ifis shirk
responsibility for human rights
violations
“The [World Bank's
Extractive Industries Review] received
reports of alleged human rights violations
ranging from intimidation, torture,
kidnapping, and detention to rape and
killings. Women and children often are the
most severely harmed victims. According to
information received by the EIR, the
incidents of human rights violations are
mostly not acknowledged by governments and
courts in many developing countries. …
There was also a strong element of fear:
quite a few people testifying to the EIR
required anonymity when describing human
rights violations.”
World Bank Extractive Industries Review,
December 2003.
For decades, the World Bank
and other international financial
institutions (IFIs) have been forcing
countries to open up for unregulated
large-scale development projects without
providing protection for people and the
environment. Their operations have left
behind misery all over the planet. People
have been displaced from their ancestral
lands, rivers polluted, livelihoods
destroyed and people's security repeatedly
put at risk.
The IFIs cannot currently
be held accountable for the human and
environmental rights violations generated
by their programs and projects. The member
states of multilateral development banks
like the World Bank have all endorsed the
UN Declaration on Human Rights, and are
bound by its provisions. But these
obligations are often forgotten when
countries take decisions within the banks.
Paradoxically, although the World Bank is
itself a UN specialized agency, it is
exempt from human rights obligations under
UN treaties.
So far, IFIs have refused to take
responsibility for the human rights impacts
of their lending, saying they are
non-political actors. They disregard
widespread calls for compensation and
reparations. Despite being public
institutions with the aim to alleviate
poverty, the IFIs continue to finance
projects and programs that undermine
people's rights.
more
information:
Friends of the Earth
International IFIs programme,
www.foei.org/ifi
