From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM WHO RULES THE WORLD?• Co-ordinating the systemically important countries, forexample through the Group of Eight (G8), to manage thefunctioning of international financial markets;• Redistributing wealth, technology, and knowledge throughaid or other mechanisms, such as international taxation;• Averting environmental or health threats, through agreementssuch as the Montreal Protocol (on ozone depletion) and theKyoto Protocol on climate change, or through institutionssuch as the World Health Organization or UNAIDS;• Avoiding war and limiting abuses during war by providing aforum for negotiation of differences, and upholding the bodyof international humanitarian law, such as the GenevaConventions;• Preventing powerful countries or corporations from harmingweaker and poorer ones. This ‘stop doing harm’ agendaincludes regulating the arms trade, carbon emissions,corruption, and destructive trade policies;• Providing a safety net for the most vulnerable people whendisaster strikes and states are unable or unwilling to cope, asthrough the relief work of UN agencies or the internationalcommunity’s embrace of the ‘responsibility to protect’;• Changing attitudes and beliefs, for example through theConvention on the Elimination of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW) or the Convention on the Rights ofthe Child.Unfortunately, global governance often fails to live up to these highideals. Whether by using aid for short-term political purposes, wagingwar rather than averting it, or using regional trade agreements toimpose economic straitjackets rather than the freedom to pursue wisedevelopment policies, the misguided actions of global institutionsand the short-sighted policies of wealthy countries often pose threatsto development. The whole project of multilateralism – the nations ofthe world working in concert to address its many challenges andproblems – was dealt a severe setback when the invasion of Iraqbypassed the UN system.293