ABSTRACT
International Financial Institutions (IFIs) provide public financing for development policies, projects, programmes or macroeconomic policy. The effects on human rights resulting from their policies and practices have been debated for the last 30 years, increasingly through the lens of extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs). ETO related to IFIs may be defined along two main axes. The first is state obligations as members and owners of IFIs. The second focusses on the human rights obligations of IFIs themselves. This chapter first takes stock of ETOs along the first axis, focusing on states as IFIs members. Then, it examines the second axis, exploring the human rights obligations of IFIs directly under international law. Subsequently, the chapter analyses the question of human rights accountability of IFIs, both internally and externally. Finally, takes a forward-looking perspective, assessing the normative development of ETOs related to IFIs under international law. It concludes that only an adequate human rights legal regime that assigns human rights duties (beyond borders) to states, IFIs and private sector activities will guarantee accountability of IFIs and their member states to rights-holders.
