Articles
A BRICS Bank to Challenge the Bretton Woods System?
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The formal opening of the BRICS Bank in Shanghai on Jul. 21 following the seventh summit of the world’s five leading emerging economies held recently in the Russian city of Ufa, demonstrates the speed with which an alternative global financial architecture is emerging.
The idea of a development-oriented international bank was first floated by India at the 2012 BRICS summit in New Delhi but it is China’s financial muscle which has turned this idea into a reality.
The New Development Bank (NDB), as it is formally called, is to use its 50 billion dollar initial capital to fund infrastructure and developmental projects within the five BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – though it is also likely to support developmental projects in other countries.
Read more: A BRICS Bank to Challenge the Bretton Woods System?
The Real Enemy
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‘Ashamed of being European’, I wrote one month ago. And after the devastating week-end of negotiations with Greece, I have even more reasons to be so.
The Greek prime minister and the Greek people have been humiliated and were forced to accept an agreement that cannot bring any solution for their sufferings. And now, inevitably, some people are shouting: ‘treason’, pointing to Syriza…
But is this justified? Had Tsipras any other real choice? Let us look at these questions.
Towards a new binding instrument on Human Rights and Transnational Companies
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Below is the keynote speech by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Ms. Victoria TAULI-CORPUZ, at the First Session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Elaborating a Legally Binding Instrument on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights.
It is for me a great honour and privilege to share these words with you in such a historic gathering. Today, I would like to provide some reflections on the various and important themes that this working group will be examining in accordance to the mandate granted by the Human Rights Council in resolution 26/9.
These reflections stem from my experiences in working with indigenous peoples in all parts of the world, first as an indigenous rights advocate, then as a member and chair of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and currently in my capacity as Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.
Indigenous peoples have been at the forefront of discussions regarding the human rights abuses committed by corporations since the 1970s.
Read more: Towards a new binding instrument on Human Rights and Transnational Companies
What about the World Bank Safety Nets?
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Beginning in the early 1980s, the World Bank (with the International Monetary Fund) foisted structural adjustment programmes on a variety of poor countries around the developing world. These programmes, based on the forced application of new ideologies of liberalisation and privatisation, led to massive unemployment, human misery and deprivation. Jobs were lost in government service (which had to be shrunk drastically), in state marketing boards (as trade was thrown open to the private sector) and in public services (where utilisation fell as a result of the introduction of prohibitive access fees).
