Bulletin n. 3/2006
December 2006
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Mcbeth Adam
    Breaching the Vacuum: A Consideration of the Role of International Human Rights Law in the Operations of the International Financial Institutions
    in International Journal of Human Rights (The) , Volume 10, Issue 4, December 2006 ,  2006 ,  385-404
    This article takes a timely look at the operations of the World Bank and the IMF through the prism of international human rights law. While these institutions have historically insisted that they have no obligations under human rights law, recent years have seen a shift towards recognising the social impact of their operations and imposing safeguards to minimise detriment. Thus, the institutions are already taking some human rights concerns into consideration in an ad hoc fashion, but are not doing so within the framework of international human rights law. However, international human rights law provides a ready-made framework for evaluating and balancing social impact of the kind that currently concerns the institutions. This article argues that the international financial institutions can already be characterised as holding obligations under international human rights law and examines ways in which those legal norms might be applied in the practical contexts of development projects and structural adjustment programmes. However, it concludes that any such obligations could not be externally enforced and would be up to the institutions themselves to implement.
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