The escalating armed conflict, ethnic strife, the recurrent drought and its attendant famine, which cause grief among the people, along with the HIV-AIDS pandemic woefully shattered most Africans' hope for development.

To add insult to an injury, corruption has complicated the effort being made to alleviate the problems of the people who are living below the poverty line and realize sustainable development.

Corruption, apart from impeding the development effort, has also posed imminent danger to the political stability of countries.

This unpleasant hard fact clearly reveals that most African countries have virtually failed not only to catch up with the advanced nations but also unable to maintain what they achieved three decades back. Many critics regard Africa as symbol of development tragedy in the present world.

The specter of corruption haunting most African nations has also become a formidable challenge to the development effort underway in Ethiopia. The seriousness of the problem calls for the attention of concerned citizens including politicians, businessmen, academics, as well as human rights activists. If corruption is not curbed timely, it will not only thwart development efforts but also put a serious threat to political stability in the long run.

Over many years, corruption has destroyed the moral foundation of the society where the behavior of citizens ultimately rests on. Corrupt public officials who have the bent to get rich quickly through illicit means regard this un-ethical conduct as normal and acceptable pattern of behavior. Consequently, illegal acts like misappropriating public funds, extracting unlawful commission from government procurement contracts, evading tax, bribery, for them, are considered to be no more criminal activities.

Corruption also eroded the trust of the public in the state and its institutions. As a matter of fact, in a society where corruption is rampant, the decision of public officials at any level is not dependable. As decisions are frequently unpredictable and arbitrary, the public never relies on laws, rules and regulations to enforce rights or obtain what is due to it. In effect, citizens are compelled to surrender their rights to corrupt public officials so that they could obtain service. They rely on money and connection, since the former are lever to influence public officials in determining the outcome of a certain decision.

In order to stamp out this malignant problem that debilitate the functions of state institutions and adversely affect development endeavors, different people approached the problem from different perspectives and prescribed various solutions to the problem. Some treat corruption from the moral perspective and regard it exclusively as a moral issue. They believe corruption contravenes the moral standard of the society and perpetrates what is deemed vice by the society. Some perceive the problem from development perspective. In their view, corruption hampers development efforts by draining resources that could have been invested on the expansion of social services and infrastructure.

Obviously, corruption has both moral as well as development aspects. However, the problem requires to transcend, particular acts and look into the issue from different perspective to grasp it underlying causes.

Evidently, corruption pre-supposes, power relations. On the one hand, there should be a relation between a public official who holds office through appointment or election and entrusted with the power of deciding on the rights or interests of individual citizens and on the other individuals who seek to enforce their rights or interests of individual citizens and on the other individuals who seek to enforce their rights or look for a service. This relation for the most part is governed by laws, rules and regulations. Yet, public officials enjoy discretionary power in deciding matters that may not strictly fall within the law. More often than not, corruption surfaces when this relation is perverted. APAP believes that corruption befalls on society when public officials either break laws intentionally to wild their power or use their discretion in pursuit of personal gain or for the benefits of others. APAP defines this illicit act of public officials as an abuse of power at any level, by a person or a group assuming public office. APAP believes abuse of power would eventually lead to violation of fundamental rights.

Some of the factors contributed for the growth of corruption in Ethiopia are: the apathy of the public which condones corruption, the low understanding of rights of the people that induces the feeling of powedessness before authorities, lust of public officials for personal gain, and absence of in built mechanisms to restrain public officials from abusing their power.

APAP appreciates the problem of corruption against the backdrop of legal and human rights standards. It perceives corruption as a legal issue, for the corrupt break laws to meet their ends. Clearly, failure to observe laws on the part of public officials leads to arbitrary decisions which violate the rights of citizens. Capriciously made decisions, in effect, undermine the rule of law. APAP also considers corruption as human rights issue. Absence of transparency and accountability allow public officials to practice unlawful acts and infringe on the rights of individuals recognized in different human rights instruments and the national laws as well.

If a person bribes a police officer, with the intention of harming his/her rival or adversary, to detain the individual who did not transgress the law, the police officer abuses his power for personal gain and thereby violates the right to be free from arbitrary arrest or detention. In the same time, if a person applies to the Urban Development and Works Bureau for a license of a construction company, fulfilling the necessary requirements, and is denied the license on the ground that the official doesn't get a kickback for the service evidently, the person's rights to work is violated. The same holds true, if a person who instituted a case in court of law, with justifiable cause and relevant evidence, is made to lose the case with no failure on his part but only because his adversary bribed the judges to decide the case in favor of him, then the person's right for fair trial is infringed. If a person who qualify for a post is denied the opportunity to be employed in a public office while another person who is not fit for the position is employed only by way of connection with the authorities, then it is the right of equal opportunity which is violated.

