The human rights effects of participation in program lending versus the CESCR

This is the first study to compare the competing effects of state participation in two international governmental regimes on government respect for human rights. Specifically, we compare the effects of participation in the international financial regime with participation in the international human rights regime on changes in government respect for economic and social rights in developing countries between 1981 and 2004. A longer period under World Bank or IMF program lending was found to be associated with lower life expectancy, a lower adult literacy rate, and a higher infant mortality rate. A longer period of participation in the International Covenant on Economic and Social Human Rights only was associated with an improved adult literacy rate. The use of a two-stage model ruled out the possibility that economic and social rights practices of governments would have changed in these ways even if governments had not participated or had participated only briefly in either regime.