Other Sources of Human Rights Obligations for the World Bank and the IMF

2005 ◽  
pp. 163-181
Author(s):  
Richard Jolly

From its establishment, people and human development have been at the center of the UN’s development work, more clearly than at the World Bank and the IMF that have had a narrower economic focus. This chapter provides clear definitions of human development, drawing on UNDP’s Human Development Report, illustrating the approach with such issues as gender, human security, globalization, and human rights as well as the Human Development Index (HDI). A brief overview of the UN’s development leadership and operational work shows a wide field and is now focused on the SDGs (2016–2030) and formerly on the MDGs (2000–2015). UN expenditures are modest in comparison with funding for the World Bank and the IMF, but arguably more effective. There could be benefits in closer and more balanced collaboration between these global organizations, providing there is learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Daryna Abbakumova

The main purpose of the article is to provide legal analysis of the activities of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as to clarify their role in the international financial system and the peculiarities of the correlation with the sphere of human rights. Methodology. To achieve the scientific objectivity of the results, the entire complex of general scientific and special research methods, which are widely used in the modern science of public international law and international economic law in particular, were used. Thus, the method of objectivity was used to determine the probability and completeness of the information that was used in the research process. The dialectical method was useful in studying the development of the organizational structure and powers of the World Bank and the IMF. The special legal method allowed analysing the provisions of the constituent documents of these international organizations, and system-structural – to determine their place in the international financial system. The comparative legal method has become useful in defining the features of supranationality of international organizations. The results of the study revealed that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund continue to occupy key positions in the international monetary and financial system, despite the fact that they were created in the middle of the last century. It has been found that in recent years, the World Bank and the IMF have somewhat changed their position in providing financial assistance to the states. Their position has become more rigid than the one they followed at the beginning of their activity. It is established that this is manifested, first of all, in the application of the principle of good governance, when considering the issue of the allocation of money. This principle, which became fundamental in the activity of these international financial institutions, helps to determine whether the government of the state is fair and honest enough for using the provided assistance for the right purposes, not for the corrupt schemes, and whether these funds would not be stolen by the government in the future. The main practical impact of such research is to identify the link between the functioning of the World Bank and the IMF, which are fully focused on monetary and financial operations, and such completely remote from them area as human rights. Clarification of the relationship between the activities of these financial institutions and the field of human rights allows us to find ways to protect people, whose rights have been violated during the realization of the projects funded by the World Bank and the IMF. Value/originality. The main features that international intergovernmental organizations must have to be regarded as those who have supranational nature are investigated. On this basis, it was established that the World Bank and the IMF do not have supranational features, and the only organization possessing such features remains the European Union.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-355
Author(s):  
Dušan Pokorný

AbstractThis chapter considers the meaning of the terms "society" and "market," and the need for markets to be institutionalized and legitimated. Obligatory norms and recommendatory guidelines today come from many sources: from states, from groupings of states, and from worldwide bodies such as the IMF, the WTO, and the World Bank. But when markets create profound inequalities both within and between societies, how do we determine what limits ought to be placed on markets? Since economic institutions are inseparable from culture, this is the "site" where the public will have to decide what is "society," what is the "market," and what will be the relation between them.


2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 717-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS POGGE

Various human rights are widely recognized in codified and customary international law. These human rights promise all human beings protection against specific severe harms that might be inflicted on them domestically or by foreigners. Yet international law also establishes and maintains institutional structures that greatly contribute to violations of these human rights: fundamental components of international law systematically obstruct the aspirations of poor populations for democratic self-government, civil rights, and minimal economic sufficiency. And central international organizations, such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, are designed so that they systematically contribute to the persistence of severe poverty.


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