Instances that are cited above at least affirm the direct relations existing among corruption, abuse of power and violation of fundamental rights and freedom of citizens.

APAP shares the view with those who perceives corruption as development issue. Certainly, corruption through tax evasion, reduces government revenue. Embezzlement of public fund, drains resources that could be used either to the expansion of infrastructure or improve the quality of public services. True, the money which goes to individual pocket could be used to improve the life situation of the society, none the less, development should not be construed exclusively as economic prosperity. Development, in addition to material aspect consists of a spiritual dimension. It incorporates not only economic growth but also social justice and respect for human rights. APAP conceives development as instrument for overcoming the problem of hunger, diseases, and shelter and a means to ensuring the rights to food, housing and health care. It also empowers citizens to participate in the political life and economic process that warrants the observation of the right to be free from arbitrary arrest or detention, the right to hold opinion without interference, the right to liberty, the right to freedom of expression, the right to freedom of movement of citizens. In a work development guarantees the fundamental rights and freedoms of people enshrined in the international instruments and national laws.

APAP believes that although corruption poses a threat to the entire society, the most vulnerable social groups to this social ill are the poor, women and children. The latter are the direct victims because firstly, they cannot appeal to the proper channel to enforce their rights, as the public officials are reluctant to render service without their hands being "greased". Secondly, since they are low in the purse, they can't "procure" the service of public officials. If at all they decide to corrupt them and get the service, they never cope up the competition with the affluent corrupters who afford to give a more attractive sum.

It goes without saying that abuse of power which gives rise to corruption is one of the major problems which obstructs the promotion and protection of the rights of target social groups. In addition to the lack of human rights awareness and absence of relevant human rights institutions, the absence of healthy and enabling environment such as a well functioning and predictable legal and administrative framework are some of the formidable challenges facing the target social groups to make use of the laws and the legal system for the promotion and protection of their rights.

Taking into account the problem of the target social groups, APAP selected "corruption" as an organizing theme. The rational behind the selection of the organizing theme needs a bit of elaboration. APAP identified corruption not because it intended to emerge as anti-corruption group outside its mandate. The theme was selected for one thing due to the need to direct APAP's efforts towards a more defined, observable and measurable change in the promotion and protection of human rights in general and the rights of women and children in particular. For another, more often than not, the problem of corruption is conceived exclusively as ethical, economic and development issue.

To the best of our knowledge, so far no one attempted to examine the relationship between corruption, abuse of power and observance of human rights. APAP picked up corruption as an organizing theme because the problem, apart from being a moral, economic and development concern, it is also a human rights and legal issue. Obviously, this is a serious concern for a human rights organization like APAP, as the observance of human rights in general and the rights of target social groups in particular cannot be realized as long as corruption persists. In order to contribute to the efforts, underway to uproot corruption, APAP has developed three programs on and around corruption (abuse of power) which ultimately culminate in the observance of human rights in general the rights of women and children in particular.

The programs are:

§ Human Rights Education and Legal Training Program;
§ Community Level Support Program; and
§ Research, Advocacy and Publication Programs.

In line with the three programs of operation, different strategies have also been adopted to tackle the problem and ensure the respect of the rights of the target social groups, viz.,

§ Launching a human rights education and training program for members of community level institutions, low-level law enforcement judicial and administrative officials and promote human rights, the rights of children and women with respect to fighting corruption at the community level;
§ Conducting action-oriented research on corruption, accountability and transparency in relation to the legal system and respect for human rights in particular the rights of children and women, economic, social and cultural rights;
§ Lobbying for the consolidation and legislation of laws pertinent to the protection and promotion of human rights, accountability and transparency, the redressing of violations of human rights due to corruption and the involvement of community level voluntary institution such as lawyers' associations and other professionals in the promotion and protection of rights and provision of professional assistance to the poor, children and women; and
§ The publication of popular educational materials for the dissemination of human rights and legal information for the protection and promotion of human rights, the rights of women and children, transparency and accountability.

It is APAP's firm conviction that the programs under implementation and the strategies adopted play a vital role in awakening the society to grasp corruption from human rights and legal perspectives and contribute to the fight against this social evil.