Responsibility of International Organizations

Page 1 of 4

Filter category

The IMF, WTO, World Bank, and WHO all come around? Multilateral Unity Against Inequitable Global COVID Vaccine Distribution, but still sans Human Rights

June 3, 2021

Sometimes, they do come around, albeit so narrowly. Back in February 2021, I argued that international law (specifically based on the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the Right to Development presently being codified in the draft Convention on the Right to Development) compels States and non-State actors to design equitable COVID Vaccine Distribution and access as expeditiously as possible.  It was with a sigh of relief for many that on 1 June 2021, the leaders of key multinational organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva), the World Trade Organization (Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala), the World Bank Group (President David Malpass), and the World Health Organization (Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus) released a joint statement ahead of the G7 Summit to be hosted by the United Kingdom next week.  The Joint Statement is titled "A new commitment for vaccine equity and defeating the pandemic", and discusses "a coordinated strategy...to the vaccinate the world" that centers mainly on logistics: 1) financing the COVAX global vaccine access programme; 2) investments into…

Read more

‘Oops, we misplaced the keys…too bad!’: The International Criminal Court and the fiasco of Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba’s compensation claim

June 3, 2020

Background On 18 May 2020, over a year after Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo filed a claim at the International Criminal Court (the Court) seeking compensation for alleged miscarriage of justice and for alleged destruction and damage caused to his property, the Pre-Trial Chamber dismissed the application. Mr Bemba was charged in 2008 with…

Read more

The Myth and Mayhem of ‘Build Back Better’: Human Rights Decision-Making and Human Dignity Imperatives in COVID-19

May 25, 2020

Human rights were already under siege everywhere around the world before COVID-19.  But there is also a dawning race now against reaching the ‘twilight of human rights law’, due to: 1) authoritarian regimes’ dismissal of the relevance of human rights while using this pandemic to expand and consolidate their power, such as to silence speech,…

Read more

Jam v IFC before the D.C. District Court: Forget the Floodgates, there won’t even be a Trickle

April 1, 2020

A year ago, the US Supreme Court in Jam v International Finance Corporation decided that the immunity granted to International Organizations (IOs) under the US International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA), was the same “restrictive immunity” granted to states under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). The latter Act denies immunity for claims that are inter alia…

Read more

Equivalence and Translation: Further thoughts on IO Immunities in Jam v. IFC

March 11, 2019

At the end of February, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a landmark judgment on the immunity of international organizations in Jam v. International Finance Corporation, 58 U.S. (2019). The case concerned the meaning of the 1945 International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA), which affords international organizations “the same immunity from suit … as is enjoyed…

Read more