Export Credits, Sovereign Debt, and Human Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 84-105
Author(s):  
Sara L Seck ◽  
Daniela Chimisso dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Foreign Debt ◽  
Oecd Country ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Export Credit ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Export Credits

Export credit agencies (ECAs) have gained dominance in the financing of foreign corporate investments in developing and emerging economies, particularly large-scale industrial and infrastructure projects. However, reports have documented numerous allegations of severe adverse human rights impacts associated with ECA-funded projects, including violations of the rights of indigenous peoples, forced displacement, environmental damage, and state repression. This chapter begins with an overview of the different types of ECAs, including multilateral and regional ECAs, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country-based ECAs, and emerging market ECAs. Next, the chapter considers the ways in which ECA-supported activities may violate human rights and the approaches taken by different ECAs, including OECD ECAs, to prevent and remedy such human rights harms. The chapter then turns to the problem of how ECAs financing can contribute to sovereign debt, and consider the application of the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Foreign Debt to ECAs. A focus on transparency and accountability of ECAs is the subject of the final section.

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.

TO THE QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR TORTURE IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-106
Author(s):  
ASTEMIR ZHURTOV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Human Life ◽  
International Standards ◽  
World Community ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Russian Federation

Cruel and inhumane acts that harm human life and health, as well as humiliate the dignity, are prohibited in most countries of the world, and Russia is no exception in this issue. The article presents an analysis of the institution of responsibility for torture in the Russian Federation. The author comes to the conclusion that the current criminal law of Russia superficially and fragmentally regulates liability for torture, in connection with which the author formulated the proposals to define such act as an independent crime. In the frame of modern globalization, the world community pays special attention to the protection of human rights, in connection with which large-scale international standards have been created a long time ago. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international acts enshrine prohibitions of cruel and inhumane acts that harm human life and health, as well as degrade the dignity.Considering the historical experience of the past, these standards focus on the prohibition of any kind of torture, regardless of the purpose of their implementation.

Choosing the "Plus" in Core-Plus: The Cases for High-Yield Bonds, Emerging Market Debt, and Sovereign Debt

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-79
Author(s):  
Barry Coffman ◽  
Ismail Dalla ◽  
Kenneth Windheim
Keyword(s):  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
High Yield

SOVIET SCIENTIFIC PERSONAL REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUS AS AN OBJECT OF HISTORICAL SCIENCE OF SCIENCE STUDIES

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-35
Author(s):  
Alexander Allakhverdyan
Keyword(s):  
Science Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Soviet Science ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Systemic Analysis ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
Dramatic Practice ◽  
Main Components

Numerous studies by Russian scientists and historians of science are devoted to the state science policy in the USSR and its well-known achievements, but not enough attention is paid to the negative, socially repressed aspects of the Soviet science policy. Repressions became one of the main components of the state's scientific and personnel policy in the Stalinist era. The systemic analysis of the development of Soviet science declared in the scientific literature, limited only by its indisputably outstanding achievements, without under-standing the origins, causes and mechanisms of the repressed state apparatus that operated in the same period, sharply reduces the overall picture of the reliability of the study of Soviet science. The purpose of the study is to comprehend the diverse and dramatic practice of state repression in the system of Soviet science, because in the world history of science no other developed country has experienced such large-scale and tragic events in the functioning of the scientific society.

Popular Resource Sovereignty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif Wenar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
The People ◽  
Rich Countries

Article 1 of both of the major human rights covenants declares that the people of each country “shall freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources.” This chapter considers what conditions would have to hold for the people of a country to exercise this right—and why public accountability over natural resources is the only realistic solution to the “resource curse,” which makes resource-rich countries more prone to authoritarianism, civil conflict, and large-scale corruption. It also discusses why cosmopolitans, who have often been highly critical of prerogatives of state sovereignty, have good reason to endorse popular sovereignty over natural resources. Those who hope for more cosmopolitan institutions should see strengthening popular resource sovereignty as the most responsible path to achieving their own goals.

New protests in Chile

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 17-19
Author(s):  
Malcolm Coad
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Unemployment Rate ◽  
Foreign Debt ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Miracle ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
National Trade ◽  
The Church

Chile's military regime in 1982 celebrated its ninth anniversary to the accompaniment of the most widespread and publicly expressed opposition since the coup of 11 September 1973. The collapse of its much-vaunted ‘economic miracle’ … most painfully demonstrated by devastated national industries, an unemployment rate of 25%, and a foreign debt estimated by some economists as the highest per capita in the world … has brought criticism from even the most ardent supporters of General Pinochet. As legal labour representatives became more vocal, leaders of the largest union federation, the National Trade Union Co-ordinating Body (CNS), were jailed, while in February the outspoken President of the Public Servants Union, Tucapel Jimenez, was found dead and mutilated by a roadside near Santiago. In the first six months of this year 837 people were charged with political offences, an increase of more than a third over the same period in 1981, while thousands more were detained on suspicion and reports of torture increased. Relations between the regime and the Church worsened, despite the latter's reining in of some of its human rights activity.

