schools also deprive school-aged children the opportunity to join primary schools and may ensue sever competition over the existing limited public schools. Those who survive the competition could be persons who afford to corrupt school officials or have relatives or friends working in schools. The fate of the unfortunate mass of urbanite school-aged children who cannot afford to pay private school fees will be going out to the streets. Likewise the destiny of kids living in the country side will also be joining the rank of sheep heard. This puts at stake the right to free and compulsory education accorded to children by the Covenant.

The right to work is one of the rights susceptible to corrupt practices. Work is the main source of income for many people. Work is the main source of income for many people. Basic necessities, like food housing, clothing etc. ultimately depend on work "... One's working status may easily affect the enjoyment of other rights relating to health and education."

Corruption deprives individuals the enjoyment of the right to work. Reckless public officials, seeking kickbacks, corner investors who apply for a licenses or a work permit, land or service provision, such as power telephone network or tap water. Using the bureaucratic apparatus, corrupt public officials may compel entrepreneurs to surrender what is due to them by law in exchange for money or other forms of bribery. Those who are resistant to the undue pressure of the bureaucratic entrapment will be forced either to cancel their plan to invest or obtain services after years of ups and downs losing both their vigor to work and substantial portion of their capital.

Violation of the right to work also gets expression in denying equal opportunity to persons who applied for a position in government institutions. In a society where corruption overrides, meritocracy is not the criterion to judge a person's fitness for a job. Despite the qualification, competence, as well as relevant experience, the right person could be denied a given position while a person who has either affinity or consanguinity to public officials is employed. In both instance citizens are denied the enjoyment of the right to work set forth in the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.

The universally accepted view with regard to housing is that shelter is one of the basic needs of the human person. More than that it is in the right of housing the interdependence and indivisibility of all rights get clear expression. "...The full enjoyment of such rights of human dignity, the principle of non discrimination the right to adequate standard of living, the right to freedom of associations and expressions (such as for tenants and other community based groups) the right to security of person (in the case of forced arbitrary evictions or other forms of harassment) the right not to be subjected to arbitrary interference with ones' privacy, family, home or correspondence is indispensable for the right to adequate housing to be realized possessed and maintained by all groups in society."

As unreasonable and sporadic increase of rent is made by lessons, most persons with an average and low-income desperately seek to lease state owned houses. Obviously since the number of lessees who terminate their contracts is very few, only a limited number of houses are vacant annually. Moreover, the number of people who seek state owned houses surpasses the number of houses available, and hence it will be difficult to satisfy the demand of all applicants. Corrupt public officials may aggravate the problem by taking this opportunity as a blessing in disguise and turn it to their advantage. Rather than applying the principle of "first come first served", they may enter in to contract with those who offer them bribes. A person who applied a decade back may have to wait for another ten years to lease state owned house while another person who can afford to bribe concludes a contract immediately. This malpractice violates the rights of individuals to have equal access to all government-financed social services, the right to equality of treatment and most of all the right to housing.

States are bound to take measures that ensure housing costs are proportional to the income level of individuals and house holds alike. Moreover, states are expected to establish" a system of housing subsidies ................. for sectors of society unable to afford adequate housing". This obligation imposed up on them can only be translated in to practice provided that states are determined to rectify regularly the systems that are installed and immunize them from corrupt practices. If there is a healthy and well functioning system, revenues earned in the form of tax loans or grants will be properly administered and be used to promote development endeavors including building low cost houses, provision of potable water, electricity etc. A system of housing subsidies will also be established to low income groups.

Corruption, however, aggravates housing problems by draining government treasury through tax evasion, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, grants or loans. A government with an empty treasure never dares to embark on building low cost houses or set up a system of housing subsidies to low income groups. Corruption also discourages investors who aspire to engage in real estate business, there by making the building of low cost houses nearly impossible. The bureaucratic trap facing real estate entrepreneurs is that they have to grease the hands of a loan officer to get bank loans, bribe officials who are in charge of distribution of land, and service provisions such as electricity, telephone lines, tap water, etc. this illegal demand of corrupt public officials for bribe at each phase of implementation of a project frustrates entrepreneurs and often prompts them to pull out from the business.

Immediate and full implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights presupposes a strong economic base; nonetheless, foremost African governments building a biable economy has remained a daunting task. In order to build a strong economy one of the appropriate measures that should be taken is to wage serious an anti-corruption crusade and put in place a well functioning legal and administrative framework that promotes transparency and accountability.

If an effective administrative and legal framework is installed, the probability of evading tax will be minimal. State's revenue which will be used to expand and improve social services in evitable show increment. Both long and short-term loans as well as grants will be spend to expand infrastructures, roads, health center, and schools. If government's revenues are spent wisely and appropriately to realize planned programs, the public inevitably benefits from different service provisions. After all one of the major indicators for the attainment of development is the availability of adequate social services.