Worlds Apart: Bridging the Gap between Human Rights and Fiscal Transparency. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kuosmanen, Jaakko
• Is Part Of: Nordic journal of human rights. Volume 34:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Fiscal Transparency -- Human Rights -- Accountability -- Deliberation; Human rights -- Periodicals; Human rights -- Scandinavia -- Periodicals; 323
• DOI: 10.1080/18918131.2016.1166569
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1891-814X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines the existing gap between human rights and fiscal transparency discourses, and the reasons for bridging this gap. Fiscal transparency work is very much insulated from human rights work, regardless of the fact that there are close links between the two concepts. Human rights constitute a justificatory foundation for fiscal transparency measures, and fiscal transparency can be instrumentally helpful for the realisation of human rights. This article suggests that closer dialogues between the two discourses can be helpful for human rights work. Fiscal transparency measures can, depending on how they are designed, be utilised in human rights work to hold states accountable for non-compliance with obligations arising from human rights. Also, fiscal transparency measures can be helpful for deliberative efforts to establish what human rights actually demand from fiscal policies.