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INTRODUCTION

The acceleration of the globalization process following the end of the Second World War and the establishment of a neoliberal regime at the global level have consolidated a new world order characterized by a complex set of an array of international organizations, institutions, and mechanisms that have had some influence in many crucial areas of our lives. The contributions that those international institutions have made until now have delivered some results. For instance, due to a rise in the number of civil conflicts worldwide in the last 100 years, the number of refugees and internally displaced population has been quite high1, but, thanks to organizations such as the United Nations for Refugee Agency (unhcr)2, we have been able to avoid a big catastrophe with serious consequences by providing some humanitarian support and relief. Despite its limitations, especially economic constraints, this institution has been assisting refugees worldwide by supporting people from different countries characterized by civil conflicts such as Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Colombia, and Venezuela.

In the same line, Regional Banks, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, have provided different interventions of development and infrastructure through loans and international assistance in order to seek stability and progress in the regions and countries. However, despite this, and since its inception, the work that these institutions have carried out had been questioned from different commentators in different political, economic, social, technological, and legal scenarios. The criticisms against the work of these international institutions are growing and might constitute, perhaps, an indicator that could suggest that structural reforms are urgently needed in the system. Indeed, not only plenty of time has passed since the birth of international institutions such as the United Nations (un) or the World Bank, but also, we must accept that we are living in a different world that is characterized by accelerating change which is generating a massive increase in knowledge that exists “out there” and which is triggering innovations and creating value worldwide.

We are accumulating this knowledge in the form of immediate and objectified experiences, capabilities, competencies, principles, and values, and it is crucially shaping our identity, our intentions, our interpretation processes, and initiatives. Intentionally or unintentionally, we are producing new knowledge that is being spread worldwide very fast, allowing people to have more choices and preferences in order to improve their lives. This knowledge has also allowed some institutions and organizations to improve their organizational and strategic processes in order to achieve more efficiency, utility, and reduce costs. However, despite this increase in knowledge different questions come to our mind. For instance, why international institutions continue to make the same mistakes? and why international Regional Banks, despite advocating the promotion of development through different projects, continue violating the human rights of the poorest? In addition to that, why the World Bank has not fully embraced, in their strategic and organizational processes, the principles of human rights, and instead, have continued promoting minimalist approaches3 in their interventions in order to generate exclusionary development and inequalities? Why the un through their different institutions and mechanisms has not been able to have a stronger role in the eradication of inequality4, and poverty5?

Indeed, it is well known that back in 1948, the intentions of the promoters of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights were the establishment of a new world with a new system of global institutions of governance. The intention was to promote a new framework with solid human rights principles and values where people were free from fear and necessity. The objective was to maintain peace among all countries and guarantee the non-repetition of the atrocities while, at the same time, imposing new obligations to States to respect, protect, and guarantee human rights. However, since its inception, the design of these new institutions was characterized by fragmentation6. For instance, instead of creating one single document for the protection of rights, a plethora of fragmented instruments were promoted and adopted. In this way, from the beginning, not only institutions and their mechanisms were fragmented but also human rights7. This fragmentation also reflects the divisions and political conflicts at that time, with some countries advocating for the protection of Civil and Political rights while others the protection of escr. This new fragmented discourse then entered into national legal jurisdictions in the new constitutions8 adopted by States after 1948. As a result of that, many of the new constitutions did not recognize escr as fundamental rights, rather promoted their protection in a progressive way subject to the availability of economic resources. Despite the last 50 years, we have witnessed several economic and political crisis that have generated high levels of inflation and unemployment in different parts of the world: Western countries (1973)9, Iran (197910), Irak (1980)11, usa (1987)12, Mexico (1994)13, Asia (1997)14, Russia (1998)15, Argentina (2001)16 and worldwide (2000, 2001, 2008)17, however, these fragmented institutions and mechanisms have not been able to lift people out of poverty and exclusion. The economic and political crisis has forced countries to redistribute their expenditures, and in this way, escr have been affected not only by such crisis but also by the neoliberal policies that have traditionally promoted measures of austerity and reduction of expenditure. In effect, despite Article 22 of the Declaration states that:

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each state, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality (udhr, art. 22)

Nevertheless, escr have traditionally been interpreted merely as progressive and this entails that their enforcement is subject to the levels of organization and resources each State can enjoy according to its economic growth at a particular point of time.

