Suchergebnisse

Much has been written on the human rights relevance and impacts of the policies and activities of the World Bank and IMF --or International Financial Institutions (IFIs). However while many of the human rights-based critiques of the Bank and Fund purport to link broadly defined reforms with obligations under international human rights law,rarely has this been carried out through a rigorous and in-depth application of international legal rules governing the proper interpretation of the institutions'' mandates, and rarely have the policy consequences and practical possibilities for human rights

The IFI's origins and contemporary functions -- The importance of the question: comments on the human rights impacts of the IFIs' policies and activities -- To what extent can the World Bank and IMF deal with human rights? A brief exploration of their legal mandates -- Impediments to human rights integration -- An agenda for reform -- Concluding remarks.

In September 2007, Buddhist monks, students, democracy campaigners, and ordinary men, women, and children took their lives into their hands in the streets of Yangon, Myanmar, to protest against the ruling military regime. The protests had begun a month earlier with peaceful calls by the monks for the ruling authorities to reinstate subsidies on fuel and oil and alleviate crippling commodity prices, but quickly snowballed into mass demonstrations for democratic and social reforms and the release of all political prisoners.

Ushered in during the 1990s in response to development failures of the structural adjustment era, human rights-based approaches to development have proliferated in recent years. Nonetheless, the rhetoric has so far not been matched by conceptual rigor, systematization of practice, or lessons-learning—shortcomings that may undermine continuing support for such approaches. This Article seeks to contribute conceptual clarity to the frequently muddy waters of rights-based approaches, addressing in particular the conceptual and practical relevance of the international human rights normative framework to development cooperation within the UN system. The analysis focuses upon particular niches in which a normatively rigorous model for rights-based programming seems uniquely adapted, that is to say, in addressing asymmetries of power, the phenomenon known as "elite capture," and the transformation of violent conflict. The Article concludes with a reminder of the challenges and prerequisites for the wider implementation of rights-based approaches, and of the urgency of the need for a strengthened conceptual framework for empowerment and accountability.