International Financial Institutions’ responsibility to ensure Meaningful and Effective Participation
Click here to sign: [English] [Arabic] [Spanish] [French] [Russian] [Portuguese]
Download the statement here: [English] [Arabic] [Spanish] [French] [Russian] [Portuguese]
In recent years, international financial institutions, including the World Bank Group, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and other regional development and investment banks, have increasingly emphasized the importance of participation, good governance, and accountability for development. As both human rights and development experts have noted, respect for human rights of freedom of expression, assembly, and association is crucial for achieving participatory, sustainable, and accountable development (1).
In many countries where international financial institutions (IFIs) are investing, these rights are under attack, from violent crackdowns on protests and criminalization of speech, to arbitrary arrests and detention of human rights defenders, as well as restrictions on civil society organizations (CSOs) (2). Global Witness identified 2015 as the worst year on record for killings of land and environmental defenders, with 185 killings across 16 countries (3). This environment of violence, intimidation, and closing civil society space renders meaningful public participation in development virtually impossible. It also significantly increases the risk that IFI-financed activities will contribute to or exacerbate human rights violations (4).
In all their activities, IFIs should do everything within their powers to support an enabling environment for public participation, in which people are empowered to engage in crafting their own development agendas and in holding their governments, donors, businesses, and other actors to account. IFIs should also ensure that their activities do not cause or contribute to human rights violations, including taking necessary measures to identify and address human rights risks in all of their activities.
We, the undersigned, call on all international financial institutions to ensure that the activities they finance respect human rights and that there are spaces for people to participate in the development of IFI projects and hold IFIs to account without risking their security. We call on IFIs to actively support the realization of rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and related human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), in all their activities.
We also urge shareholder governments to actively support these reforms at each international financial institution of which they are a member.
We call on international financial institutions to:
1. As part of country-level and project-level engagement, systematically analyze the environment for freedoms of expression, assembly, and association, and the realization of other human rights critical for development and the implications for development effectiveness and project outcomes. Build this analysis into country development strategies and project design, including by identifying the actions and measures which will be taken by the IFI and the client to address any risks.
2. Develop and institutionalize creative methods to enable people, including marginalized and discriminated against groups, to freely participate in proposed IFI-financed development initiatives that may affect them or that should benefit them, without risk of reprisals.
3. Systematically analyze and take measures to mitigate project-related risks relating to freedoms of expression, assembly, and association, and other human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights.
4. Establish policies to ensure that information and communication technology investments are not used to limit freedom of expression or infringe international obligations on privacy rights.
5. From the earliest stages of project development until following project completion, take all necessary measures to mitigate risks of all forms of threats, attacks, or reprisals to community members, workers, activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society organizations for participating in project development, for criticizing or opposing a project or otherwise speaking out (or being perceived to have spoken out) against a project. Such measures should include: incorporating clauses preventing reprisals in loan agreements and developing an urgent response system to address threats to project critics.
6. Consistently highlight the importance of the rights of freedom of expression, assembly, and association for participatory, sustainable, and accountable development in dialogue with all levels of government and in relevant IFI publications. In the face of proposals that would roll back protections of these rights, emphasize to governments the adverse impact such proposals would have on development effectiveness and the IFI’s activities in the country.
7. Concerning compliance/accountability mechanisms: develop measures to protect people’s right to remedy, including the right to freely approach and fully participate in the IFI accountability mechanism processes; ensure that those communities likely to be affected by a project are aware of and feel safe in approaching accountability and grievance mechanisms; give accountability mechanisms the tools and power to address situations in which complainants experience retaliation after participating in or attempting to utilize an accountability mechanism process; and ensure that compliance investigations also examine any instances of retaliation for opposition to the project and/or participation in the mechanism process.
