From the Center for International Environmental Law:
On August 4th the World Bank Board of Directors will vote on a new environmental and social framework.
Click here to send a letter to the World Bank president and Board telling them to safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples in the new framework.
On the eve of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, August 9th, the World Bank is poised to undermine indigenous rights and eliminate key protections for indigenous communities who may be harmed by development projects. We need you to tell the World Bank to safeguard indigenous peoples, not undermine their rights!
Decades ago the World Bank was a leader in establishing an indigenous peoples safeguard to ensure that the roads and dams and other projects it finances don’t end up evicting indigenous communities or destroying their environment.
Today, the Bank is revamping its entire suite of social and environmental safeguard policies and proposing to rollback key protections for indigenous peoples.
The proposed new policy would:
- Replace the legally recognized term “indigenous peoples” with the inappropriate and confusing phrase “Indigenous Peoples/ Sub-Saharan African Historically Underserved Traditional Local Communities.”
- Undermine international standards on free, prior, and informed consent, or FPIC, by defining consent to be merely “an expression of collective support” rather than ensuring that projects respect the results of indigenous peoples’ independent and collective decision-making processes.
- Restrict the situations in which FPIC is required.
- Weaken existing requirements that indigenous peoples receive benefits from any commercialization of their lands or resources.
- Allow the breaking up of indigenous peoples’ collective lands into individual parcels
- Eliminate the ban on destruction of critical habitats, including those critical for indigenous communities.
- Erode the requirement that an "Indigenous Peoples Plan" be developed together with indigenous communities.
Indigenous peoples have long been at the forefront of sustainable development.
The World Bank should be protecting their rights, not putting them at risk.
Take action now.
