Et lækket dokument viser, at Verdensbanken nu vil sænke kriterier for rettigheder og miljø i projekter støttet af banken, mener flere miljøorganisationer. Forslaget til ny politik vil være i offentlig høring dette efterår.
Flere NGO’er kritiserer et lækket dokument om Verdensbankens nye politik omkring miljøstandarder og sociale rettigheder.
Bl. a. IWGIA og Forest Peoples Programme har kritiseret forslaget i pressemeddelelser, mens andre har udtalt sig kritisk til nyhedsmedier, bl. a. The Guardian.
“Despite Kim’s promise …. this plan reveals a shocking attempt to eviscerate protections for the poor while giving a green light for the destruction of forests and the natural environment,” said Sephanie Fried, director of the Ulu Foundation.
Det lækkede dokument, der nu er offentliggjort af banken, er en del af en omfattende proces, der skal opdatere de miljømæssige og sociale kriterier ved projekter støttet af Verdensbanken. Initiativet blev igangsat i 2012, og vil nu blive sendt i offentlig høring dette efterår.
Den internationale bank har netop offentliggjort strategien under overskriften “World Bank aims to strenthen safeguards”, et udsagn, som flere NGO’er altså ikke er enige i.
I januar fik Verdensbanken kritik af sin egen kontrolinstans for ikke at efterleve egne principper om rettigheder i en sag om støtte til et palmeolieprojekt i Honduras. Det blev kaldt den alvorligste kritik, som kontrolinstansen nogensinde har rettet mod banken.
Læs mere om den sag her:
http://www.u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/12-01-14/honduras-verdensbankens-egen-vagthund-kritiserer-s
Og om NGO-respons på sagen her:
http://www.u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/19-01-14/ngoer-verdensbanken-b-r-l-re-af-fejl-med-blodig-pa
Forslaget til ændring af standarder for miljø og sociale forhold vil være i høring fra september til sidst i november.
Læs mere om konsultationen her:
http://consultations.worldbank.org/consultation/review-and-update-world-bank-safeguard-policies
IWGIA er en organisation for oprindelige folks rettigheder. Her er deres kommentar:
In an unprecedented move, the World Bank will be proposing that governments could ‘opt-out’ of requirements designed to protect indigenous peoples from unintended and negative consequences from development activities funded by the multilateral lender.
In a leaked draft of new environmental and social standards to be considered for public consultation by a committee of the World Bank Executive Board on 30th of July, language has been included that would allow governments to disregard their existing obligations to indigenous peoples.
When the Bank announced it would be revising these standards (previously contained in an ad hoc set of eight separate policies) Bank management committed to ‘no dilution’ of existing standards.
This commitment has been repeated often over the past three years.
However, proposing that governments can ignore international standards on protection of indigenous peoples, and ignore the human rights that underpin those protections, is with out doubt a significant and serious watering down of existing standards.
Joan Carling, Secretary General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, noted “it is with deep disappointment and frustration that the World Bank chooses to further discriminate and
“Even with the inclusion of the provision for the free prior and informed consent, or FPIC, of indigenous peoples, this is meaningless with the ‘opt-out option’ for borrowers, of which many Asian governments would do as they refuse to legally recognize indigenous peoples in their respective countries.”
“The legal recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples over their lands, territories and resources is not also fully supported, which is a critical element for the protection of indigenous peoples in any development intervention.”
A dangerous aspect of the Bank’s proposal is the precedent it could set for other multilateral finance institutions.
The Bank has historically been a leader in developing progressively stronger environmental and social protections, but this latest draft undermines that reputation significantly.
Joji Cariño, Director of the Forest Peoples Programme, commented “Indigenous peoples’ recommendations on the need to strengthen World Bank standards and bring them into line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
