A/HRC/45/28 by any obligations incumbent upon them under general rules of international law, under their constitutions or under international agreements to which they are parties”. As a result, they are obligated to uphold human rights, as listed in particular in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that are part of customary international law or of the general principles of law (E/C.12/2016/1, para. 7). In addition, the Committee has stressed that the respective Articles of Agreement establishing IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which are specialized agencies of the United Nations, cannot be interpreted as not requiring these organizations to include human rights considerations in their decision-making (ibid., para. 8). 18. Over the years, international financial institutions have elaborated and updated environmental and social safeguard frameworks to manage the related impacts and risks associated with investment lending. These safeguards cover a number of issues, including environmental and social assessment, labour conditions, land acquisition, indigenous peoples, public participation and access to information. In order to implement their safeguards, international financial institutions have devised due diligence processes to assess environmental and social risks, as well as impacts associated with the project context, the project itself and the client. 19. In 2018, the World Bank launched its environmental and social framework, which includes its 10 environmental and social standards. Also in 2018, the European Investment Bank updated its environmental and social standards. In 2019, EBRD adopted its new environmental and social policy. At the time of drafting the present report, IDB was in the process of reviewing its safeguard policies,8 and the European Investment Bank was to start the review of its environmental and social statement and standards. 20. The importance that international financial institutions attach to human rights in their respective safeguard frameworks varies. For instance, the European Investment Bank recognizes its own responsibility to apply human rights in its own due diligence, while the World Bank and AfDB refer to support for human rights in aspirational rather than operational terms and recognize the responsibility of clients to comply with human rights. The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, considers respect for human rights as solely the responsibility of its clients.9 The Independent Expert believes that human rights compliance should be key in the architecture of international financial institutions’ safeguard systems. IV. The interplay between the economic policies and safeguards of international financial institutions and good governance at the local level A. Stakeholder engagement 1. Public participation 21. Often large in scale, development activities funded by international financial institutions can threaten in a deep and irreversible manner the livelihood of communities, including indigenous peoples. It is therefore crucial that communities be involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of plans and programmes for development that may have a direct effect on them. In the case of a development project that will affect land owned, occupied or used by indigenous peoples, their free, prior and informed consent should be sought. It is worth noting that meaningful and early involvement is a key element in a strategy to prevent tensions between different actors and violence against 8 9 OHCHR, “Benchmarking study of development finance institutions’ safeguards and due diligence frameworks against the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”, draft study report, 20 September 2019, p. 1. Ibid., p. 9. 5