Corruption Perceptions Index 2021

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Two years into the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) reveals that corruption levels have stagnated worldwide. Despite commitments on paper, 131 countries have made no significant progress against corruption over the last decade and this year 27 countries are at historic lows in their CPI score . 1 Meanwhile, human rights and democracy across the world are under assault . 2 This is no coincidence. Corruption enables human rights abuses , 3 setting off a vicious and escalating spiral. As rights and freedoms are eroded, democracy declines and authoritarianism takes its place , 4 which in turn enables higher levels of corruption . 5 The past year has brought disturbing examples of this, from the killing of human rights defender s 6 and the closing of media outlets , 7 to government spying scandals like the Pegasus Project . 8 Increasingly, rights and checks and balances are being undermined not only in countries with systemic corruption and weak institutions, but also among established democracies. Respecting human rights is essential for controlling corruption because empowered citizens have the space to challenge injustice. The global COVID-19 pandemic has also been used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedom s 9 and side-step important checks and balances. And despite the increasing international momentum to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies, many high-scoring countries with relatively “clean” public sectors continue to enable transnational corruption. There is an urgent need to accelerate the fight against corruption if we are to halt human rights abuses and democratic decline across the globe. 180 The CPI scores 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people. 100 is very clean and 0 is highly corrupt COUNTRIES SCORED THE CPI USES A SCALE FROM 0 TO 100 50 /100 43 /100 2/3 OF COUNTRIES SCORE BELOW THE AVERAGE SCORE IS 100 0 TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL 4