Human rights council holds interactive dialogue with the independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order

21 September 2020

The Human Rights Council in a midday meeting held an interactive dialogue with Livingstone Sewanyana, the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order after he presented his report on the interplay between the economic policies and safeguards of international financial institutions and good governance at the local level.

The Independent Expert noted that international financial institutions provided loans and grants to developing countries and that this role allowed them to directly influence good governance at the local level by ensuring in particular the responsiveness of States to the needs of the populations and the fight against corruption. Financial institutions should actively ensure that the activities and projects they supported did not result in human rights violations, Mr. Sewanyana stressed.

In the interactive dialogue, speakers recommended that the international financial system be more representative and more responsive to the problems encountered by developing countries. Several speakers called for measures to be taken to reduce the debt of developing countries. Financial institutions were also called upon to act in coordination with States to help them deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking in the interactive dialogue were Pakistan, Cuba, Indonesia, Libya, India, China, Venezuela, Egypt, Chad, Armenia, Iran and Azerbaijan.

Also speaking were the following non-governmental organizations : United Nations Association of China, Chinese Association for International Understanding, Iraqi Development Organization, Fundacion para la Mejora de la Vida, la Cultura y la Sociedad, China Society for Human Rights Studies, Organization for Defending Victims of Violence, Sikh Human Rights Group, Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, South Youth Organization and Iuventum.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council’s forty-fifth regular session can be found here.

The Council will resume its work at 2 p.m. to hold separate interactive dialogues with the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and waste.

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For use of the information media; not an official record