Corruption is worsening globally. Holding power to account for the common good by Transparency International, OHCHR, agencies 8:09am 16th Feb, 2026   Feb. 2026    Corruption is worsening globally, with even established democracies experiencing rising corruption amid a decline in leadership, according to Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published today. This annual index shows that the number of countries scoring above 80 has shrunk from 12 a decade ago to just five this year.    Our data show that democracies, typically stronger on anti-corruption than autocracies or flawed democracies, are experiencing a worrying decline in performance. This trend spans countries such as the United States (64), Canada (75) and New Zealand (81), to various parts of Europe, like the United Kingdom (70), France (66) and Sweden (80).    Another concerning pattern is increasing restrictions by many states on freedoms of expression, association and assembly. Since 2012, 36 of the 50 countries with significant declines in CPI scores have also experienced a reduction in civic space.    2025 saw a wave of anti-corruption protests led by Gen Z, mostly in countries in the bottom half of the CPI whose scores have largely stagnated or declined over the past decade. Young people in countries such as Nepal (34) and Madagascar (25) took to the streets to criticise leaders for abusing their power while failing to deliver decent public services and economic opportunity.    Transparency International is warning that the absence of bold leadership in the global fight against corruption is weakening international anti-corruption action, and risks reducing pressure for reform in countries throughout the world.    François Valerian, Chair of Transparency International said:    “Corruption is not inevitable. Our research and experience as a global movement fighting corruption show there is a clear blueprint for how to hold power to account for the common good, from democratic processes and independent oversight to a free and open civil society. At a time when we’re seeing a dangerous disregard for international norms from some states, we’re calling on governments and leaders to act with integrity and live up to their responsibilities to provide a better future for people around the world.”    Transparency International is calling for:    Renewed political leadership on anti-corruption, including the full enforcement of laws, implementation of international commitments, and reforms that strengthen transparency, oversight and accountability.    Protection of civic space, by ending attacks on journalists, NGOs and whistleblowers, and stopping efforts to restrict independent civil society work.    Close the secrecy loopholes that let corrupt money move across borders, including by reining in professional gatekeepers and ensuring transparency on who really owns companies, trusts and assets.    In many European countries, anti-corruption efforts have largely stalled over the past decade. Since 2012, 13 countries in western Europe and the EU have significantly declined, and only seven have significantly improved.    In December 2025, the EU agreed its first Anti-Corruption Directive to harmonise criminal laws on corruption. What could have been a zero-tolerance framework was watered down by some member states, including Italy (53), which blocked the criminalisation of public officials’ abuse of office. The result: a framework that lacks ambition, clarity and enforceability.    The United States (64) sustained its downward slide to its lowest-ever score. Although 2025 developments are not yet fully reflected, actions targeting independent voices and undermining judicial independence raise serious concerns. Beyond the CPI findings, the temporary freeze and weakening of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act signal tolerance for corrupt business practices, while cuts to US aid for overseas civil society have weakened global anti-corruption efforts. Political leaders elsewhere have taken this as a cue to further restrict NGOs, journalists and other independent voices.    High CPI scores do not guarantee that countries are corruption-free, as several top-scoring nations enable corruption in other countries by facilitating the laundering and transfer of proceeds of corruption across borders, which the CPI does not cover. For example, Switzerland (80) and Singapore (84) are among the top scorers, but have faced scrutiny for facilitating the movement of dirty money.    In the last decade, politicised interference with the operations of NGOs has scaled up in countries such as Georgia (50), Indonesia (34) and Peru (30) where governments introduced new laws to limit access to funding, or even weaken organisations that scrutinise and criticise them. Such laws are often paired with smear campaigns and intimidation.    In countries like Tunisia (39), civic space is shrinking through administrative, judicial and financial pressures that constrain NGOs, even without new restrictive laws.    In these contexts, it is harder for independent journalists, civil society organisations and whistleblowers to speak out against corruption and more likely that corrupt officials can continue misusing their power. Transparency International chapters in Russia (22) and Venezuela (10) have been forced into exile due to repression of civil society.    Such restrictive environments not only silence critics and watchdogs but also create real dangers for those who dare to expose wrongdoing.    Since 2012, 150 journalists covering corruption-related stories in non-conflict zones have been murdered – nearly all of these in countries with high corruption levels.    