By tradition, the United States selects the World Bank President, while Europeans nominate the head of the International Monetary Fund. However, the 24-member board of the World Bank will vote on his nomination on 31 March 2005.
Considering Paul Wolfowitz, one of the main architects of the controversial US foreign policy in the last few years was not suitable to run an organisation whose mission should be to fight poverty and improve the living standard of people in the developing world, a number of organisations urged European States to oppose the nomination of Wolfowitz and called for a transparent process of selection.
In spite of a strong opposition by civil society, European States appeared yesterday to be unwilling to oppose the election of Wolfowitz for mere diplomatic concerns, although, there had been a precedent in 2000, when the US vetoed the European candidate to the presidency of the IMF.
The FIDH considers that the establishment of a democratic and transparent process of nomination of the heads of the Bretton Woods institutions should be one of the first step for reforming these institutions, enabling developing countries, the first targets of the policies of these institutions, to be part of the decision-making.
The World Bank is a major institution for fighting against poverty, and its policies have an important impact on the enjoyment on economic, social and cultural rights in developing countries. In particular the impact of structural adjustment programs that were run for years by the international financial institutions has been widely recognised as having had a negative effect on the enjoyment of human rights. The FIDH considers international human rights law as the sole framework within which the social politics of the World Bank should be conceived, developed, implemented, and evaluated. Though it is still incomplete, the social turn taken by the World Bank, as well as the commitment of its President Mr. Wolfensohn to make explicit reference to a human rights framework, has been welcomed by the FIDH. The FIDH considers however that at the present stage of the reform of the international financial institutions, it is crucial that the image of those institutions is not put in jeopardy by partisan appointments, symbolising a foreign policy that has been broadly viewed as unilateralist and insufficiently attentive to the needs of a multilateral approach to problems, such as the fight against poverty which requires collective action at the global level.
With the nomination of Wolfowitz, the FIDH fears that the policies of the World Bank will go backwards and become a means of implementing US foreign policy.
The FIDH strongly calls on European States to oppose the nomination of Wolfowitz.