Signed,
- 11.11.11 – Coalition of the Flemish North-South Movement, Belgium
- A Toda Voz, A.C., Mexico
- Accountability Counsel, United States
- ActionAid USA, United States
- Actions pour les Droits, l`Environnement et la Vie, Democratic Republic of Congo
- African Law Foundation (AFRILAW), Nigeria
- African Resources Watch (AFREWATCH), Democratic Republic of Congo
- Alianza para la Conservación y el Desarrollo (ACD), Panama
- Al-Noor Universal Foundation, Iraq
- Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, Thailand
- Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), Philippines
- Amazon Watch, United States
- American Jewish World Service, United States
- Amnesty International, United Kingdom
- Anticorruption Business Council of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kyrgyz Republic
- Arabic Water Forum, Morocco
- Article 19, United Kingdom
- Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, Regional
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM – Asia), Regional
- Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente, Regional
- Assembly of AL-Inbithaq for Development & Economic Development, Iraq
- Association for Promotion Sustainable Development, India
- Association Green Istria
- Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters- HRDP, Myanmar
- ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, Regional
- Atgaja, Lithuania
- Bank Information Center, United States
- BankTrack, Netherlands
- Bankwatch Romania, Romania
- Bantay Kita-Publish What You Pay, Philippines
- Bio
diversity Conservation Center, Russia - Both ENDS, Netherlands
- Bretton Woods Project, United Kingdom
- Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation (BIRUDO), Uganda
- Business and Human Rights Resource Center, International
- Business and Welfare Initiatives Ltd., Bangladesh
- CEE Bankwatch, Czech Republic
- Center for Bangladesh Studies, Bangladesh
- Center for Ecology and Sustainable Development, Serbia
- Center for Environmental Information and Education, Bulgaria
- Center for International Environmental Law, United States
- Center for Studies and Economic Media, Yemen
- Center for Support of Civil Initiatives, Russia
- Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations – SOMO, Netherlands
- Centre for Transport and Energy, Czech Republic
- Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental, A.C., Mexico
- Citizens for Justice, Malawi
- CIVICUS, International
- Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach, United States
- Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic, United States
- Commercial Media Center, Iraq
- Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil
- Conseil régional des organisations non gouvernementales de développement, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Cotton Campaign, International
- Counter Balance, Czech Republic
- Crude Accountability, United States
- Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente, Peru
- Due Process of Law Foundation, International
- EarthRights International, International
- Ecological Society Green Salvation, Kazakhstan
- EcoLur Informational NGO, Armenia
- Eco – sense, Macedonia
- Egyptian Center of Civil and Legislative Reform, Egypt
- Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, Egypt
- Empower India, India
- Environmental Council of Primorye Territory, Russia
- Equitable Cambodia, Cambodia
- Estonian Green Movement, Estonia
- European Center for Not-for-Profit-Law, Hungary
- Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme, International
- For the Earth (Ze Zemiata), Bulgaria
- Forest Peoples Programme, International
- Foro Ciudadano de Participación por la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos (FOCO), Argentina
- Forum of Dialogue and Partnership for Development, Egypt
- Foundation for the Conservation of the Earth, Nigeria
- Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), Nigeria
- Freedom House, United States
- Friends of the Earth – CEPA, Slovakia
- Friends of the Earth U.S., United States
- Friends of the Forests of Siberia, Russia
- Front Line Defenders, Regional
- Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Argentina
- Fundacion MaderaVerde, Honduras
- Fundar, Centro de Análisis e Investigación, Mexico
- FUNDEPS, Argentina
- Gender Action, United States
- Governance and Social Accountability Tunisia, Tunisia
- Greater Active Reconstruction & Justice Action Network-Nepal, Nepal
- Green Action (Zelena Akcija), Croatia
- Green Alternative, Georgia
- Greenpeace, Global
- Guatemala Human Rights Commission, United States