Not only has fragmentation affected international institutions but also structural dysfunctions18 such as the conduct of third parties through corruption and elite capture. In effect, since its creation, several scandals have involved these organizations affecting their legitimacy and effectiveness. According to Tallberg and Zurn (2019), the “long-term capacity [of international organizations] to deliver is conditioned on their legitimacy in the eyes of governments and citizens” (p. 581). In this way, legitimacy is one of the most important aspects that international organizations should focus on strengthening in order to deliver more impact on people’s lives. For instance, the un Oil for Food program in Iraq is a well-known case that involved corruption of about US $1.7 billion that was diverted to un officials and the government of Iraq. According to Larsson (2011) “[e]ven the then un Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was accused of being involved in the corruption, based on his personal interference in the selection of contractors” (p. 1). In addition to that, many officials have also been accused of soliciting bribes. In a similar vein, several cases involving corruption have also been presented with peacekeepers as well as aid workers.

Perhaps, because of a lack of support from the international community, these institutions have also been characterized by low budgets, and this has affected its financial sustainability threatening its existence. This is reflected in the number of cases or projects that the Committees of the United Nations can handle. For instance, Art. 1 of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on escr, approved by the General Assembly on 10th December 2008, and that entered into force on 5th May 2013, establishes the competences of the Committee to accept and consider communications19. It states that “…a State Party to the Covenant that becomes a party to the present Protocol recognizes the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications as provided for by the provisions of the present Protocol”. Despite this, very few cases or communications have been presented to this mechanism to protect the escr of the most vulnerable. In 2017, for example, the un Committee on escr found Spain responsible for evictions without providing suitable alternative accommodation since such actions violated art. 11 of the International Covenant. In a similar vein, access to Justice is limited to the victims of human rights violations. Thus, despite that the Optional Protocol has been recognized as a mechanism to protect the escr of individuals20, nevertheless, many victims of numerous violations are not able to claim their rights because of a lack of accessibility. Lastly, international institutions have also been affected by a lack of institutional capacity. Institutional capacity not only entails resources, time, knowledge, and systems, but also capabilities as well as inter-institutional coordination. One of the main lessons that we might learn from the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic is that we have to improve the level of coordination among international organizations not only to find a solution in the long term, but also in the short one, through effective strategies that might, at the same time, ensure the welfare of individuals. Put it simply, the world was not prepared to respond efficiently and effectively against this virus. Contrary to this, many countries decided to distance themselves from other countries claiming their sovereignty21. This was triggered by a political transformation in many countries such as Brazil, usa, and Nicaragua where their leaders decided to deny the potential threats of the virus. This particular attitude could have also generated a massive increase in the death of many people worldwide. On the background, international institutions were not coordinated enough to respond quickly to this global pandemic, and as a result of that, many countries were also competing against one another to obtain masks, protective equipment, ventilators, and also vaccines.

These variables of fragmentation, structural dysfunctions, lack of resources as well as the lack of institutional capacity due to a lack of coordination mentioned in the previous analysis are not only present in the universal system, but also in international financial institutions. The Bretton Woods conference that took place in New Hampshire did establish the World Trade Organization (wto), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund. While the World Bank was created in order to finance different projects that promoted economic development, the International Monetary Fund “was to be a supranational body essentially doing two things: it would regulate the rates at which currencies were exchanged among member countries and it would help ensure international stability by making loans at times of crisis in member countries balance of payments” (Peet, 2009, p. 66). In a similar vein, the International Labor Organization22, and Multilateral Banks for example the Inter-American Bank of Development and the Asian Development Bank were created to contribute to increase the welfare of individuals. Along with these institutions, a new legal framework has been promoted. however, it is well known how these international institutions not only have affected entire communities but also States and Regions generating many violations of human rights. During the globalization process, the world is facing many threats including climate change, as well as nuclear wars, therefore there are many challenges. However, the contribution of these institutions of global governance is very minimal. One of these challenges is the rise of the new populist governments23 that are threatening the existence and influence of these international mechanisms. For instance, President Trump, not only withdrew the country from the Paris Agreement in 2017 since, according to him, it would affect us sovereignty (Goldstein & Greenberg, 2018), but also, in 2020, he withdrew the us from the World Health Organization, affecting the lives of many people worldwide. In a similar way, the us has also encouraged other countries to reduce their budgets allocated to the United Nations in order to influence more international organizations. Indeed, we still live in a world of uncertainty and the world is facing many challenges, inequality is rising, many countries have perceived rise in levels of inequality while, on the opposite side, technological change, artificial intelligence and automation are threatening many jobs worldwide as well as wage levels in different economic sectors. Therefore, the challenge that also arises here is how to strengthen and protect such institutions from new threats and risks.

