Integrating Human Rights and Criminal Law in the Fight Against Corruption: A Normative and Theoretical Approach

Corruption constitutes one of the most serious and complex systemic challenges confronting contemporary societies, with profound adverse effects on the rule of law, democratic institutions, and the enjoyment of human rights. It manifests not merely as an individual criminal offence, but as a structural phenomenon that undermines institutional trust, weakens equality before the law, and enables selective justice. This article examines the interrelationship between human rights, corruption, and criminal law, with particular emphasis on the complementarity between the traditional criminal law approach and the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) in anti-corruption strategies. The research adopts a qualitative methodology, combining normative legal analysis of key international instruments, including the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the European Convention on Human Rights, with a review of relevant academic literature and a theoretical synthesis of contemporary anti-corruption models. The paper explores preventive and repressive mechanisms and assesses how core human rights principles - transparency, accountability, and public participation, can strengthen the criminal justice framework. The findings demonstrate that reliance on criminal law alone is insufficient to address the systemic causes of corruption. An integrated, human rights-based approach enhances prevention, builds public trust in institutions, and ensures sustainable protection of the rule of law.