World Bank Policies and the Obligation of Its Members to Respect, Protect and Fulfill the Right to Health

Abstract

The majority of World Bank donors are States parties to the main inter-national human rights conventions. This article uses the right to health as a lens for examining the obligations of donor States parties with re-spect to their involvement in the World Bank's development activities, which use the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process as their framework. The article uses the concept of core obligations to examine and assess public expenditure budgeting in the health care sectors of Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda, as provided for in the PRSP process. It argues that the current PRSPs make it impossible to fund public health care at a level that satisfies the requirements of core obligations. It concludes by calling on donor countries to comply with their interna-tional human rights obligations.