As a result of this, the central question that this book tries to answer is what are the main challenges that international institutions are facing and how to strengthen them in order to ensure the protection of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights? Regrettably, much of the literature in the field of global governance, international institutions, and its impact on human rights still tend to focus on the achievement of indicators of development or results (measured mainly in economic terms). This entails that the number of studies that contribute to the discussion from this type of perspective is still very limited. In addition to that, very few scholars that study the topic of International Organizations and human rights have yet analyzed this phenomenon from a different perspective. Consequently, this book is looking to contribute by promoting a different one. Undoubtedly, this will have an impact on the operational process of such institutions, and at the same time, it will promote debate at the international and national level in order to empower people as well as governments so that they might have a voice in the transformation of international mechanisms from a rights-based approach. The objective of the book, then, is to evaluate the different challenges international institutions face and how to strengthen them in order to ensure the protection of escr. More specifically, it seeks to detect different patterns in two types of actors that include international financial institutions and the institutions of the universal system such as the un Refugee Agency. This book, at the same time, will attempt to provide a series of recommendations so that international institutions might have a stronger role in the warrant and fulfilment of rights. For this, the book is presenting different analytical frameworks by evaluating relevant topics that are affecting modern society.

The evaluation of the different challenges affecting International Institutions in the protection of escr is indeed a very complex and difficult task due to the diverse range of institutions that have been created. As a result of that, the author has chosen a selection of specific topics where such challenges might be found in order to generalize some level of abstraction. The case studies mainly deal with escr generally including the Right to Social Security and also procedural obligations of States such as Accountability and Transparency. While some cases evaluate directly the role of international institutions other cases try to evaluate how, in practice, such actions are operationalized in practice by States. Moreover, the evaluation of the challenges affecting international institutions must take into account not only the internal processes of such agents, but also the effects of such actions operationalized by States through different policies. Thus, in our perception, this type of approach provides us with a multilevel analysis that might reveal more patterns in different spaces.

Essentially, this book avoids the analysis of many actors precisely to perceive specific patterns that perhaps, through different methodologies, have not been perceived. The qualitative and comparative design of this study allows us to describe a richer picture of the patterns that might not be very visible. Therefore, the methodology includes several case studies24 that analyses the role of international organizations and their interaction with human rights by reviewing different descriptive literature. Attempting to find common patterns in different structures and processes will give us some indication, a picture of the type of problems these institutions are currently facing. Due to the complexity of this phenomenon, the author believes that this type of approach is very convenient and indispensable in order to recognize the impact of international institutions and their challenges. The literature on this topic has also failed to study how international institutions analyze this phenomenon from a social theory perspective. Therefore, this book seeks to examine the interaction of structure and agency and their nature through this particular theoretical framework. By investigating this interaction in diverse settings through different cases, we might be able to see different variations of interactions across space and time.

More specifically, the author chose to evaluate the challenges facing international institutions by looking at different theoretical frameworks that evaluate factors such as the interpretation of Structure and Agency, Post-Washington Consensus, Social dislocations, Social Security, Inequality, Accountability Mechanisms, Refugees and Non-contributory pensions through cash transfers. The hypothesis that this book sustains is that the main challenges facing International Institutions are related to a lack of institutional capacity25. This project is very important since we need to strengthen international organizations in order to confront the challenges and risks that we are facing ahead that are threatening society at different levels and, especially, the poorest. This type of research studies is relevant and necessary due to the current political climate the world is facing, therefore, it is important to continue improving the international system. Indeed, constantly assessing the role that these structures have played in our lives is imperative since it allows us not only to get to know each other on a personal level, but also to open a path for strengthening and integrating the various social groups.

The book has been structured as follows: Chapter 1 begins by providing the reader with the perspective of Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, such perspective involves a decolonial point of view from the global south to think about neo-institutionalism and a contractualism that adjusts to the challenges of today’s society. The main argument of this chapter is that the adoption of a new intentional orientation towards the world based on Objective and Subjective recursive relationships offers a new procedure in order to interpret and act in the world. In a similar vein, Chapter 2 contends that the ideas and practices of the Post­Washington Consensus are not taking Polanyi’s warning into account, in fact, this new ideology not only remains strongly committed to market expansion but also, both the World Bank and Stiglitz might be proposing alternatives that intentionally or unintentionally are reproducing the previous neoliberalist regime and increasing social dislocations. A new strategy suggested by Townsend is presented to be explored as an alternative, and finally, crucial elements of a new global strategy are advocated and proposed in this chapter. Then, the central argument of Chapter 3 is that the perception of both the World Bank as well as the un (International Covenant on escr and ilo-Conventions) are likely leading us to the reproduction of an unequal system. It contends that unless a new strategy has a strong focus on reducing inequality we will not be achieving the ideal of Social Justice. On the other hand, Chapter 4 suggests that the growth and evolution of accountability mechanisms in international financial institutions are characterized by a growing accumulation of power at the institutional level as well as at different internal levels such as management. The solution proposed as a crucial step to build strong accountability in international financial institutions is to encourage more independence of these mechanisms as well as to promote the development of a serious attitude of these mechanisms towards institutional reflexivity. This reflexivity might be achieved by designing a coordinated strategy to standardize and improve their organizational, strategic, and accountability processes in order to enhance effectiveness, efficiency, equality, and sustainability, while learning the lessons of the past in order to avoid the repetition of violations. The argument of Chapter 5 is that the Declaration of Cartagena has made a substantial contribution to the Latin American System by setting a flexible framework for the construction of a Common Asylum System aiming to protect the victims, integrate communities and seeking the harmonization of standards and practices in the region, however, many challenges remain, the situation in Ecuador is revealing that, unless robust and strong action is taken by international institutions, Governments and Civil Society, the current Asylum System in Latin America will promote exclusionary and minimalist practices. A Latin American Action Plan is suggested in this chapter highlighting the need for new strategies to be discussed at the regional level using international mechanisms. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes that there is a lack of commitment of the States concerning the operationalization of the principles of Accountability, Transparency, and Access to information. Therefore, it is recommended to develop a strategy to strengthen the control bodies assigned to the monitoring of the new transparency laws in those countries. At the same time, international institutions must develop a new and robust strategy in order to ensure countries strengthen the process of monitoring of cash transfers and non-contributory pensions from a human rights perspective.

