Institutional Integrity
The Institutional Integrity Program pursues transparency and integrity in government, supporting civil society, judicial independence, and intersecting efforts to hold officials and institutions accountable.
Through this program, we collaborate with civil society organizations promoting openness, transparency, and accountability. The Vance Center sees corruption as one of the main challenges for institutional integrity and the enjoyment of human rights and emphasizes the responsibility of the legal community to prevent, address and redress corruption. Through this program, we lead efforts to strengthen anti-corruption mechanisms, including improving legislation and public policy, enforcement, and capacity building of the legal community in this matter.
We also support initiatives and organizations supporting judicial independence and integrity as key components of the rule of law, including various judicial associations in Latin America and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
We recognize that the judiciary is a key institution for protecting and advancing the rule of law, which also makes it a target for corrupt actors and regimes striving to concentrate power and assert their will.
The Vance Center supports judicial independence and addresses obstructions to the rule of law by equipping justice operators with tools to push back against corruption and attacks on their independence and protect themselves and their colleagues from threats. We mobilize our team of in-house lawyers and our global network of legal partners to respond to emerging needs at the national and regional levels and strengthen the capacity of and increase resources for independent judges, lawyers and other participants in the justice system to ensure their independence and integrity.
We consistently engage the international justice community in this critical work, building toward a robust global network of anti-corruption actors and independent justice defenders. Recognizing their essential role in ensuring accountability, we prioritize supporting civil society organizations facing threats from closing civic space.
Our Lawyers Council for Civil and Economic Rights, which convenes private-practice attorneys across the Americas to work together on these issues, provides important insight and leadership for these initiatives.
