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Preventing Negative Human Rights Impacts at the World Bank

12.19.13

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Manageable prognostic process
Urgently needed
World Bank standards fail to meet US expectations

Contents for Review: Recognizing & mitigating human rights risks at World Bank Projects

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Mon State Fast Facts�(Government of Myanmar Household Survey 2011)

50% of poor households are landless
77% of households have no access to credit
38% of residents live in slum dwellings (lack of sanitation, water, space, durability)
24% of children suffer from wasting (malnutrition)
61% of household heads have not completed primary school

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Intense Militarization�(TBC 2012)

Tatmadaw Regional Command
Tatmadaw Light Infantry Division
Tatmadaw Military Operation Command
Tatmadaw Battalion Headquarters
BFG / Militia Headquarters
Tatmadaw Outpost
WB Thaton Power Project

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Villages
Cultivation
Dense Forest
Rubber Plantation
Sparse Forest (with some rubber)
Swamp
Water body

Populations and Farmland

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Unsafe Chemical Handling

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Environmental Dangers & Degradation

Legacy problems for future construction
Risk to agriculture
Risk to workers
Risk to communities

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“Safety First”

No occupational health and safety programming
No accident or spill logs
No workforce training
No management changes planned

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Kayin Livelihoods in and around Thaton Plant

No employment
Lost lands
Dwindling opportunities
Poverty & Discrimination

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Elements of Analysis

Problematic Context
Potential for problems in project
Unknown company

Project

(Gas-fired Electricity Plant)

Company

(Unknown, but funded

by the world bank)

Context

(Mon State, Myanmar:

Poor, ethnic minority

population with low

skill levels)

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Assessing Impacts

Category	Sub-Categories	Rights Topics
Labor	Wages	21 Context Topics, 13 Project Topics
	Unions
	Exploitive Practices
	Discrimination
	Labor Laws
	Project employment profile
Health	Health Regulations	31 Context Topics, 18 Project Topics
	Underlying Determinants
	Access and Infrastructure
	Food
	Infectious Diseases
	HIA
	Risks to Safety & Health
Environ-ment	Surface and Groundwater	33 Context Topics, 30 Project Topics
	Geology/Ecosystem
	Air
Political/ Legal	Form of Government	28 Context Topics, 9 Project Topics
	Strength of Civil Society
	Law Systems
	Strength of Governance
	Nondiscrimination Regulations
	Civil War/Conflict/Security
Economic/ Cultural/ Social	Demographics/ Psychology	30 Context Topics, 21 Project Topics
	Economics
	Indigenous Peoples
	Education
	National Culture
	Local Cultures
	Land Project Occupies

Catalogs	Rights
Context	Rights are shown to be positively protected or negatively enforced at baseline, including Freedom from Child Labor, Freedom of Religion, Indigenous Rights, Unionization Rights

Project	Rights are shown to be positively or negatively impacted by the Project, including child labor, nondiscrimination, unionization rights and free expression

Company

	Scores
Baseline	28% of children ages 5 to 17 are economically active. The Government keeps no statistics on child labor, seeing it as a complex issue involving family needs. Families rent out children for labor at a rate of $7/month.	-15
	In the Project area around 7,500 minors between the ages of 10 and 14 work at least half-days in some sort of informal job. Local children generally enter the labor market between the ages of 10 and 12.	-15
	Bolivian law sets the minimum age for employment at 14 years. Children ages 6-14 may legally work as apprentices for a maximum of two years and must simultaneously attend school at normal school hours. There is minimal enforcement of these laws, as the Bolivian government sees child labor as a complex challenge and a symptom of other economic woes in the country.	3
Impact	Child labor is mentioned in GRI reporting, but no due diligence has been conducted to ensure that children are excluded from Project supply chain, particularly in unregulated jewelry factories and tailors that provide products to the Project.	-3
Impact	The company has no history employing child labor or using child labor in its supply chain	5

Baseline	Right	Impact
-9	Freedom from Child Labor	0.66

-12 to -25

-0.5 to -12

0.5 to 12

12 to 25

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Important Process, Small Cost

Cost of the Project:

Cost of an HRIA:

$140,000,000

$40,000-65,000

0.036% of project budget

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Summary:

A Letter to Treasury

The WB should respect human rights across projects, programs and activities
It should conduct due diligence to foresee and prevent negative human rights impacts associated with World Bank projects
It should enhance safeguards, including monitoring

I want to close with a long-past project that the World Bank funded to the detriment of thousands of rightsholders. The Chixoy Dam in Guatemala was supposed to provide power to a nation; along the way instead it resulted in a massacre of hundreds and the forced eviction of thousands, who still live in vulnerability today.

The Senate version of the FY2014 State/Foreign Operations appropriations bill withholds funding from the IDBs unless $75 million is allocated for reparations to which the WB committed for those victims in 2010.

Compensation for those affected by the failures of multilateral lending institutions, or the cancelling of projects that violate human and environmental rights, should not depend on Congressional oversight. Nor should they take 30 years. They should depend on an effective and independent inspections panels that have real teeth and actually put a stop to violating projects. This makes sense for business, human rights, and environmental reasons.

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Thank you.