World Bank safeguards should conform to human rights norms

A UN expert on the right to adequate housing has called for the strengthening of World Bank policy and practice with a view to upholding this basic human right.

by Kanaga Raja

GENEVA: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has urged the World Bank to seize the opportunity of its current two-year consultative process on reviewing and updating its environmental and social safeguard policies to commit to human rights standards in all its activities.

In a report presented to the UN Human Rights Council in the week of 4 March, Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik said: “This will ensure that the Bank can effectively champion and help fulfil human rights, and maintain its position as a central player in the effort to combat social exclusion, empower communities as actors for their own development and eliminate poverty at its roots.”

Rolnik recommended, amongst others, that the World Bank commit to undertake (and require borrowers to undertake) human rights due diligence in all of its activities, including investment lending, development policy lending and the newly adopted Programme-for-Results. The Bank should also ensure that effective mechanisms are in place to implement these policies and identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how to address actual and potential adverse human rights impacts.

The Special Rapporteur had undertaken an official visit to the World Bank Group from 26 October to 1 November 2010. In January 2011, she had presented a preliminary note on her mission to the World Bank Group, which provided an overview of the relation between the policies and projects supported by the World Bank Group and the right to adequate housing.

On 21 December 2011, Rolnik said, she had sent a letter to the World Bank requesting additional information in the context of the preparation of her report. She expressed regret that the World Bank did not continue the positive exchange previously established and did not reply to the letter or provide the additional information requested.

“As Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, I have witnessed the crucial impact the safeguards policies have on the right to adequate housing of people affected by Bank-financed projects,” Rolnik said in her presentation to the Human Rights Council.

“When safeguards fail to address crucial aspects of the right to adequate housing, or are not adhered to in design or implementation, projects may result in forced evictions, displacement, involuntary resettlement and a general deterioration in standards of living of communities,” she said. “At any given time, involuntary resettlement triggered by active Bank-financed projects affects over 1 million people, two-fifths of which are likely to be physically displaced.”

Alignment with international standards

In her current report, the Special Rapporteur presented her observations and recommendations on the World Bank’s safeguard policies, particularly on the right to adequate housing, in the context of its current two-year consultative process to review and update its environmental and social safeguard policies.

Rolnik welcomed the commitment by World Bank President Jim Yong Kim at the October 2012 Annual General Meeting in Tokyo not to dilute the Bank’s safeguard policies, and recommended that the World Bank utilize the current review process to bring its safeguard policies into line with international human rights standards and strengthen its capacity to ensure effective implementation.

According to the Special Rapporteur, her report elaborates on particular aspects of the policies and operations of the International Development Association and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (referred to collectively as “the World Bank”) in terms of their implications for the right to adequate housing.

Rolnik underscored the importance of the World Bank’s Operational Policy and Bank Procedures on Involuntary Resettlement (OP 4.12 and BP 4.12) in encouraging respect for and the realization of the right to adequate housing for people resettled in connection with Bank-financed projects.

Highlighting a number of ways in which current policy and practice could be improved, she urged the Bank to build upon and strengthen the current policy and procedures on involuntary resettlement, taking due account of the experiences of the past decade, in the forthcoming revision.

The Special Rapporteur welcomed the Bank’s commitment to examine “emerging areas”, including land tenure, as a part of the safeguards review. Security of tenure is recognized as an essential element of the right to adequate housing and requires particular attention in the context of urban and rural development programmes.

She recommended the adoption of new policy requirements to secure and protect the tenure rights of vulnerable groups during the implementation and as a result of Bank-financed operations.

The Special Rapporteur also noted that current Bank operations include financing not only projects but also broader state reforms, such as development policy operations and Programme-for-Results financing, which can have adverse implications for the right to adequate housing but are not subject to the Bank’s current safeguards policy framework or equivalent requirements to prevent harms.

Additionally, for certain types of investment lending operations that involve programmatic or sector-wide lending, Rolnik observed that safeguard policies as currently formulated are often ill-suited to address the impacts on the right to adequate housing of the different groups affected.

She recommended that the Bank conduct, support or require from the borrower that it conduct human rights due diligence of all of its operations and ensure that the risks of violations of the right to adequate housing are avoided or mitigated through robust risk management, genuine participation and accountability systems.

Due to its far-reaching large-scale development assistance and cooperation, as well as its important role in providing technical assistance and setting the reform agenda in several government policies, including housing, the Special Rapporteur believed that the World Bank is also uniquely placed to support governments around the world in meeting their international human rights obligations during the process of development and, in particular, to progressively realize economic and social rights in their countries.

“The World Bank should adopt safeguards policies aligned with the international human rights obligations of its member States and clients. Incorporating human rights protections will help member States fulfil their human rights obligations and improve development outcomes by ensuring respect for the rights of those the Bank seeks to benefit.”

Forced evictions

In her report, the Special Rapporteur addresses a number of issues with regard to the Bank’s involuntary resettlement policy, making several recommendations in this area, as well as on the implementation of the safeguards.

She noted that forced evictions and the displacement of people from their homes, lands, livelihood sources and communities because of private and public development projects have had grave implications worldwide for the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing.

The World Bank has long recognized the severe impact that development-induced evictions and displacements can have on certain people; it was the first development agency to adopt guidelines on involuntary resettlement more than 30 years ago, she said, adding that the Bank has made important contributions since that time to the overall understanding of the risks of evictions and mitigation measures that can be put into place to prevent the risks from materializing into harms.

