Sovereign Debt and Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Export Credits ◽  
Bank Group

The first book to address the links between sovereign debt and human rights. Authors are renowned jurists, economics, historians and social scientists, all of which examine the links between debt and human rights from a variety of angles. The book is structured around five basic parts. The first sets out the historical, political and economic context of sovereign debt. Indeed, without understanding how debt accumulates, why it is necessary and to whom it is owed, it is impossible to fully comprehend the full range of arguments about its impact on human rights. The second part effectively addresses the human rights dimension of the three types of sovereign lenders, namely inter-governmental financial institutions (IFIs) (chiefly those from the World Bank group and those within the EU framework), sovereigns and private lenders. Part II examines also debt-influencing mechanisms, and with the exception of vulture funds that will be analysed in Part V, here we examine the role of export credits, credit rating agencies and bilateral investment treaties. Part III goes on to make the link between debt and the manner in which the accumulation of sovereign debt violates human rights. From there, Part IV examines some of the conditions imposed by structural adjustment programs on debtor states with a view to servicing their debt. All of these conditionalities have been shown to exacerbate the debt itself at the expense also of economic sovereignty. It is thus explained in Part IV that such measures are not only injurious to the entrenched rights of peoples, but that moreover they exacerbate the borrower’s economic situation. Finally, Part V addresses the range of practical responses to sovereign debt, such as odious debt claims, unilateral repudiation, establishment of debt audit committees and others.

The Right to Unilateral Repudiation of Odious, Illegal, and Illegitimate Sovereign Debt as a Human Rights Defence

2018 ◽  
pp. 536-554
Author(s):  
Ilias Bantekas
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Debt Management ◽  
Audit Committees ◽  
Bilateral Investment Treaties ◽  
National Debt ◽  
Investment Treaties ◽  
The Right

States enjoy the right to unilaterally denounce sovereign debt that is odious, illegal and illegitimate under strict circumstances. This entitlement does not exist where the debt(s) was/were incurred lawfully. A particular form of denunciation is sovereign insolvency, whose unilateral manifestation, is treated in practice by similar principles and responses as those apply mutatis mutandis to other forms of debt management. This chapter identifies, in addition to insolvency, five forms of unilateral debt denunciation that arise from the limited practice of states, which are moreover consistent with general international law. These are: (a) repudiation or non-enforcement of arbitral awards on public policy grounds; (b) denunciation on grounds of executive necessity and/or the right to fiscal/tax sovereignty; (c) direct unilateral repudiation on the basis of reports by national debt audit committees; (d) repudiation of contracts when creditor/investor violates human rights and of unconscionable concession contracts; (e) re-negotiation of bilateral investment treaties and concessions.

Effective Governance through Decentralized Soft Implementation: The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1753-1778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gefion Schuler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Contact Point ◽  
Pulp Mill ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
Bank Group ◽  
Sea Area

Botnia S.A./Metsä-Botnia Oy's construction of the Orion pulp mill in Uruguay raised concerns regarding violations of national, regional, and international law with regard to social and environmental protection. On 18 April 2006, the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA), an Argentinean non-governmental organisation, submitted to Finland's National Contact Point (NCP) a “specific instance” regarding the possible non-compliance of Botnia S.A. (a Finnish enterprise) with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (OECD Guidelines for MNEs, Guidelines) when building the envisaged pulp mill in Uruguay. According to the Center for Human Rights and Environment, Botnia S.A. violated the OECD Guidelines for MNEs especially with respect to Chapter II “General Policies”, Chapter III “Disclosure”, Chapter V “Environment” and Chapter VI “Bribery”. Specific instances concerned with related issues were filed by the Center for Human Rights and Environment with the Swedish and Norwegian NCPs against Nordea, a leading financial services group of the Nordic and Baltic Sea area, for possible financing of Botnia S.A.'s pulp mill project and against the Finnish state bank Finnvera for providing export guarantees to Botnia S.A. Other fora that have in the meantime become involved in the issue are the International Court of Justice and member institutions of the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.

The World Bank: Human Rights, Democracy and Governance

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas H. Moller
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Bank Group

The World Bank group has been criticised by a wide variety of groups over the years for its failure to adequately take into account human rights and democratic principles. Recently, the Bank has started to widen the scope of its activities so that now the Bank is involved in projects concerned with such disparate issues as the environment, poverty reduction and women in development. This paper focuses on one of the new Bank concerns, governance, and examines the prospects it holds for ensuring that the Bank and its borrower-countries respect human rights and democratic values. It then reviews the responses governance has received and suggests alternative means that may more effectively ensure that the Bank takes into account such values. Finally, the paper proposes a new test, based on Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to be applied to potential borrowers and the test is applied to Burma.

The Real World: Participation and Other Fictions of Development

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Winthrop
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Hydroelectric Development ◽  
Hydroelectric Project ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Bank Group

In December 1996 Theodore Downing, a frequent consultant on development programs and a past president of the Society for Applied Anthropology, filed a human rights complaint against staff of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the first such complaint ever lodged against an organization of the World Bank Group. In brief, the IFC had retained Dr. Downing to evaluate one aspect of a hydroelectric development project in Chile. His report concerned the project's effects on the indigenous Pehuenche people, and the failure of a foundation established as part of the development scheme to serve their interests. Downing's human rights complaint did not, however, concern the substantive issue of the project's effects on the Pehuenche. Rather, the issue raised by Dr. Downing is that both Pehuenche leaders and community members have been deliberately excluded from any meaningful review of his report because of their ethnicity, and thus prevented from effective involvement in the planning or implementation of the hydroelectric project.

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