A/70/274
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and
human rights
Summary
The present report begins with an analysis of the confusing approaches to
human rights taken by the World Bank in its legal policy, public relations, policy
analysis, operations and safeguards. The Special Rapporteur then seeks to explain
why the Bank has historically been averse to acknowledging and taking account of
human rights, argues that the Bank needs a new approach and explores what
differences that might make.
The Special Rapporteur concludes that the existing approach taken by the Bank
to human rights is incoherent, counterproductive and unsustainable. For most
purposes, the World Bank is a human rights-free zone. In its operational policies, in
particular, it treats human rights more like an infectious disease than universal values
and obligations. The biggest single obstacle to moving towards an appropriate
approach is the anachronistic and inconsistent interpretation of the “political
prohibition” contained in its Articles of Agreement. As a result, the Bank is unable to
engage meaningfully with the international human rights framework, or to assist its
member countries in complying with their own human rights obligations. That
inhibits its ability to take adequate account of the social and political economy
aspects of its work within countries and contradicts and undermines the consistent
recognition by the international community of the integral relationship between
human rights and development. It also prevents the Bank from putting into practice
much of its own policy research and analysis, which points to the indispensability of
the human rights dimensions of many core development issues.
The Special Rapporteur argues that what is needed is a transparen t dialogue
designed to generate an informed and nuanced policy that will avoid undoubted
perils, while enabling the Bank and its members to make constructive and productive
use of the universally accepted human rights framework. Whether the Bank
ultimately maintains, adjusts or changes its existing policy, it is essential that the
policy should be principled, compelling and transparent. The recommendations that
follow provide some indication as to what a World Bank human rights policy might
look like in practice.
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