The CPI ranks 182 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The global average score stands at 42 out of 100, its lowest level in more than a decade, pointing to a concerning downward trend that will need to be monitored over time.    The vast majority of countries are failing to keep corruption under control: more than two-thirds – 122 out of 180 – score under 50.    For the eighth year in a row, Denmark obtains the highest score on the index (89) and is closely followed by Finland (88) and Singapore (84).    Countries with the lowest scores overwhelmingly have severely repressed civil societies and high levels instability like South Sudan (9), Somalia (9) and Venezuela (10).    Since 2012, 50 countries have seen their scores significantly decline in the index: those which dropped the most include Turkiye (31), Hungary (40) and Nicaragua (14). They reflect a decade-long, structural weakening of integrity mechanisms, fuelled by democratic backsliding, conflict, institutional fragility and entrenched patronage networks. These declines are sharp, enduring and difficult to reverse, as corruption becomes systemic and deeply embedded in both political and administrative structures.    Since 2012, 31 countries have significantly improved their scores on the index: among the biggest improvers were Estonia (76), South Korea (63) and Seychelles (68). The long-term improvements in democratic countries like these reflect sustained momentum with reforms, strengthened oversight institutions and broad political consensus in favour of clean governance. Success in these areas has been attributed to among other things, digitising public services, professionalising the civil service, and embedding regional and global governance standards.    http://www.transparency.org/en/press/corruption-perceptions-index-2025-decline-leadership-undermining-global-fight http://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025 http://www.transparency.org/en/blog/corruption-united-states-global-leader-trump-first-year http://www.transparency.org/en/our-national-chapters    UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk at 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council (Extract):    "Inequality is the quiet force deciding the fate of millions. It dictates who eats, who learns, who gets housing and healthcare – and who does not.    Around the world, one in four people face food insecurity, and one in three lack adequate housing.    Over half the world’s population work in the informal economy, without access to paid sick leave, maternity leave, or other forms of social protection. This is particularly true for women. Nearly 60 percent of employed women work in the informal economy.    The 2030 Agenda is alarmingly off track, with many goals now slipping into reverse. Severe cuts in international development aid are projected to lead to more than 22 million avoidable deaths by 2030.    Faced with these realities, people — especially young people — have taken to the streets to demand their rights to work, to health, to education, and to be free from corruption. They are calling for economic systems that are fair, transparent, and accountable.    Their frustration reflects deep structural failures in the global economy, which continue to deepen inequalities within and between countries.    In 2024, developing countries paid a record 415 billion US dollars in interest, more than double what they paid a decade earlier.    Interest payments trap states in a spiral of under-development and shrink the resources available for health, education, social security, and other economic and social rights.    Many developing countries face the worst climate impacts despite contributing least to the crisis. Yet, those labelled as middle-income economies – including most small island developing states - are denied the concessional financing needed for climate adaptation and recovery.    Low-income countries often receive inadequate levels of debt relief, grants and concession-based finance that they desperately need.    Meanwhile, many of the richest countries under-invest in economic, social and cultural rights. Their tax systems reward the wealthy while failing to protect those who struggle.    Over the past 20 years, the richest one percent have captured 41 percent of all new wealth, while the bottom 50 percent receive just 1 percent. Last year alone, billionaires amassed enough wealth to eliminate extreme poverty twenty-six times over.    The consequences of deep inequalities within countries are devastating. Poverty, unemployment, and the lack of social protection, make people vulnerable to brutal exploitation. A recent report from our office highlighted for instance grave abuses against people trafficked into scam centres across several regions.    Commitments on financing for development need to be backed by action to enable countries to access the resources needed for sustainable development. Reform of the international financial architecture, including debt restructuring is desperately needed.    Debt servicing must not compromise international human rights obligations. States and international financial institutions should integrate human rights impact assessments systematically into their decisions on debt, in order to safeguard the fiscal space needed to realize the rights to health, education, a healthy environment, and social protection, among others. Stronger representation of developing countries in international decision-making is also crucial.    