Victims and asset recovery

The loss of public assets to corruption has a significant impact on countries and their populations. Infrastructure development, social welfare, and other public programmes are deprived of their intended impact due to loss of funding, which harms the people relying on these resources for their well-being.  Grand corruption cases can also involve money stolen from countries with limited democratic structures, where those from particularly vulnerable sectors of the population are both more likely to face the effects of reduced public spending and are less likely to be able to contest the allocation of limited resources.

These victims of grand corruption rarely have recourse to secure their rights when it comes to asset recovery. While obligations to return the proceeds of corruption to prior legitimate owners and to compensate victims exist in international law, these rights are limited and there is still much to be developed in terms of addressing the needs of the victims of corruption in the context of asset recovery.

Despite this, there is a growing effort to prioritise victims within asset recovery processes. This has been strengthened by the work of civil society organizations (CSOs), legislatures and international organizations.

What we’re doing

CiFAR’s has done initial work on victims and asset recovery through its 2020-2023 strategy, including developing a brief and a set of principles. It has included the topic of victims and asset recovery as a thematic priority in its 2024 – 2027 strategy.