|
Mr.
James Wolfensohn Fax: + 1 202 522 7700 Dear Mr. Wolfensohn: Follow up and implementation of Extractive Industries Review (EIR) recommendations on indigenous peoples We, the undersigned indigenous peoples’ organizations, welcome the final report of the EIR and are writing to you as President of the World Bank Group to lead in the World Bank’s implementation of its recommendations on indigenous peoples. We especially endorse the EIR recommendations that deal with indigenous peoples because these are largely consistent with our own demands for reforms in the World Bank and in the extractives industry. We commend the eminent person Dr. Emil Salim for recommending appropriate measures to ensure that World Bank policies and projects effectively address the negative impacts of extractive industries on our peoples. Positive aspects of the EIR report: The findings of the independent EIR Report corroborate the concerns that indigenous peoples have raised about World Bank-assisted extractive industry projects and their negative impacts on our territories, wellbeing and livelihoods. The report confirms that these industries have violated our fundamental rights and have a devastating effect on our lives, our territories and our cultures. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Dr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, for instance, states that extractive industries are “one of the major human rights problems faced by [indigenous peoples] in recent decades.” [1] In our experience, extractive industries are not sustainable and create or exacerbate poverty for indigenous peoples rather than alleviate it. The EIR report also recognizes that the present World Bank policies on indigenous peoples do not provide adequate safeguards and are inconsistent with our internationally guaranteed rights. The Eminent person observes that the current draft policy (OP 4.10) has been repudiated by indigenous peoples as sorely deficient in many respects. Ongoing problems with the revision of the World Bank’s Indigenous Peoples Policy: On many occasions, indigenous organisations have criticized Draft OP4.10, the Bank’s proposed new policy on Indigenous Peoples because it does not contain adequate safeguards for our rights and welfare. We maintain that prior informed consent, land and territorial issues and protection from forced resettlement must be dealt in the Bank’s proposed new policy. President Wolfensohn, as Dr. Salim stated in the letter accompanying the EIR Report, “the revision of the safeguard policy on indigenous peoples is a fundamental test of the World Bank’s commitment to poverty alleviation through sustainable development.” We strongly endorse this statement and urge you to use all of your influence to ensure that the outstanding concerns regarding the Bank’s policy are addressed as soon as is practicable. As the President of the World Bank, we look to your leadership to provide a positive and progressive response to the EIR recommendations. Proposed legal roundtable on OP4.10 and the rights of indigenous peoples The EIR report recommends that draft O.P. 4.10 should not be further finalized until high level discussions with indigenous peoples, including a legal roundtable discussion between Bank lawyers, indigenous peoples’ representatives and legal experts on the consistency of the policy with internationally guaranteed human rights, have taken place. It is our understanding that Vice President Ian Johnson wrote to Dr. Salim in October 2003 (before the EIR Report was published), confirming that Bank’s legal department is willing to organize a legal roundtable on indigenous peoples and international human rights law. However, to our knowledge, indigenous leaders and the wider indigenous movement have not received any communication from the Bank regarding this planned event. The proposed legal roundtable is of great importance to us, as it could provide a forum for examining the remaining outstanding issues on Draft O.P. 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples. Problems with Management Response to Extractive Industries Review Report: It is therefore with great disappointment that we have read an early Draft World Bank Management’s Response to the Extractive Industries Review Report. We are particularly dismayed that the Draft Management Response has either rejected Dr. Salim’s key recommendations on indigenous peoples or avoided substantive response by saying that these issues are under consideration as part of the process of revising the Bank’s policy. Further, a number of important recommendations are omitted entirely from the Response, not responded to at all or are incorrectly recorded. This is unacceptable to us. We are deeply concerned that Bank Management
has rejected
[2]
the EIR recommendation that “The WBG should
ensure that borrowers and clients engage in consent processes with
indigenous peoples and local communities directly affected by oil,
gas, and mining projects, to obtain their free, prior and informed
consent. For indigenous peoples this is an internationally guaranteed
right; for local communities it is an essential part of obtaining
social license and demonstrable public acceptance for the project.”
Recommendations President Wolfensohn, we acknowledge and commend your attention to human rights as exemplified by your speeches on this subject. We urge you to ensure that the human rights and indigenous peoples’ rights recommendations in the EIR Report are not cast aside by Bank Management and that they are fully implemented with indigenous peoples’ full participation through our freely chosen representatives. To this end, we implore you to:
Yours respectfully, BURMA BANGLADESH Bangladesh Adivasi Forum NEPAL INDIA MALAYSIA THAILAND PHILIPPINES RUSSIA [1] Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, submitted pursuant to Commission resolution 2001/57 UN Doc. E/CN.4/2002/97, at para. 56. [2] Draft Management Response, para. 41. |
