A/HRC/25/50/Add.1 11. It is notable that the Guiding Principles on foreign debt and human rights also underscore that States should ensure that their rights and obligations arising from external debt agreements or arrangements do not hinder the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights.8 B. The obligations of Greece’s international lenders 12. It is increasingly accepted that non-State actors, including international financial institutions, have obligations to ensure that their policies and activities respect international human rights standards.9 This obligation implies a duty to refrain from formulating, adopting, funding, promoting or implementing policies and programmes that directly or indirectly impede the enjoyment of human rights.10 13. It is also well established that States must adhere to their international law obligations when they act through international organizations.11 Moreover, an important element of the duty of international cooperation as reflected in the Charter of the United Nations and binding international human rights treaties is that States parties, individually or through membership of international institutions, should not adopt or promote policies or engage in practices that imperil the enjoyment of human rights. 14. In circumstances where countries are constrained to implement adjustment programmes involving austerity, it should be ensured that efforts to protect the most basic economic, social and cultural rights are, to the maximum extent possible, factored into such programmes and policies.12 15. In tacit recognition of their role in relation to adjustment programmes, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has urged international financial 8 9 10 11 12 6 A/HRC/20/23, annex, para. 16. See for example Andrew Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State-Actors (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 137-159; C. Lumina, “An assessment of the human rights obligations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with particular reference to the World Bank’s Inspection Panel”, Journal for Juridical Science, vol. 31, No. 2 (2006), pp. 108-129; Roberto Dañino, “Legal Opinion on Human Rights and the Work of the World Bank”, World Bank, 27 January 2006, para. 25; August Reinisch, “The Changing International Legal Framework for Dealing with Non-State Actors”, in P. Alston (ed), Non-State Actors and Human Rights (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005); Mac Darrow, Between Light and Shadow: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and International Human Rights Law (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2003); Sigrun Skogly, The Human Rights Obligations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (London, Cavendish, 2001); Philippe Sands and Pierre Klein, Bowett’s Law of International Institutions, fifth edition (London, Sweet and Maxwell, 2001), pp. 458-459. See also the Guiding Principles on foreign debt and human rights (A/HRC/20/23, annex), para. 9, and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (A/HRC/17/31, annex). A/HRC/20/23, para. 9. See for example Waite and Kennedy v Germany, Application No. 26083/94, European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber Judgement of 18 February 1999, para. 67; Mathews v United Kingdom, Application No. 24833/94, European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber Judgement of 18 February 1999, para. 32; Willem van Genugten, “Tilburg Guiding Principles on World Bank, IMF and Human Rights”, in Willem van Genugten, Paul Hunt and Susan Mathews (eds.), World Bank, IMF and Human Rights (2003), pp. 247-255; A/CN.4/564/Add.2; and the Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (E/C.12/2000/13), para. 19. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General comment No. 2, para 9. See also General comment No. 4 (right to adequate housing); General comment No. 12 (right to food); General comment No. 15 (right to water); General comment No. 18 (right to work), paras. 30 and 53; General comment No. 19 (social security), paras. 58 and 83-84.