A/HRC/36/40 argues that absolute immunity is an anachronism. 73 The first, Jam v. International Finance Corporation, came before Washington D.C. district and circuit courts regarding the negative impacts of the Tata Mundra coal power plant in India. 74 In that case, IFC had provided $450 million for a power plant that the plaintiffs showed had degraded the environment and destroyed their livelihoods. While the courts have to date held that IFC enjoys absolute immunity,75 the plaintiffs continue to challenge the decision and, at the time of writing of the present report, are requesting permission to present their arguments en banc, or before a full seating of all D.C. circuit court judges. 76 57. In a second lawsuit, Juana Doe v. IFC, Earth Rights charges the Bank with responsibility for systematic human rights abuses committed by Dinant, a sprawling palmoil plantation accused of engaging in bloody land-grabbing, intimidation and murder of indigenous persons in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras. 77 The lawsuit alleges that since the mid-1990s, IFC, together with a financial intermediary, the IFC Asset Management Corporation, has invested millions of dollars in Honduran palm-oil companies. For nearly two decades, farmer cooperatives have challenged Dinant’s claims to 16 palm-oil plantations, alleging that land was taken from the farmer cooperatives through fraud, coercion and actual or threatened violence. For its part, Earth Rights contends that IFC has “repeatedly and consistently provided critical funding to Dinant, knowing that Dinant was waging a campaign of violence, terror, and dispossession against farmers, and that their money would be used to aid the commission of gross human rights abuses”. The claimants cite United States government sources to substantiate allegations that more than 100 farmers have been killed since 2009.78 Furthermore, the suit relies in part on reports of the IFC internal watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (see sect. IV. D below and annex VII), who determined that the Bank had failed to spot or deliberately ignored the serious social, political and human rights context when implementing the project. H. Credit-rating agencies 58. Every exercise of power, including economic power, must be subject to democratic controls, transparency and accountability. Many countries believe that inadequate or even deliberately false credit ratings and questionable rating processes were key contributors to the Asian financial crisis,79 and more recently to the global financial crisis of 2007/08.80 It is obvious that reforms are necessary, but it appears that the Bank is not yet tackling the impact of those institutions, whose ratings influence the Bank’s decisions to grant or deny loans. It is the view of the Independent Expert that the Bank has a responsibility to test the reliability of the ratings by private sector agencies, or develop its own rating mechanisms and institutions81 that can perform more objectively and effectively. 82 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 14 See www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2016/04/ifc-claims-absolute-immunity-to-avoid-justice-but-willit-hold-up-in-court/. See also European Court of Human Rights, McElhinney v. Ireland (application No. 31253/96) judgment of 21 November 2001 (dissenting opinion of Judge Loucaides). See http://d2zyt4oqqla0dw.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/documents/ifc_tata_mundra_complaint.pdf. See http://www.allgov.com/india/news/top-stories/world-bank-cant-be-sued-rules-us-judge-indenying-gujarati-villagers-lawsuit-160408?news=858610j; http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/16-7051/16-7051-2017-06-23.html. See www.earthrights.org/media/federal-appeals-court-rules-world-bank-group-cannot-be-suedharming-communities-0. See www.earthrights.org/media/honduran-farmers-sue-world-bank-group-human-rights-violations. See https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2017/03/22/world-bank-beyond-law/. Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine (London, Penguin Books, 2008), pp. 267-276 and 426. See http://unctad.org/en/Docs/osgdp20081_en.pdf. See http://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/health/should-world-bank-issue-credit-ratings. Jonathan Katz, Emanuel Salinas and Constantinos Stephanou, “Credit rating agencies”. Crisis Response, Note No. 8 (Oct. 2009). Available from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTFINANCIALSECTOR/Resources/2828841303327122200/Note8.pdf. See also www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/07/muslims-are-very-strangepeople/.