In a report released today, Human Rights Watch called on the World Bank to develop a more effective system of monitoring to prevent human rights abuses related to Bank-funded projects.
The appeal came after a Human Rights Watch investigation in the Singrauli region of central India last month found that villagers displaced by a Bank borrower, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), had been beaten and arbitrarily detained for peaceful protests. A meeting of the Bank's board of directors to consider the project is expected to take place in early May.
The appeal came after a Human Rights Watch investigation in the Singrauli region of central India last month found that villagers displaced by a Bank borrower, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), had been beaten and arbitrarily detained for peaceful protests. A meeting of the Bank's board of directors to consider the project is expected to take place in early May.
In a memo to Bank President James Wolfensohn and the board, the organization urged that all disbursements of current and future loans to NTPC projects in the Singrauli region should be conditioned on respect for fundamental rights. Approximately $252 million of a $400 million loan for the NTPC projects has thus far been disbursed; another $148 million has yet to be paid out.
Human Rights Watch said the underlying cause of the human rights violations has been a failure to resolve displaced villagers' complaints about levels of compensation, conditions of resettlement, and environmental damage. The Bank's central management needed to exercise more direct oversight over projects to ensure that the Bank's own policies on resettlement, environmental protection, and good governance were respected.
Beyond Singrauli, the organization said, the Bank needed to develop a long-term strategy for monitoring the human rights impact of its projects. Such a strategy should include regular, on-site investigations by the Bank's Inspection Panel, a body created as a mechanism for holding the Bank accountable for violations of its policies and procedures. Human Rights Watch urged the Bank to send an Inspection Panel team to the Singrauli area to investigate recent abuses and to formulate measures to prevent further abuses. The Bank should also extend the one year mandate of an ongoing national-level monitoring effort.
Human Rights Watch's recommendations stem from interviews with people displaced by the Bank-funded Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Project and Rihand Super Thermal Power Project. The team also interviewed activists, who have themselves been subject to threats and harassment; local authorities; and NTPC officials.
The Human Rights Watch report documents recent examples of a broader pattern of abuse by NTPC, police, and civilian authorities. The team found that local authorities together with the NTPC were discouraging displaced villagers from meeting and organizing by using hired "goon squads" to harass and intimidate them. Police used force to disperse larger gatherings and used vaguely worded provisions of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code as a pretext for arresting protestors in the name of "public tranquility." The team also documented many specific incidents of violence targeted against women protesters.
