E/C.12/2016/1 6. When exiting financial assistance programmes, States parties are also required to review their policies so as to enhance the effective protection of Covenant rights in line with the progress achieved in the post-crisis economic recovery. International organizations as lenders 7. The lenders also have obligations under general international law. Like any other subject of international law, international financial institutions and other international organizations are “bound by any obligations incumbent upon them under general rules of international law, under their constitutions or under international agreements to which they are parties”. 3 They are therefore obligated to comply with human rights, as listed in particular in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that are part of customary international law or of the general principles of law, both of which are sources of international law. 8. The Committee is fully aware that, in the case of IMF or IBRD, the relevant Articles of Agreement 4 establishing the organizations have sometimes been interpreted by the organizations as not requiring them to include human rights considerations in their decision-making. The Committee does not agree with such an interpretation. In discharging their duty to comply with human rights under international law, international institutions are not exercising powers that they do not have, nor are they taking into account considerations they would be obliged to ignore based on their statutes; rather, it is in the exercise of the powers that have been delegated to them by their member States that they should refrain from adopting measures that would result in human rights violations. Moreover, as specialized agencies of the United Nations, 5 IMF and IBRD are obligated to act in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which sets the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms as one of the purposes of the Organization, to be achieved in particular through international economic and social cooperation.6 States members of international organizations 9. The Committee recalls that States parties making decisions in their capacity as members of international financial institutions or other international organizations cannot ignore their human rights obligations when acting in their capacity as members of these organizations. The Committee has consistently stated that States parties to the Covenant, as well as the relevant United Nations agencies, should make a particular effort to ensure that the protection of the most basic economic, social and cultural rights is, to the maximum extent possible, built into programmes and policies designed to promote adjustment.7 The Committee therefore made it clear that States parties to the Covenant have obligations as States members of international financial institutions, in general, and of IMF, in particular. It has reiterated this in various general comments.8 States parties to the Covenant would be 3 4 5 6 7 8 GE.16-12655 See Interpretation of the Agreement of 25 March 1951 between the WHO and Egypt, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1980, p. 73, para. 37. See IMF, Articles of Agreement, art. IV, sect. 3 (b); and IBRD, Articles of Agreement, art. IV, sect. 10. Charter of the United Nations, Articles 57 and 63; General Assembly resolution 124 (II) of 15 November 1947, approving the agreements with IRBD and IMF. See the Charter of the United Nations, Articles 1 (3) and 55 (c). See general comment No. 2 (1990) on international technical assistance measures, para. 9. See, for example, general comment No. 14 (2000) on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, para. 39. 3