The World Bank Group, the IMF and Human Rights A Contextualised Way Forward

by Van Genugten, Willem

• ISBN13: 9781780682969
• ISBN10: 1780682964
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-04-10
• Publisher: Intersentia

Summary

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund are under substantial pressure to accept more accountability under international human rights law. This publication sets out the standards by which these international financial institutions are bound under international human rights law as it currently stands. Human rights law is 'living law' and has changed over time, as have international financial institutions, despite their sometimes static approach to their own mandates. However, the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund are both starting to recognize more and more the relevance of human rights to the fulfilment of their respective mandates, even if they still maintain, be it to different degrees, that international human rights law is only partly applicable to them. This publication argues that this position is no longer tenable and that human rights law does in fact apply to both international financial institutions.

Author Biography

Willem van Genugten is Professor of International Law at Tilburg University, and Extraordinary Professor of International Law at the North-West University, South Africa. In addition, he is Chair of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law, Chair of the Dutch Knowledge Platform Security and the Rule of Law, and Chair of the Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the International Law Association. He published extensively on issues in the domain of ‘economic actors and human rights’. He received several awards, amongst them a honorary doctorate (North-West University, South Africa, 2012).