Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 IFIs Positioning Themselves in the Human Rights Field
- Chapter 3 Applicable Human Rights Obligations
- Chapter 4 Attributing Unlawful Conduct to IFIs and their Member States
- Chapter 5 Accountability and Redress
- Chapter 6 Concluding Remarks
- Annex I Tilburg-GLOTHRO Guiding Principles on the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund and Human Rights
- Annex II Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (2001) (excerpts)
- Annex III Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (2011) (excerpts)
- Annex IV Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2011) (excerpts)
- Annex V UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011) (excerpts)
- Bibliography
Chapter 3 - Applicable Human Rights Obligations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2017
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 IFIs Positioning Themselves in the Human Rights Field
- Chapter 3 Applicable Human Rights Obligations
- Chapter 4 Attributing Unlawful Conduct to IFIs and their Member States
- Chapter 5 Accountability and Redress
- Chapter 6 Concluding Remarks
- Annex I Tilburg-GLOTHRO Guiding Principles on the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund and Human Rights
- Annex II Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (2001) (excerpts)
- Annex III Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (2011) (excerpts)
- Annex IV Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2011) (excerpts)
- Annex V UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011) (excerpts)
- Bibliography
Summary
INTRODUCTION
As subjects of international law and as international legal personalities, the WBG and the IMF are capable of possessing rights and duties under their constituent instruments, general rules of international law, and the treaties to which they have acceded. This includes obligations in the domain of human rights, to be exercised separately from, or jointly with, their Member States. This statement will be further substantiated in this chapter by scrutinising the links between the mandates of IFIs and international human rights law (subsection 3.2); the incorporation of IFIs in the domain of international human rights law (subsection 3.3); the ‘political prohibition’, which prevents the WBG from interfering in political affairs (subsection 3.4); the human rights obligations of States acting in the context of IFIs (subsection 3.5); and the obligations following from the (legal) relationships between IFIs and private subcontractors (subsection 3.6).
THE LINKS BETWEEN IFI MANDATES AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW
As explained in Chapter 2, the WBG has chosen not to interpret its mandate in isolation from developments taking place in the human rights domain, while sometimes touching upon legal terminology. The IMF also ‘plays’ with human rights terminology, albeit in a different way. The question is which more specific human rights obligations can be linked to the mandates of these organisations and on what grounds. Let me first borrow the enlightening words of Mac Darrow - the author of a seminal book on the issue in 2003 - used by him in a piece written in 2009 for the renowned Encyclopedia of Human Rights:
The UN Charter is perhaps the most important source of human rights duties for members of the extended UN family; the UN Charter binds the bank and the IMF equally. The IBRD [International Bank for Reconstruction and Development], IDA [International Development Association], and IMF have all entered into formal relationship agreements with the UN. The promotion of human rights is at the heart of the UN system's purposes, as provided in articles 1(3) and 55 of the UN Charter, although specific obligations are not well-defined.
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- The World Bank Group, the IMF and Human RightsA Contextualised Way Forward, pp. 9 - 26Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2015