[stop-imf] New book: THE IMF, THE WORLD BANK GROUP AND THE QUESTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

[robert weissman]

http://www.transnationalpubs.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=3D10283


2005
468 Pages


Hardcover
1-57105-185-6
Price: $135.00
=09THE IMF, THE WORLD BANK GROUP AND THE QUESTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Bahram Ghazi

The IMF, The World Bank Group, and the Question of Human Rights explores
various issues facing international financial institutions and their
obligations to adhere to human rights norms.



Bahram Ghazi gets to the heart of the most important issues facing the
global community today: namely, how to reconcile globalization and the
activities of the World Bank and the IMF with the implementation of
international human rights rules.  His comprehensive work explains the
relation between economy, finance, and investments and their impact on
the human rights situation.  Using an interdisciplinary approach, the
author incorporates historical, political, economic, financial, and
institutional dimensions into his analysis.



The IMF, The World Bank Group, and the Question of Human Rights features
a basic overview of these global financial institutions, their
structures and functioning.  It proceeds with examples to explain the
possible violations of human rights through these institutions=92
activities.  Included is a sizable summary of the activities of the
World Bank and the IMF related to human rights, with a discussion of the
political perspective of the integration of human rights inside the
Bretton Woods institutions and an analysis of the IFI=92s responsibility
regime for non-compliance with their human rights obligations and the
existing accountability mechanisms.  The author ultimately provides a
valuable proposal for ways in which the integration of human rights
standards inside these institutions may be improved.



This work tries to analyze the legal human rights obligations of the IMF
and the World Bank Group institutions in the most objective way.  It is
particularly relevant for both NGOs and civil society, groups who do not
always know what the IFIs are and what they are doing, as well as to
IFIs and the private sector for whom human rights are still very vague
and more often associated with politics.  With its considerable insight,
The IMF, The World Bank Group and the Question of Human Rights will be
valuable to each of these groups, as well as to students and academics
searching for a tool to achieve a greater understanding of these issues.



Bahram Ghazi received his PhD. from the Graduate Institute of
International Studies at Geneva.  He is a human rights officer at the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva.



The IMF, The World Bank Group, and the Question of Human Rights is the
fourth volume to be published in Transnational=92s International Law and
Development series, edited by Raj Bhala.