- Habi Center for Environmental Rights, Egypt
- Hann Baykeeper Waterkeeper Alliance, Senegal
- Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Germany
- Hnuti DUHA, Czech Republic
- Human Rights Watch, United States
- Inclusive Development International, United States
- Indigenous Women League Nepal, Nepal
- International Accountability Project, International
- International Environmental Union, Russia
- International Labor Rights Forum, International
- International Rivers, International
- Inspirator Muda Nusantara, Indonesia
- Institut de Recherche en Droits Humains (IRDH), Democratic Republic of Congo
- ITDP, Mexico
- Jamaa Resource Initiatives, Kenya
- Jewish World Watch, United States
- JONCTION, Senegal
- Just Associates (JASS), International
- Kalipunan ng Mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KATRIBU), Philippines
- Khpal Kore organization(KKO), Pakistan
- Krasnoyarsk Regional Public Environmental Organization “Plotina”, Russia
- Krityan and UNESCO Club Jamshedpur, India
- Latvian Green Movement, Latvia
- L’Observatoire d’Etudes et d’Appui à la Responsabilité Sociale et Environnementale, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Livelihood and Environment Ghana (LEG), Ghana
- Lumière Synergie pour le développement, Senegal
- Maison de Mines du Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, United States
- Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), Nagaland / India
- Narasha Community Development Group, Kenya
- National Ecological Centre of Ukraine, Ukraine
- National Society of Conservationists – Friends of the Earth Hungary
- Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)
- NGO Forum on ADB, Regional
- NGO Green Don, Russia
- Observatoire Gouvernance et Paix, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization Public Union, Azerbaijan
- Ong croissance saine environnement, Gabon
- Ong hadassa, Gabon
- Organic Consumers Association, Mexico
- Oxfam International, United Kingdom
- OT Watch, Mongolia
- Participatory Research Action Network, Bangladesh
- Phenix Center Jordan, Jordan
- Polish Green Network Poland
- Press Freedom Advocacy Association, Iraq
- Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research (PODER), Regional
- Protection International, Belgium
- Proyecto Tarahumara Sustentable, Mexico
- Public Research Center “Zhivaya Voda”, Russia
- Radanar Ayar Rural Development Association, Myanmar
- Regeneration International, Mexico
- Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO), Senegal
- Research and Preservation Agency of Taiga, Russia
- Réseau Camerounais des Organisations des Droits de l’Homme, Cameroon
- Réseau sénégal des défensurs des Droits humains (RSDD), Senegal
- Responsible Sourcing Network, United States
- Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition, Russia – Mongolia – China
- Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, United States
- Sakhalin Environmental Watch, Russia
- Sawit Watch, Indonesia
- Seeds – India, India
- Sisters of Mercy of the Americas’ Institute Justice Team, International
- Social Justice Connection, Canada
- Sursiendo, Comunicación y Cultura Digital, Mexico
- Sustainable Development Foundation, Thailand
- TAKKOM JERRY Polyvalence Culturelle et Environnementale, Senegal
- Tatarstan Branch of Russian Environmental Union, Germany
- The Gate of Culture and Development, Morocco
- Tunisian Association of Transparency in Energy and Mines (ATTEM), Tunisia
- Uganda Land Alliance, Uganda
- Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Global
- Urgewald, Germany
- Uzbek German Forum for Human Rights, Germany
- Youth Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Nepal, Nepal
- Walk Free, International
- Zo Indigenous Forum Mizoram, India
___________
(1) Daniel Kaufmann, “Human Rights, Governance, and Development: An empirical perspective,” in World Bank Institute, Development Outreach, October 2006, pp. 15- 20; Hans-Otto Sano, “Development and Human Rights: The Necessary, but Partial Integration of Human Rights and Development,” Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 22.3 (2000), pp. 734-52.
(2) Amnesty International, “The State of the World’s Human Rights 2015/2016,” 2016; Civicus, “2016 State of Civil Society Report,” June 2016.
(3) Global Witness, “On Dangerous Ground” June 2016.
(4) Human Rights Watch, “At Your Own Risk: Reprisals Against Critics of World Bank Group Projects,” June 22, 2015; Oxfam International, “The Suffering of Others: The human cost of the International Finance Corporation’s lending through financial intermediaries”