A/HRC/36/40 74. In addition to the guidelines, the Inspection Panel launched its Emerging Lessons Series in 2016, in which errors are acknowledged and solutions proposed. 104 The first in the series, published in April 2016, concerns involuntary resettlement, 105 the second concerns indigenous peoples (October 2016),106 while a third focuses on environmental assessment (April 2017). Those are important tools for the Bank, governments, businesses and civil society. 75. In the opinion of the Independent Expert, who is a former Chief of Petitions at OHCHR, the Inspection Panel holds enormous promise for petitioners and should ensure continuous monitoring of World Bank projects. The downside of the procedure is that the Panel does not have the authority to enforce its recommendations. Nevertheless, that is a challenge also shared by United Nations treaty bodies like the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which have complaints procedures.107 C. Taking preventive and corrective action 76. While ex ante impact assessments are necessary, a system of monitoring ongoing projects and the mechanism to suspend financing when human rights, health or environmental problems arise should be strengthened. For instance, in 2016, the Bank learned of widespread sexual abuse of workers in a $250 million bank-financed road construction project in Uganda. After unsuccessful attempts to correct the situation, financing was terminated. Yet ex post termination is insufficient. As World Bank President Jim Yong Kim stated: The multiple failures we’ve seen in this project — on the part of the World Bank, the government of Uganda and a government contractor — are unacceptable … It is our obligation to properly supervise all investment projects to ensure that the poor and vulnerable are protected in our work … I am committed to making sure we do everything in our power … first to fully review the circumstances of this project and then to quickly learn from our and others’ failures so they do not happen again. 108 77. An Inspection Panel report led to further action by the Bank and a 2017 Bank management response containing concrete proposals for reparation and lessons learned. It stated: Management has undertaken steps on two fronts — both project-level and systemwide, to address these issues. At the project level this has included steps to provide support for the victims of child abuse; to complete the compensation process; to address construction issues; to support capacity-building of the implementing agency; and support for response to gender-based violence.109 78. In 2014, the Bank had to reconsider a cotton industry project in Uzbekistan, when it learned of widespread forced labour, including child labour. As a senior international financial institutions researcher at Human Rights Watch noted, “the World Bank’s proposals fall short in Uzbekistan, where forced labor in the cotton sector is uniquely government-orchestrated and supported by repressing independent groups…The World Bank needs to ensure that independent groups and journalists can monitor World Bank projects and report forced labor without fear of reprisal”. 110 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 18 See http://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/Pages/Emerging-Lessons.aspx. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Ewnz4JcVE. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0cuHodwjEA. Jakob Th. Möller and Alfred de Zayas, United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law 19772008: A Handbook (Kehl/Strasbourg, N.P. Engel Verlag, 2009). See www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/12/world-bank-cancels-uganda-road-sexualassault-claims. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/256791492009515078/pdf/Uganda-TSDP-1st-ProgressReport-REV-for-SVPOP-April-4-final-fdg-CLEARED-04062017.pdf, p. iv. See www.hrw.org/news/2014/12/17/world-bank-investigate-uzbekistans-forced-labor.