Between Human Rights and Neoliberalism: The UN’s Balancing Act

• In Event: Making and Breaking the International Social Contract Protecting Human Rights

Abstract

Both a product and a facilitating actor of globalization, the UN has been particularly important for the advancement of global human rights norms. As the Organization led us to a new era, “the Age of Rights,” another global shift involved the rise of neoliberalism. Neoliberal economic policies, promoted by major Western states and international financial agencies since the 1970s, are typically known as the structural adjustment policies (SAPs). While the negative human rights impact of SAPs is well documented, there is now an effort to reconcile neoliberal economic policies and business interests with human rights principles and demands. The paper focuses on the UN as an intergovernmental organization that is pulled in different directions by the rival global norms of human rights, the promotion of which is part of its mission, and neoliberalism, which is upheld by some wealthy member states and private contributors. Drawing attention to three key terms – “diversity and inclusion,” “multi-stakeholders,” and “public private partnership” – the paper analyzes the discourse of various UN documents and assesses the likely impacts of blending human rights discourse and neoliberal discourse on the realization/subversion of human rights goals.

Author

• Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, University of Connecticut-Stamford