It is high time to move beyond gross domestic product as the main metric for progress. The measure of development should be whether the economy is improving people’s wellbeing and whether economic benefits are shared equitably across society.    Economic indicators should capture positive contributions to society – including the unpaid care work largely done by women, and the value added by the informal economy. And they should exclude economic activities that are harmful to human rights, such as burning fossil fuels.    Broader access to social security is a matter of justice. All States need to realise universal and legally protected social protection floors.    It is critical to expand resources for States on the frontlines of environmental damage. In an advisory opinion last year, the International Court of Justice stressed that international cooperation around climate change is a legal obligation. This includes providing enough financial support for climate action.    We cannot accept a future where a few thrive while billions are left behind. Together, we need to build economies that deliver for everyone, and make equality and justice the measure of our progress".    * Forbes March 2026: 3,428 billionaires wealth now a record $20.1 trillion, up $4 trillion from last year. The U.S. has 989 billionaires, including 15 of the top 20. China, including Hong Kong, is next, with 610, and India (229) ranks third.    http://www.neep-poverty.org/news/interview-global-economy-must-stop-pandering-to-frivolous-desires-of-ultra-rich-says-un-expert http://www.neep-poverty.org/joint-policy-briefs/ http://www.srpoverty.org/2026/01/27/time-opinion-economic-growth-at-any-cost-fails-us-all/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a80138-far-right-populism-and-future-social-protection-report-special http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/putting-people-balance-sheets-un-expert-calls-rights-centered-global http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/un-expert-demands-global-action-democratise-water-governance-and-protect    http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/development-cannot-be-achieved-dying-planet-un-committee-issues-new-guidance http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/un-experts-urge-binding-accountability-agribusiness-safeguard-peasants http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a80213-corporate-power-and-human-rights-food-systems-report-special http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/12/kenyas-seed-sharing-ruling-milestone-peasants-rights-and-food-security-un http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5848-right-food-finance-and-national-action-plans-report-special http://ipes-food.org/industrial-food-system-failing-as-un-finds-733-million-still-hungry/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/02/fair-and-effective-tax-policies-needed-advance-economic-social-and-cultural http://www.cesr.org/states-adopt-un-resolution-to-further-rights-enabling-economic-policies    Keynote address by Joseph Stiglitz to the United Nations Economic and Social Council Special Meeting on Financial Integrity 4 February, 2026, United Nations Headquarters, New York:    "As negotiations for a Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation have resumed this week at the United Nations, we stand at a critical juncture in the global fight for financial integrity. The choices we make here—about transparency, accountability, and the fair global taxation—will shape not only the future of international cooperation, but the very capacity of governments to serve their people.    This is a moment that demands both clarity about the failures that brought us here and courage to pursue the systemic reforms our world so urgently needs.    Global finance is currently skewed, as gaps, loopholes and shortcomings in rules, and their implementation, allow tax abuses, corruption, and money laundering to flourish, and financial integrity has become one of the defining issues of our time—not because it is new, but because the costs of its absence have become impossible to ignore.    When vast amounts of wealth can be hidden, shifted, or stolen with impunity, we should not be surprised that trust in institutions erodes, inequality widens, and democracy itself comes under strain. We are living through a moment when, once again, we are reminded of an old truth: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.    In the Trump era, we saw how disdain for transparency, the normalization of conflicts of interest, and the open encouragement for tax evasion and corruption at the top corrode governance from within. The recent OECD/G20 agreement exempting US multinationals from the 15% minimum tax is a blunt example of this kind of coercive power in action. But this problem is far bigger than any one country or any one leader.    The diagnosis is by now clear and well documented. Illicit financial flows, aggressive tax avoidance, money laundering, corruption, and secrecy are not accidents or marginal abuses. They are the predictable systemic outcomes of a global financial system designed with loopholes, opacity, and asymmetries of power at its core.    Weak financial integrity fuels extreme inequality by allowing those at the top to escape taxation, steal public resources, hide assets, and launder money while ordinary citizens pay the price.    It undermines climate action by depriving governments of the fiscal space needed for the green transition. It weakens sovereignty, as states lose control over their natural resources, their own tax bases and policy choices.    