National Human Rights Commission Chairman Anup Raj Sharma has said that corruption has violated people’s rights and affected overall development activities.

Citing that India’s blockade violated human rights, including people’s right to live, and led to black marketeering and other irregularities, Sharma said collective efforts should be taken to control corruption.

“It’s time to expose linkage between corruption and rights and move ahead to achieve set goals,” he said, speaking at a programme organised by UNDP on Friday.

Human Rights lawyer Hari Phuyal said corruption violates people’s economic, social and cultural rights by taking away resources. “It affects one’s ability to access rights. And those who will not adapt face discrimination leading to grievances, unrest and eventually violence,” he said.

Phil Matsheza, Governance and Peace Building team leader at UNDP Regional Office in Bangkok, said corruption has severely affected development activities across the world, especially in developing and least developed countries. “Each year corruption is 

estimated to cost more than five percent of the global GDP,” he said.

According to Global Financial Integrity Report-2012, developing countries lost $5.86 trillion to illicit outflows between 2001 and 2010. “These resources would have been more than enough to meet most of the MDG targets by 2015,” he said. Matsheza said general people rarely know what is being lost in illicit money and commissions while awarding procurement contacts and constructing mega projects.