“The Bank’s involuntary resettlement policy, which has undergone several changes over the past three decades, has been reflected in varying forms by several major public and private financial institutions, as well as a significant number of corporations, highlighting the extremely influential role the Bank has played in setting global standards.”

However, Rolnik pointed out, World Bank-supported projects continue to cause substantial numbers of forced evictions, displacements and involuntary resettlements. The Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) estimates that “since the resettlement process lasts several years ... at any given time involuntary resettlement affects over 1 million people, two-fifths of which are likely to be physically displaced and three-fifths economically affected by active Bank-financed projects”.

This estimate, derived from the documentation of the Bank’s projects, includes only people that the Bank determines to be directly affected by its projects, which may be a significantly smaller group than the overall number of those displaced physically and economically as a result of Bank-financed projects worldwide, she added.

Rolnik stressed that as a part of the World Bank’s duty to respect human rights, “it must take measures to ensure that any resettlement that occurs in connection with the projects financed by the Bank does not result in the violation of the human rights of affected people.”

The involuntary resettlement amounts to a forced eviction when it occurs without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection. “Forced evictions constitute a gross violation of a range of internationally recognized human rights, in particular the right to adequate housing. The vulnerable situation in which victims of forced evictions are placed often results from structural discrimination and the lack of participation of those affected in project design and implementation.”

The World Bank’s policy and procedures on involuntary resettlement provide a number of important protections for people physically and/or economically displaced by Bank-financed projects. The Bank’s adoption of the policy can be seen as an essential measure in satisfying its duty to respect human rights.

Rolnik recommended that as a gross violation of human rights, forced evictions should be explicitly prohibited in the policy. She also recommended that, in the introductory paragraphs of the revised policy, it be made clear that the Bank will not finance or otherwise provide assistance to any project or programme that causes or contributes to forced evictions.

The current policy objective to avoid where feasible, or minimize, involuntary resettlement, exploring all viable alternative project designs, reflects the World Bank’s recognition that involuntary resettlement can give rise to severe hardships to displaced persons.

“In order to reinforce the current policy objective of avoidance and minimization, and harmonize with international human rights standards, the revised policy should be explicit in permitting involuntary resettlement in connection with Bank-financed projects only in exceptional circumstances, namely the promotion of the general welfare consistent with the State’s international human rights obligations.”

Rolnik emphasized that current policy protections, while generally compatible with human rights standards, fall short of guaranteeing that the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing, will be upheld for displaced persons.

The Special Rapporteur recommended that the revised policy explicitly recognize the right to the continuous improvement of living standards, and require that measures are taken to ensure that resources and opportunities available to affected persons to enhance their own standards of living are in no way diminished or restricted as a result of resettlement.

Noting that “the dissemination of information and consultation on both project alternatives and resettlement options are often not done in a comprehensive and meaningful manner”, Rolnik recommended that the Bank play a greater role in ensuring appropriate and effective dissemination of information to affected people about their entitlements under the policy.

“The Bank should support, through appropriate local organizations, the provision of legal advice and technical assistance to affected people from the earliest stages of the project and throughout the project cycle.”

Tenure rights

Welcoming the Bank’s commitment to examine new areas not currently covered by its safeguards framework, including land tenure, as a part of the review process, Rolnik recommended that the new safeguard policy framework contain provisions to ensure that tenure rights are not weakened or infringed as a result of Bank-financed operations (particularly land and agricultural sector development programmes).

“Particular attention must be paid to potentially vulnerable groups whose tenure bonds are not individual registered freehold, such as renters; people with plural, hybrid and informal tenure rights; those with secondary use and access rights; and those subject to communal, collective and customary tenure arrangements. In addition, women’s rights should be promoted, with concerted efforts to reverse discriminatory gender patterns in tenure systems.”

She noted that agricultural development programmes that promote large-scale commercial farming could also put at risk rural households with tenure arrangements that are not fully recognized and protected by law or in practice. The danger is particularly acute when there is intense competition over land and natural resources and multiple tenure systems.

“Heightened commercial interest and speculative investments in land (more common since the 2008 rise in food prices) pose substantial risks for households and communities with informal, secondary, communal, collective or customary tenure rights. In such contexts, safeguarding against increased vulnerability of these groups during the implementation and as a result of agricultural development programmes is vital.”

The Special Rapporteur also noted the Bank’s desire to move towards a safeguards model that enhances the use of country systems, adding that she supports the notion of placing greater emphasis on strengthening capacities of country institutions to identify, assess and manage social and environmental risks associated with development.

However,  she  underscored  the  continuing  importance of the application and enforcement  of the Bank’s safeguard system  (especially the involuntary resettlement safeguard) unless and until country  systems are equipped to guarantee  human rights protections for people  affected by development projects.

Stressing that the necessary conditions to guarantee protections are not present in many countries in which the World Bank operates, she said that in many cases, legal and regulatory frameworks governing land acquisition, eviction and resettlement are incomplete or fall far short of both Bank policy and international law; institutional capacity to plan and implement resettlement is weak; and judicial and administrative accountability and review systems are unable to protect the rights of affected people owing to corruption, political interference or low capacity.

“Placing greater emphasis on the discretion of Governments of countries lacking the necessary conditions to guarantee protections heightens the risk of forced evictions and other violations of the right to adequate housing caused by Bank-financed projects,” Rolnik said, cautioning against reliance on incomplete and inadequate country systems. (SUNS7543)

Third World Economics, Issue No. 541, 16-31 Mar 2013, pp 9-11