Indigenous rights
Brazilian recommendations to the new social and environmental safeguards of the World Bank weakened prior consent of affected populations
The World Bank, the oldest and largest multilateral development bank, is close to completing a process that began in 2012 to review its safeguards – rules that aim to ensure respect for the environment and human rights by bank-financed projects.
However, what was intended as a process to strengthen the environmental and social rules could end up eroding the rights of indigenous populations. It all depends on the position on the proposal taken by States, since they are the bank’s shareholders.
As far as 8 Brazilian NGOs including Conectas are concerned, Brazil has taken some alarming positions on the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). In a letter sent to the Brazilian Ministry of Finance in June, the organizations said the comments by the Brazilian government on the second draft framework present a series of setbacks from the previous version of the document and the bank’s own Indigenous Peoples Policy.
According to the current World Bank policies, financing for projects is conditional upon “broad community support for the project by the affected Indigenous Peoples”. In a letter sent to the Ministry of Finance’s International Affairs Secretary, Luís Antônio Carlos Balduíno, the organizations explained that this standard already falls short of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169, two of the leading international standards on the topic. The organizations warned that if the Brazilian proposal is accepted, the protection of indigenous peoples will be weakened further.
“By departing from the language enshrined in international treaties, Brazil is exposing the World Bank safeguards to a situation of legal uncertainty and potential conflicts with indigenous peoples,” said Caio Borges, a lawyer from the Business and Human Rights project of Conectas. “It would be a violation of these peoples’ right to self-determination. Brazil needs to better clarify how it came to this position,” he added.
· Click here to read the full letter sent to the Ministry of Finance
· Click here to read Brazil’s contribution to the draft of the new World Bank policy
This is not the first time that Brazil has defended restrictions on the rights of indigenous peoples. Last year, in the first contribution by the Ministry of Finance to the review of the World Bank environmental and social policies, the country also took a position that was inconsistent with its international obligations.
Civil society organizations have condemned the restrictive interpretation defended by the Brazilian government, which limited the circumstances in which indigenous peoples would have the right to free, prior and informed consent.
Petition
A petition released by Conectas, ISA (Socio-Environmental Institute) and Internation Rivers intends to pressure the Brazilian government to review its recommendations in time for the adoption of the new World Bank’s social and environmental safeguards, which is expected to take place next August 4th.
Addressed to the Secretary of International Affairs of the Ministry of Finance of Brazil, Luis Antonio Balduino Carneiro, and the to executive-director for the World Bank in Brazil Otaviano Canuto, the document claims Brazil to stand against any setback in the World Bank’s Indigenous Peoples Policy with respect to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169.
“Brazil has an important role to play in ensuring that the process [of reviewing the social and environmental safeguards] will result in robust criteria, capable of combining flexibility with protection of basic rights guaranteed by international conventions and by our Federal Constitution of 1988,” the documents says.
To sign the petition, click here.
