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treaty between the Plurinational State of Boliviaand the Netherlands. Finally, in 2006, Bechtel settledfor a token amount in the wake of an internationalcampaign against the company. 135In their responses to the 2008 financial crisis,European and North American governmentmeasures such as massive financial bailouts andsubsidies to automakers transgressed the termsof trade agreements, underlining the limits thatagreements place on policy space. 136A RIGHTS-BASED FRAMEWORK FORGLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCEFrom a human rights perspective, internationalcooperation is essential for supporting individualStates’ ability to meet their obligations to protect,respect and fulfil rights. The ICESCR recognizes that acountry has obligations with regard to the realizationof economic and social rights beyond its borders. 137However, it does not define how this obligationis to be interpreted or applied and, as a result,‘international assistance’ is often interpreted narrowlyas the obligation of high-income countries to provideODA to poor countries. 138To be sure, ODA can be an important source ofbudget support for low- and middle-incomecountries and represents one channel throughwhich international assistance and co-operationcan contribute to mobilizing resources for improvinggender equality and realizing economic and socialrights. However, whether ODA contributes to therealization of rights varies depending on how it isused. It may be restricted to specific uses or by-passgovernments altogether; it may be tied to imports ofgoods and services from donor countries that limitits effect on the domestic economy; and significantamounts of donor funds could serve as a disincentivefor governments to increase the effectiveness of theirtax systems for mobilizing domestic resources. 139While ODA remains a potentially effective meansthrough which resources can be mobilized at theglobal level, international law implies a broadercommitment to international cooperation, althoughthe extent of this cooperation with regard to economicand social rights has not been clearly spelled out. 140Global economic governance describes the setof institutions and relationships that structurethe actions of states and private agents acrossinternational borders. Current institutions ofglobal economic governance are characterizedby unequal power relationships that determinethe space within which national governmentscan act, and not all players have an equalvoice. 141 Indeed, most existing institutions of globalgovernance—for instance, the IMF, the World Bank,the G20, the United Nations and the World TradeOrganization—exhibit clear power dynamics. 142Women’s representation in the top decisionmakingbodies of these governance institutionsis at best low and in some cases negligible (seeFigure 4.8). Representation of women is, of course,no guarantee that issues of gender equality will betaken up in policy discussions and decision-makingprocesses. However, a lack of representationitself reveals a serious source of gender inequalityand reduces the likelihood that other genderinequalities in global macroeconomic policy will becorrected.The current system of global governanceexacerbates, rather than mitigates, the problemswith macroeconomic policy, reinforcing the dividebetween ‘social policy’ and ‘economic policy’and the lack of attention to distributive outcomes,including persistent gender inequalities. Due totheir links with international economic institutions,state agencies such as central banks and ministriesof finance have gained in influence in recent yearsrelative to those associated with social, rather thaneconomic, policies. 143 This ‘internationalization ofthe state’, whereby state institutions are increasinglyattuned to global economic relationships ratherthan domestic policy concerns, exacerbatesthe biases towards and within macroeconomicpolicy. 144 Investment in human development,social policy, unpaid care and domestic work andgender equality are considered domestic policyissues and are therefore not prioritized in globaleconomic policy forums such as the G20. 145Global cooperation for the realizationof economic and social rights could beachieved through the universal acceptanceof extraterritorial obligations of governmentswith regard to the realization of rights beyondtheir own borders, as outlined in the MaastrichtPrinciples (see Box 4.8), which includeconsideration of the roles of transnationalcorporations, non-government al organizationsand intergovernmental institutions.