On Friday, 6 February, the Chair of the Permanent Forum, Dalee Sambo Dorough, transmitted a letter to Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, containing “Observations of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on the proposed World Bank Environmental and Social Policy and associate Environmental and Social Standards, especially the proposed safeguards for indigenous peoples (ESS7)”. The Permanent Forum noted that the draft policy contains some positive elements. However, it stated that “important aspects of the Environmental and Social Policy in general and the associated Environmental and Social Standard on indigenous peoples in particular fall short of protections provided by current safeguard standards and already agreed-upon international human rights standards, including those contained in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” The Forum detailed specific observations and highlighted areas for change. See the comments here.

Read the original post here.

The summary of main point of the recommendations are:

• The World Bank should remove the so-called alternative provision (ESS7, PARAGRAH 9), which allow states to opt out of the ESS7 safeguards, because of the serious risk of exacerbating ethnic tensions or civil strife
• Proposed safeguards must refer to the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as  a guiding human rights framework
• Safeguards should clearly list situations required to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples
• Consultations with potentially affected Indigenous Peoples should start at the moment programs are conceived
• The need to incorporate measures to address inequalities in bargaining power between the States and Indigenous Peoples