International Institutions

Complicity of International Financial Institutions in Violation of Human Rights in the Context of Economic Reforms

30 November 2020 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

This Article demonstrates that the introduction of austerity measures does not contribute to economic recovery, but instead has negative consequences in terms of economic growth, debt ratios, and equality, and routinely results in a series of (...)
Global Economic Solutions Now!

1 October 2020 - by CADTM International, Collective

The CADTM International network agrees to sign even though we are against calling upon the IMF, which amounts to giving it more power by increasing Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), and against creditor-led debt restructurings, because history has (...)
President Trump’s man elected to head the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

17 September 2020 - by Ariela Ruiz Caro

Failures in the region’s coordination have allowed President Trump’s candidate to easily win the election of the IDB presidency despite the violation of the institution’s rules. In an expeditious process, on September 12, Mauricio Claver-Carone (...)
The pandemic has exposed the nakedness of European neoliberalism

27 July 2020 - by Eric Toussaint, Miguel Urbán Crespo

Miguel Urban is a member of the European Parliament elected from the Spanish state and a member of Anticapitalistas. He was interviewed by Eric Toussaint. What is the objective of the Covid Tax initiative at the European level and at the level (...)
IIF Private creditor participation proposal: A cure worse than the disease

5 June 2020 - by Daniel Munevar

Following the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) announced during the 2020 Spring Meetings, the International Institute of Finance (IIF) has released a template for the voluntary involvement of private creditors in a debt service (...)
Series: 1944-2020, 76 years of interference from the World Bank and the IMF (Part 10)

World Bank and IMF support to dictatorships

9 April 2020 - by Eric Toussaint

In 2020, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF are 76 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the (...)
Abolish illegitimate and odious claims by European countries from third parties and give absolute priority to human rights

3 April 2020 - by ReCommons Europe

Phase 2 of the ReCommonsEurope project: “The impact of European financial policies and development cooperation strategies on the South and possible alternatives”. This document is the first of the five texts that form part of the publication (...)
Emergency financing for Low-Income Economies to tackle COVID-19: Cost estimates for the impact of the crisis and emergency financing requirements

2 April 2020 - by Daniel Munevar

This briefing is provided to inform development of policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis and in support of calls from wider civil society for debt cancellations for the world’s poorest countries in the face of the current crisis. The COVID-19 (...)
Embargo and blockade during a pandemic : attacks on the integrity of peoples condemned by international law

2 April 2020 - by Fondation Frantz Fanon

Embargoes and blockades are today, more than yesterday, characteristic aggressions of states exercising them against the peoples subjected to them. In the circumstances, any reduction of peoples’ capacity to meet their basic needs, by preventing (...)
Poor countries cut public spending, debt payments trebled

17 January 2020 - by Jubilee Debt Campaign

Figures calculated by Jubilee Debt Campaign from IMF and World Bank data show that growing debt burdens are contributing to public spending cuts. For the 15 countries spending over 18% of revenue on debt payments, 14 saw public spending cuts (...)
The Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) on private debt and human rights

13 January 2020 - by Chiara Filoni, Eva Betavatzi, Mats Lucia Bayer

This is our contribution to the appeal made by the UN Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, Mr. Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky. Mr. (...)
“Historic process continues at the UN: This week states enter substantive negotiations of the text of a binding treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights”

18 October 2019 - by Stop corporate impunity

Historic process continues at the UN: This week states enter substantive negotiations of the text of a binding treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights 14 October 2019, Geneva: The (...)
Financial institutions complicit in impact of austerity measures on human rights, says UN expert

10 September 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

GENEVA (10 September 2019) – Austerity measures imposed by international financial institutions such as the IMF, regularly cause violations of human rights, says UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky in a (...)
Mozambique: impact of Cyclone Idai boosts case for non-repayment of secret loans, says UN rights expert

4 April 2019 - by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky

GENEVA (29 March 2019) – “The realisation of economic, social and cultural rights in Mozambique should not be jeopardised by the servicing of the country’s debt and in particular its ‘secret loan’ component. Human rights and devastating impacts of (...)
Rwanda: A look back at the 1994 genocide

3 April 2019 - by Eric Toussaint

Starting on 7 April 1994, in less than three months, nearly one million Rwandans – the exact figure has not yet been determined - were exterminated because they were (or supposed to be) Tutsis. Tens of thousands of moderate Hutus were also (...)
The US Supreme Court Judgment: A Challenge to World Bank’s unfettered immunity

31 March 2019 - by Sushovan Dhar

The verdict is finally out. On 27 February, in a historic 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that international organizations like the World Bank Group are not above immunity and can be sued in US courts. This was in (...)
Stop the EU’s Services Notification Procedure - municipalities need democratic space to protect the interests of citizens!

15 November 2018 - by Collective

A coalition of more than 75 civil society groups, unions, mayors and progressive parties running major European cities has come out to oppose a controversial proposed EU directive that has been pushed by business lobbies and would create major (...)
Declaration of the Global Campaign for the closing of the 4^th session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights

22 October 2018 - by Stop corporate impunity

Mr. President, The Global Campaign to reclaim peoples’ sovereignty, dismantle corporate power and stop impunity (Global Campaign), an international network of more than 250 members representing social movements and affected communities and (...)
“The European Commission is the most obscure power of all”

19 October 2018 - by Real World Radio

MEP Lola Sánchez: “There is a struggle between democracy and corporate power within the EU” MEP Lola Sánchez, of Podemos Party, Spain, said this Monday in Geneva (Switzerland) that the head of the European Union delegation at the UN negotiations (...)
The IMF and World Bank: Aiding and abetting inequality in Asia

10 October 2018 - by Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development

Despite economic growth, inequality in Asia deepens Fiscal neoliberalism imposed by IFIs continues to exacerbate inequality Civil society renews calls to hold World Bank and IMF to account for their actions Asia continues to draw attention as (...)
UN Human Rights Council passes a resolution adopting the peasant rights declaration in Geneva

1 October 2018 - by La Via Campesina

(Geneva, September 28, 2018) Seventeen years of long and arduous negotiations later, peasants and other people working in rural areas are only a step away from having a UN Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, (...)
Corporate capture in Europe - When big business dominates policy-making and threatens our right

25 September 2018 - by Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU)

This report examines the extreme and undue influence of big business on European Union (EU) and member state decision-making processes. It has been produced by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) as a response (...)
Conflicts between Latin American Countries and Transnational Corporations

10 August 2018 - by Jorge Marchini, Josefina Morales, Gabriela Roffinelli

Political positions and laws on foreign investment have been polarized into two opposing perspectives. On the one hand, there is the assumption that foreign direct investment (FDI) is essential for the economies of peripheral countries to take a (...)
Is it possible to call the political regime of the euro democracy?

15 July 2018 - by Sergi Cutillas

Sergi Cutillas is an economist and worked in the financial sector before taking up his work as a financial justice activist in early 2012. He is a member of the European Research Network on Social and Economic Policy. He is now Secretary of (...)
Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PWC: How the Big Four are embedded in EU policy-making on tax avoidance

12 July 2018 - by Corporate Europe Observatory

We pay our taxes, so why don’t corporations? This new report shows how the Big Four are embedded in EU policy-making on tax avoidance, and concludes that it is time to kick this industry out of EU anti-tax avoidance policy. EU policy towards (...)