A/HRC/36/40 88. Bearing in mind that the Bank’s Articles of Agreement and the Agreement between the United Nations and the Bank were adopted prior to the adoption by the General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and before the entry into force of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and many other human rights treaties, it is not unreasonable to expect that the human rights obligations of States members of the Bank should be advanced and not hindered by Bank policies. Article XIII of the Agreement between the United Nations and the Bank stipulates that the agreement is subject to revision and both parties are authorized to make supplementary agreements. That is a window of opportunity for the Bank to commit itself to certain key principles of the United Nations, including respect for the sovereignty of all States and non-interference in the domestic affairs of States. That requires acceptance of the fact that States, particularly developing countries, need flexibility and policy space to implement social policies aimed at ensuring food security, raising the standard of living, strengthening labour laws and ensuring access to water and education, which some privatization projects financed by the Bank have been known to undermine. Any amendment to the association agreement should strengthen the cooperation between the Bank and the United Nations, particularly with UNCTAD. 89. In addition to amending its Articles of Agreement, the World Bank must take full responsibility for the outcomes of its investments and implement preventive and corrective measures to ensure effective participation by all stakeholders and protection of human rights defenders on the ground. Procedurally, one of the challenges that must be addressed is the World Bank’s undemocratic decision-making structure, which creates inequitable and sometimes counterproductive priority setting. Thus, the gentleman’s agreement that Bank leadership will be held by citizens of certain States should be gradually phased out. Further, as other rapporteurs have noted, the underrepresented voices of the developing must be upgraded. 90. The Independent Expert agrees with the Director of Global Programs at the World Bank Institute, who said in 2006, that “it would be tantamount to a virtual ‘fig leaf’ for any institution to claim that much is being contributed to enhancing human rights in a country simply because development projects — such as on water or rural roads — are being funded”.115 If the Bank really has development at heart, it will change the conditionalities away from privatization, deregulation and lower corporate taxation and put the emphasis on reducing military expenditures, ensuring that progressive tax legislation is enacted and enforced, that tax havens are outlawed, and that a financial transactions tax is adopted and the revenues used to build “A World Free of Poverty” through international solidarity. VI. Conclusions and recommendations 91. The World Bank should: (a) Embark on an inclusive process for drafting a new and separate human rights policy, which should embody a commitment to integrate human rights into its work by analysing human rights issues relevant to development in the context of country strategies, advise governments how to advance compliance with their human rights commitments, and identify human rights risks linked to its investments or advice; (b) Adopt and implement the Universal Social Protection Initiative and the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202).116 It should support the inclusion of enforceable labour provisions based on ILO standards, as well as the repeal of investor-State dispute settlement mechanisms that undermine governments’ right to regulate (see A/HRC/30/44 and A/HRC/33/40); 115 116 Daniel Kaufmann, “Human rights, governance, and development: an empirical perspective”, in Development Outreach, World Bank Institute, October 2006, p. 19. Available from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTSITETOOLS/Resources/KaufmannDevtOutreach.pdf. See www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:R202. 21