Rights-Based Accountability Framework

Sor Juana's intellectual work was grounded in arguments about fundamental human rights—the right to education, to intellectual life, to dignity. She didn't ask for these as favors but asserted them as rights. This reframes anti-corruption: not as do-goodism but as justice enforcement. When we treat transparency, accountability, and honest governance as rights (not recommendations), corruption becomes rights violation rather than mere misconduct. This means establishing legal frameworks where citizens have enforceable rights to: transparent decision-making, access to information, fair processes, and remedy for corruption-caused harms. It means designing institutions where these rights are structural, not dependent on individual benevolence. Rights-based frameworks shift burden: instead of waiting for leaders to voluntarily reform, communities can demand accountability as a matter of justice. Sor Juana's insistence on her intellectual rights—not as privilege but as fundamental to human dignity—teaches that corruption is fundamentally a rights violation, and fighting it is fundamentally a justice project grounded in what humans are owed, not what powerful people choose to grant.