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1 Int'l J. Civ. Soc'y L. 41 (2003)
International

handle is hein.journals/ijcsl1 and id is 43 raw text is: COUNTRY REPORTS INTERNATIONAL WORLD BANK WANTS A NEW APPROACH TO CONSULTATIONS WITH CIVIL SOCIETY BY KARLA W. SIMON Critics of the World Bank claim that many Bank programs violate human rights, and, therefore, want to see the Bank better integrate them into its policies. However, the Bank has consistently replied that its statutes prohibit interference in the domestic political affairs of governments, and alternatively, that its poverty relief programs benefit human rights. Senior Bank officials shared their views with civil society representatives and engaged in a lively exchange with the audience at the Intercultural Center Auditorium, Georgetown University on Thursday, November 14, 2002. Speaking at the forum, Ian Johnson, a Senior Vice-President at the World Bank conceded that the Bank's dialogue with civil society often leaves both sides dissatisfied, and that a new approach would be to consider conducting human rights assessments of Bank projects through its operations evaluation department. Mr. Johnson, Senior Vice-President for the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network at the Bank spoke at the meeting of the Georgetown Human Rights Forum. The Forum is jointly sponsored by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (Georgetown), the Advocacy Project, and ActionAid USA. Mr. Johnson heads an internal task force on human rights at the World Bank. Although representatives from Human Rights Watch and ActionAid USA expressed skepticism about the Bank's willingness to work with civil society, he said that consultations with NGOs are now the rule rather than the exception. Because the Bank has decentralized its operations outside Washington and has appointed civil society representatives in all of its field offices, it is now much easier for it to respond to community concerns. At the same time, however, Mr. Johnson conceded that consultations often leave much to be desired. For example, the Bank has consulted with over 1000 indigenous representatives about a new Bank indigenous peoples' policy, yet many indigenous groups continue to feel excluded. The most obvious solution, he said, was to create new 'institutions' within the Bank or joint Bank-civil society mechanisms to facilitate such consultations. Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, said that the Bank's consultations with NGOs on human rights are often 'pro forma' and urged the Bank to intervene more actively on behalf of human rights defenders and NGOs that support key Bank programs. For example, he said, the Bank was investing heavily in the Internet and is committed to bridging the 'digital divide.' Yet it had failed to intervene when the Chinese government had arrested Huong Qi, a computer operator who set up the first human rights web site in China. The Bank had also declined to press the Indian government into providing protection for victims of INTERNATIONALJOURNAL OF CIVIL SociETY LAW VOLUME 1-1 CITE AS 1 INT. J. Civ. Soc. LAW available athttp://www.law.edu/joumal/ijcsl 41