And it corrodes democracy, as economic power is translated into political power, often behind closed doors and beyond public scrutiny.    That is why the question before us is not whether we should act, but whether we can afford not to act now. The scale of today’s crises—economic, environmental, social, and geopolitical—leaves no room for complacency.    Financial integrity is not a technical issue to be postponed for better times. It is a precondition for addressing the defining challenges of our age.    We are discussing financial integrity at a moment when multilateralism itself is under attack. Around the world, there are forces seeking to divide us, to weaken international cooperation, and to replace collective problem solving with narrow national or private interests. The Trump administration withdrew from the UN tax talks although the rest of the world continues negotiations as we talk now.    Yet, the irony is obvious: the problems we face today are irreducibly global. Climate change does not respect borders. Financial crises do not stop at customs checkpoints. Illicit financial flows move precisely because borders are porous to capital, even when they are closed to people.    This is why defending multilateralism is not an abstract exercise, rather it is a practical necessity. Financial integrity and transparency cannot be achieved by any country acting alone, no matter how powerful. Unilateral action is important, but without cooperation and coordination, it will always be incomplete and vulnerable to circumvention. The race to the bottom in taxation, the competition to attract hidden wealth, and the tolerance of secrecy jurisdictions are collective action failures. They can only be resolved collectively.    Cooperation on financial integrity is also essential because it enables better policy choices domestically. When countries coordinate on tax rules, exchange information, and agree on transparency standards, they expand—not restrict—their policy space. They make it possible to tax fairly, to regulate effectively, and to invest in public goods without fear of capital flight or retaliation. Financial integrity, in this sense, is not a constraint on sovereignty; it is a foundation for it...    http://www.icrict.com/international-tax-reform/un-ecosoc-a-blueprint-for-financial-integrity http://publicservices.international/resources/news/our-new-research-shows-global-corporate-tax-reforms-would-boost-public-revenues-by-50-?id=16364&lang=en http://ipdcolumbia.org/event/landmark-g20-report-led-by-nobel-laureate-joseph-stiglitz-sounds-alarm-on-inequality-emergency-and-calls-for-international-panel-on-inequality/ http://www.unognewsroom.org/story/en/3054/unrisd-ipi-committee http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2026/02/financing-social-protection-a-matter-of-global-justice/ http://www.icij.org/news/2026/03/irs-criminal-referrals-against-big-corporations-and-ultrawealthy-plummeted-during-trumps-first-year/ http://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2025/dec/10/just-0001-hold-three-times-the-wealth-of-poorest-half-of-humanity-report-finds http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/a-blueprint-for-a-coordinated-minimum-effective-taxation-standard-for-ultra-high-net-worth-individuals http://www.equals.ink/p/agnes-callamard-on-rising-inequality http://www.equals.ink/p/the-great-global-wealth-transfer-thomas-piketty-on-inequality http://www.equals.ink/p/who-pays-when-countries-fall-into    Jan. 2026    World Food Programme calls on business leaders, private sector at Davos to address Global Hunger. (WFP)    The agency estimates that at least 318 million people face crisis levels of hunger or worse this year, with hundreds of thousands already experiencing famine-like conditions.    Current forecasts put WFP’s funding at just under half of its needed USD13 billion budget to reach 110 million people – roughly one-third of the most vulnerable. This funding gap means meals cut, rations reduced, and a deepening hunger crisis that will cost countless lives.    “Hunger drives displacement, conflict, and instability and these not only threaten lives, but disrupt the very markets that businesses depend on,” said Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP’s Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation, who is attending the forum this week. “I’m here to remind everyone that the world cannot build stable markets on a foundation of 318 million hungry people. I come with an intensifying crisis that has a solution in Davos: invest in the global stability your companies need by supporting our proven ability to reduce hunger on the planet.”    "The private sector must keep hunger and food security as a top‑tier priority. We can address hunger at scale and bring economic benefits to local communities everywhere. We know we can,” said Dagash-Kamara. “The question is whether we will have the resources to make it happen. Together we can have unprecedented impact in addressing what is both a humanitarian and economic crisis. The private sector has the resources needed to accelerate our efforts. Now is the time to offer your support.”    http://reliefweb.int/report/world/acute-food-insecurity-2025-global-overview http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/en http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/hunger-hotspots http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2026 http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/december/2026-millions-in-need-will-not-get-aid-unless-global-solidarity-revived Visit the related web page
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