People’s Movement in Odisha: An Assessment

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283
Author(s):  
Subhendu Ranjan Raj
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
The State ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up

Development process in Odisha (before 2011 Orissa) may have led to progress but has also resulted in large-scale dispossession of land, homesteads, forests and also denial of livelihood and human rights. In Odisha as the requirements of development increase, the arena of contestation between the state/corporate entities and the people has correspondingly multiplied because the paradigm of contemporary model of growth is not sustainable and leads to irreparable ecological/environmental costs. It has engendered many people’s movements. Struggles in rural Odisha have increasingly focused on proactively stopping of projects, mining, forcible land, forest and water acquisition fallouts from government/corporate sector. Contemporaneously, such people’s movements are happening in Kashipur, Kalinga Nagar, Jagatsinghpur, Lanjigarh, etc. They have not gained much success in achieving their objectives. However, the people’s movement of Baliapal in Odisha is acknowledged as a success. It stopped the central and state governments from bulldozing resistance to set up a National Missile Testing Range in an agriculturally rich area in the mid-1980s by displacing some lakhs of people of their land, homesteads, agricultural production, forests and entitlements. A sustained struggle for 12 years against the state by using Gandhian methods of peaceful civil disobedience movement ultimately won and the government was forced to abandon its project. As uneven growth strategies sharpen, the threats to people’s human rights, natural resources, ecology and subsistence are deepening. Peaceful and non-violent protest movements like Baliapal may be emulated in the years ahead.

Debt Crisis and Learning – Replying to Two Stimulating Reviews

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky ◽  
Kunibert Raffer
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Debt Crises

AbstractThis piece tackles Barrio Arleo and Lienau’s comments on Sovereign Debt Crises: What Have We Learned? while tries to further develop some ideas and discussions proposed in the book. This piece deals with existing alternatives to overcome debt crises, the link between sovereign policy space and the principle of creditors’ equal treatment, who the target of the book is (and should be), whether “learning is enough”, and the potential policy and legal role of human rights law in debt restructurings.

Establishing a Corporate Responsibility Ombudsman: Enhancing remedy through state-based non-judicial mechanisms?

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-122
Author(s):  
Juho Saloranta
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Export Credit ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Credit Financing ◽  
Human Rights Due Diligence

This article assesses the efficiency of non-judicial grievance mechanisms in providing victims of corporate human rights violations with improved access to remedy. As no such mechanism is currently available, this article formulates a proposal for a new mechanism in the form of a corporate responsibility ombudsman, which would offer a great deal of flexibility as well as being an inexpensive, expeditious and informal manner of dealing with such issues. The article argues in favour of utilizing states’ regulatory arsenal to improve victims’ access to remedy extraterritorially. Based on recent international developments, I elaborate approaches to human rights due diligence regulation and export credit financing by means of two corporate responsibility ombudsman proposals. In relation to these proposals, I divide the effectiveness criteria of Principle 31 of the United Nations Guiding Principles into three main categories: empowerment, investigation and enforcement. Since obtaining sufficient evidence is of paramount to those seeking remedies for violations of corporate responsibility, states should bestow quasi-judicial powers on corporate responsibility ombudsmen to achieve efficiency, which could also create legitimacy. This article provides decision-makers and scholars with insights into how access to remedy could be synchronized with the momentum of human rights due diligence legislation in the European Union and beyond.

scholarly journals Optimal saving and sustainable foreign debt

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-199
Author(s):  
Delano Villanueva ◽  
Roberto Mariano
Keyword(s):  
Open Economy ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Foreign Debt ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Domestic Saving ◽  
Economy Growth ◽  
Intertemporal Consumption ◽  
Saving Rates ◽  
Optimal Saving ◽  
Open Economy Growth

This paper develops and discusses an open-economy growth model in a modi!ed Arrow learning-by-doing framework, in which workers learn through experience on the job, thereby increasing their productivity. Applying optimal control to maximize the discounted stream of intertemporal consumption, the model yields domestic saving rates of 18-22 percent of GDP, which are feasible targets in developing and emerging market economies. Sustainable gross foreign debt is in the range of 39-50 percent of GDP. Saving, debt, and growth policies are suggested.

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