The Bretton Woods Institutions and Human Rights: Converging Tendencies

Summary

Introduction

In the early 1940s, planning for the creation of post-war institutions began, with a vision for the creation of three different international economic and financial organisations; the United States was particularly adamant in its belief that the international economy should be at the center of the new world order. At the time, these future institutions were supposed to be the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Trade Organization (ITO). This last one was never created, although the few foundations which were laid gradually evolved with the progressive institutionalisation of the GATT and, ultimately, the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994. The IMF and the IBRD, known as the ‘Bretton Woods’ institutions (named after the resort at which the constitutive agreements were negotiated), officially began functioning in 1946.

Parallel to the creation of these institutions, the adoption of the UN Charter in 1945, and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 by the UN General Assembly, were instrumental in bringing about another change in international relations.