The global financial crisis, poverty and human rights
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1. World Bank, World Bank Report: Swimming Against the Tide: How Developing Countries are Coping with the Global Crisis, March 2009.
2. The IMF predicts that growth will contract by 1.3% in Brazil and 6% in Russia. Growth in India is predicted to drop from 7.3% in 2008 to 4.5% and in China from 9.0% in 2008 to 6.5%: IMF, World Economic Outlook: Crisis and Recovery, April 2009, page 20.
3. World Bank, 'World Bank Lowers Remittances Forecast for 2009 as Financial Crisis Deepens', March 24 2009: http://go.worldbank.org/QECJQ3IFU0.
4. Mr Zoellick's Opening Address Remarks of the Opening Press Conference of World Bank AGM in Istanbul, October 2 2009: http://go.worldbank.org/RWMPPP2I80.
5. That is, a shift to these countries of at least 3% additional voting power in respect of the World Bank and at least 5% in respect of the IMF; see G20 Communiqué; 25 September 2009, paras 20-21.
6. See, for example, IFC Issue Brief, IFC Response to the Global Crisis, April 2009: http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/media.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/SM09_CrisisResponse_IssueBrief/$FILE/SM09_CrisisResponse_IssueBrief.pdf; WTO News Items, Lamy Creates General Task Force on Financial Crisis, 14 October 2009: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news08_e/tnc_chair_report_oct08_e.htm.
7. In terms of structural reform, the commitment at the recent Pittsburgh Summit to a shift in IMF quota share of "at least 5% from over-represented countries to under-represented countries using the current quota formula as the basis to work from", are of particular note: Leaders' Statement, the Pittsburgh Summit, September 24-25 2009, para. 20: http://www.pittsburghsummit.gov/mediacenter/129639.htm
8. The highest it has been in the US for 26 years. For current and archived statistics, see US Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/cps/.
(The author is Associate Dean and Professor of Human Rights Law of Law School, University of Sydney, Australia.)
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