11 August 2000
The United Nations Development Programmes annual Human Development Report, released in June, treats human rights as essential for development and sees development as a means to realize human rights. With principles of accountability and social justice at the heart of human development, it concludes that major advances against poverty will be won only by confronting entrenched economic and political interests.
As the world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time the IMF’s shareholders use the opportunities provided by the anniversary and growing calls for reforms to the international financial architecture to redesign the IMF’s governance structures and programmes to ensure they are consistent with the commitments outlined in 1948 and with international human rights law.
Influence of unreformed international financial institutions and creditor interests in debt solutions in low- and middle-income countries plagued by delay and ineffective when undertaken.
