Jeremy is well-known through much the developing world for his work on governance issues, most recently in the field of containing corruption and building just and honest government. In 2003 Jeremy left Transparency International (TI) to establish, with Fredrik Galtung, Tiri, a not-for-profit organisation specialising in the implementation of anti-corruption standards and conventions both within government and in the private sector and civil society.  

He has always played an active role in civil society. In the 1970’s he was at the forefront of the “Save Manapouri” environmental movement in New Zealand (which laid the foundations for continuing civil society activism there). Subsequently was involved in a number of human rights NGOs, including the Minority Rights Group, the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC), the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and – as a founding trustee together with Lord Lester of Herne Hill and Mary Robinson – the London-based NGO, INTERIGHTS.  

Jeremy also laid the foundations for the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel. Jeremy is one of the seven founders (and was founding Managing Director) of Transparency International (TI), a global coalition against corruption. Jeremy drove the organisation’s agenda through its formative years, devising its strategies and approaches. His original analysis of the “national integrity system” has been published in more than 20 languages (now titled Confronting Corruption: the Elements of a National Integrity System: The TI Sourcebook 2000). The concept has passed in to common use in development circles and his book is often described as being the “Bible” by good governance activists.

As well as developing TI’s strategic approaches, Jeremy was responsible for much of TI’s intellectual property, including the TI Business Principles for Countering Bribery, which he developed with the private sector, and the series of National Integrity System Assessments (developed with Prof. Alan Doig), which have been carried out in nearly 100 different countries. With Dr Nihal Jayawickrama, Jeremy created the Judicial Integrity Group, a group of senior judges from the developing world tasked with building integrity in their judicial systems (the Group created the Bangalore Standards of Judicial Conduct, adopted by the United Nations.

He has served as personal anti-corruption adviser, among others, to the President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, to President Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria) and to Under-Secretary General Dileep Nair (of the UN OIOS). With John Githongo he developed the “First One Hundred Days” action plan for the incoming president of Kenya, President Kibaki.  

Jeremy has a law degree from the Victoria University of Wellington; is a Barrister-at-Law, Inner Temple (English Bar); and a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand (called 1962). He has argued cases at all levels in the New Zealand courts.

Jeremy has extensive expertise in the field working with, and in, newly-independent countries and countries in transition. After ten years in private practice, for nearly 20 years he held senior posts at the Commonwealth Secretariat where he advised governments and NGOs on policy and on major legal matters. Since then he has broadened into Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkans and Central America. He was Legal Counsel to the Commonwealth Secretary-General (1980-1993) and headed the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat.  

Under Jeremy’s leadership, legal cooperation between Commonwealth countries was transformed and taken to new heights. The Commonwealth Statement on the Judicial Review of Administrative Action (1993) he developed is currently in use for promoting judicial review in common law jurisdictions; The Commonwealth Scheme for Mutual Legal Assistance as between Commonwealth Jurisdictions (1986) provided the basis for the assistance provisions in the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances1988; the “Bangalore Principles” for the domestic application of international human rights norms (1989) pioneered an approach which has since been adopted inter alia by judges in the superior courts of Australia, Canada, the UK and New Zealand as well as in the developing countries of the Commonwealth.

Before joining the Commonwealth Secretariat, Jeremy had 15 years in private law practice, appearing in courts at all levels. As editor of the New Zealand Law Journal he campaigned successfully on human rights and Rule of Law issues. The Mobil New Zealand Travel Guides he co-wrote with his wife, Diana, to the North island and to the South island were best-sellers and remained in print for 25 years.

Jeremy regularly appears as a commentator on such news programmes as the BBC World Service, CNN and the Voice of America. 

He was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit by the New Zealand Government in the 2007 New Year’s Honours list.

In 2008, Jeremy was appointed for a five year term as a Human Rights Commissioner on the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. The appointment is made by the head of state, and the Commission is independent of the government.

Email: jeremy.pope@tiri.org