A/HRC/36/40 22. There is ample evidence that projects financed by the Bank cause harm to millions of people. A 2015 report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists states that from 2009 to 2013, the Bank pumped $50 billion into projects graded the highest risk for “irreversible or unprecedented” social or environmental impacts. 17 The report also indicates that the Bank and IFC have financed governments and companies accused of human rights violations, including murder and torture. In some cases, they continue to finance those borrowers notwithstanding the evidence. 18 A. Environmental degradation, evictions and forced resettlement19 23. Among the vulnerable groups that have suffered as a consequence of major prospecting, mining, logging and hydroelectric enterprises are indigenous peoples whose lands have been taken away or devastated though industrial activity, without consultation and without their free, prior and informed consent. 20 24. In 2015, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists determined that 3.4 million persons had been physically or economically displaced by projects funded by the Bank, including Ethiopian Anuak, who faced a violent campaign of mass evictions funded through the diversion of funds from a Bank-supported project.21 25. In 2016, the Consortium reported on the Bank’s support to an agribusiness project that violated safeguards for indigenous people in Tanzania. Following massive protests by NGOs, the Bank initially retreated, but in March 2016 the Bank’s Board granted a full waiver of its safeguard policy (Operational Policy 4.10), creating an unfortunate precedent. At issue was a $70 million loan to the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), a government initiative that evicted indigenous herders in the Barabaig region in order to transfer fertile agricultural lands to investors. 22 The Consortium has also reported on abuses in the mining sector, 23 including those connected with gold mining in Peru.24 26. The waiver of the Bank’s Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples was the subject of a communication addressed in February 2017 to the Bank by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights. The communication noted that: The SAGCOT project may have a significant impact on nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralist groups that self-identify as indigenous peoples, including the Barbaig, the Datoga, the Hadzabe and the Maasai, who depend on lands in the project areas for their daily livelihood and survival … we think that it is essential that projects aimed 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 See www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/24/world-bank-declares-itself-above-the-law/. See www.icij.org/blog/2015/04/icijs-world-bank-probe-draws-global-attention. Alfred de Zayas, “Forced Population Transfer”, in The Max Planck Encyclopaedia of Public International Law, Vol. IV, Rüdiger Wolfrum, ed. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 165175. See the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, arts. 10-11, 19, 28, 30 and 32. See www.icij.org/blog/2015/04/new-investigation-reveals-34m-displaced-world-bank and http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worldbank-evicted-abandoned/new-evidence-ties-worldbank-tohuman-rights-abuses-ethiopia. Bretton Woods Observer, Autumn 2016, p. 7. Available from www.brettonwoodsproject.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/09/Observer_Sept_16_online.pdf. See also http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/215191467995074230/pdf/103990-SU-P125728-IDASU2016-0001-OUO-9.pdf and www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/world-bank-allows-tanzania-to-sidestep-rule-protecting-indigenousgroups_us_57607769e4b09c926cfd6b1c. See www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2014/06/world-bank-mines-threatening-livelihoods/. See http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worldbank-evicted-abandoned/how-worldbank-financesenvironmental-destruction-peru. 7