What's new? Rethinking the juridical link between the IMF and Human Rights

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2023/70168i

The IMF´s practices affect the lives of millions of persons all around the world. Recently, institutional actors of the United Nations have defined the rules that it should follow to promote the respect and effectiveness of Human Rights. However, the Fund acts as if such rules do not in fact exist. The article aims to analyze the juridical nexus that ties the IMF to Human Rights, problematizing the «argumentative strategies» through which it legitimizes its position on the field. This way of approaching to the debate allows the paper to: 1) prove the IMF's juridical link to these Rights and, at the same time, show the benefits and limits of the critics that are directed to said link; 2) introduce in a single coherent narrative the developments on this subject that the specialized literature exhibits in a fragmented manner; 3) show how the newest trends that inform the doctrine of Human Rights are translated into official juridical documents. It is argued that the Fund has the international obligation of respecting and enforcing Human Rights from its own mandate and considering the rules of institutional actors on this regard, under penalty of incurring in responsibility for their violation.

Keywords: International Monetary Fund (IMF); Human Rights; International Obligations.