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1 According to the unhcr (2015), the indicators of internally displaced people worldwide have been increasing since the second world war. Statistics suggests that, in 2019 there were potentially 70.8 forcibly displaced people worldwide of which 41.3 million were Internally displaced population, 25.9 million were refugees (mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan) and 3.5 million were asylum seekers.

2 The unhcr is an international organization whose mission is to protect the rights of refugees worldwide as well as stateless people and forcibly displaced communities. In 2019, the unhcr employed around 16,803 people based in 134 countries.

3 Among the minimalist interventions used by the World Bank are, for instance, the promotion of minimum cash payments or cash transfers for unemployed people living in extreme poverty. This minimal assistance differs from the Universalist approaches to poverty reduction adopted, for instance, in countries with a universal welfare state such as Sweden, Denmark or Norway.

4 According to the un (2020) “Income inequality has increased in most developed countries and in some middle-income countries, including china and India, since 1990. Countries where Inequality has grown are home to more than two thirds (71 per cent) of the world population”.

5 According to the un 2020 “Across 107 developing countries, 1.3 billion people – 22 percent – live in multidimensional poverty”.

6 This process of fragmentation is taking place everywhere in all areas, namely, political, economic, social, technological and legal.

7 Human rights are universal meaning that it applies to everyone. They are inalienable, they cannot be taken away and indivisible and this implies that they are interconnected.

8 For instance, Italy (1947), Germany (1949), Portugal (1976), Spain (1978) and Greece (1975) among others.

9 Oil Crisis (1973), Western Countries initiate diversification and energy saving policies.

10 Iranian Revolution (1973). The overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran caused a second oil crisis.

11 In 1980 an invasion of Iran by Iraq took place. Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq at that time until 1988, this period ended with more than 1 million soldiers killed.

12 Black Monday in which millions of investors flocked to sell their shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

13 In 1994, the Mexican Government was unable to maintain its fixed exchange rate against the dollar leading the country to devaluate the Mexican peso.

14 Economic crisis in Asia caused because of the devaluation of the Thai Currency. This had repercussions in several countries in the region.

15 In 1998, the country collapsed its national banking system leading to a suspension of international payments as well as a devaluation of the rublo.

16 In 2001, the country did not have the funds to maintain the fixed parity of the peso against the dollar leading the country also to sustain the payment of its debt.

17 There have been several recessions worldwide, the most recent was in 2008 due to the subprime mortgages.

18 According to the Center for Economic and Social Rights (2012) “poor human rights outcomes are usually connected to dysfunctions in institutions, social structure, or lack of political will” (p. 23).

19 This mechanism can also receive individual communications, individual victims of escr can complain allowing the committee to adopt decisions, to express their views as to whether or not there has been a violation of their rights.

20 The Protocol (2014) “creates a mechanism whereby rights holders can submit complaints of violations of any Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and hold States accountable to their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil Covenant rights, including the human rights to adequate housing, food, water, sanitation, health care, education and social security”.

21 The UK, through a referendum process, decided to leave the European Union.

22 “From 1919 to 1978, the International Labor conference adopted 151 conventions and 159 recommendations” (Valticos, 2013, p. 20).

23 Populism is a rejection of pluralism (Müller, 2016). Far right parties are increasing worldwide.

24 According to Zainal (2007) Case study research “…can be considered a robust research method particularly when a holistic in-depth investigation is required” (p. 1)

25 Such lack of institutional capacity might be also generating high levels of bureaucracy and mismanagement. According to the Washington Post the World Health organization spends $200 million just on travel while in 2015 it spent $71 million (Aids and Hepatitis), $59 million (Tuberculosis), $61 million (Malaria). For more on this, see Cheng (2017). The un has been also cutting their budgets due to the new policies of the Trump administration (Mint, 2017).