Human rights must shape international financial institutions' policy recommendations

Conditionalities imposed by international financial institutions (IFIs) drive chronic and pervasive human rights violations around the world. Fiscal consolidation, cuts to social spending, public-sector wage restraints, subsidy removal, privatization and regressive taxation can undermine access to essential services, restrict governments’ fiscal space and deepen existing inequalities, with particularly severe consequences for women and other structurally disadvantaged groups.

CESR has submitted evidence to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in response to its call for inputs on the impact of IFI conditionalities on human rights, mandated by Human Rights Council resolution 59/19. The forthcoming OHCHR report focuses particularly on conditionality programmes implemented since 2020.

Drawing on CESR’s research and advocacy across countries including Argentina, Ecuador and Sierra Leone, our submission documents the impacts of austerity and conditionalities on rights to health, education, social protection, decent work and other economic and social rights. It argues that limited safeguards or social spending floors cannot compensate for adjustment programmes that constrain governments’ ability to fulfil their human rights obligations.

CESR calls for human rights to become a binding framework for IFI lending and conditionality. This requires mandatory human rights and gender impact assessments, meaningful participation by affected communities, greater transparency and accountability, and serious consideration of alternatives to austerity, including progressive taxation and debt restructuring.

This submission builds on CESR’s recent publication, Holding International Financial Institutions to Account Using Human Rights, which explores how human rights standards can be used to challenge harmful IFI policies and strengthen accountability for their impacts.