A/HRC/36/40 Annex I Questionnaire from the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order to the World Bank 1. How does the World Bank promote the right to food, water, health and a safe and clean environment? How does the Bank consider the relationship between its general development model and human rights? In particular, how does the Bank consider mega infrastructure projects and significant private sector investment to impact human rights? 2. How does the Bank’s new Environmental and Social Framework contribute to promoting and protecting human rights? 3. Concerning the organisation’s institutional governance, how does the Bank ensure transparency in decision-making? What type of accountability exists to remedy any adverse effects on human rights resulting from projects or policies funded or promoted by the Bank? What recourse or remedy is provided for victims of alleged human rights violations? Is there any policy in place to prevent your financial assistance from being used to finance international crimes or to commit human rights violations? 4. How often are human rights, health and environment impact assessments conducted? Are ex ante impact assessments conducted ahead of loan agreements or development projects? Are ex post monitoring carried out? 5. How do you ensure the Bank projects do not involve a regression in the enjoyment of human rights? To what extent, and how, the Bank consider reducing economic inequality as part of their lending policies? 6. How do you ensure the participation and consultation with all stakeholders, including affected communities, in relation to decisions concerning new loan or development projects? What are the measures put in place by the Bank to work hand-inhand with concerned governments to protect those voicing dissenting views? Is there any policy in place in case of opposition by affected communities or civil society organisations or others? Give examples of projects that have not been undertaken or have been abandoned when they have caused or are likely to cause irreparable harm, e.g. mass displacement of population. 7. How does the Bank see its responsibilities under international law and international human rights law? More concretely, how does the Bank intend to advance the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals and the COP21 commitments? To what extent does the Bank implement the recommendations of the ILO's World Social Protection Report? To what extent does the Bank act pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 69/319, Basic Principles on Sovereign Debt Restructuring Processes? Bearing in mind that “austerity measures” and “privatization” may cause considerable harm to the most vulnerable groups, what other measures does the Bank envisage so that human rights are not hindered but promoted? What do you do to alleviate the debt problem? 8. In the World Bank’s responses to previous Special Procedure Mandate Holder reports, the Bank’s spokesperson said that the 2015 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty (A/70/274) had fundamentally misrepresented the Bank’s position on human rights. Could you provide a more detailed response to the report (which parts do you agree and disagree with and why?)? Has there been any internal follow-up on the publication of the report? 9. How does the Bank respond to the August 2016 report of the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and foreign debt (A/71/305), in which he calls for the Bank to significantly broaden its definition of ‘sustainability’ under its Debt Sustainability Framework and take into consideration the need to provide fiscal space to guarantee and ensure governments’ core human rights obligations? 24