On 21 September 2020, ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the United Nation Human Rights Council session 45 during on interactive debate with The Independent Expert on international order.
Madame President,
We thank the Independent Expert for his work and we share the view that international financial institutions are important actors towards the achievement of the SDGs and local good governance. However, we would like to raise some concerns in this regard.
Firstly, we are concerned that some of these institutions are used as political leverage by powerful countries. For example, the United States has used its influence and position in the IMF as leverage against many of the developing countries to coerce them into aligning themselves with the US position whether in the United Nations or other international multilevel institutions. Such use of IMF by the US and other Western powerful countries is not only unethical but a clear case of power abuse and corruption. We would like to know if the Independent Expert looked at this issue closely.
Also, we consider that good governance cannot be achieved without a strong partnership between such institutions and local civil society. For example, Bahrain has repeatedly received monetary or financial assistance from international financial institutions without any consultation with local NGO and transparency groups, which led to massive corruption by several members of the Alkhalifa ruling family. Here, we would like to ask what kind of measure the Independent Expert would recommend to IMF and other international financial institutions to avoid such corruption practices.
Thank you.
