Each Spring, thousands of government finance ministers, economists, civil society representatives, and community members from around the world convene in Washington, DC, for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings. It is often a hectic week of seminars, press conferences, civil society events, and side-line meetings. This year, the Spring Meetings and civil society forum events will be held from April 7-13.
Going into these meetings, many civil society representatives will be keenly focused on the update on the timeline of the World Bank safeguard review. Initially launched in October 2012, the safeguard review process has been delayed for nearly a year, as the Bank undertakes a significant overhaul of its development goals and management structure. It looks like the review may be underway again, with the first draft of the integrated policy publicized, and consultations set to begin, in mid-2014.
In truly unprecedented ways, the issue of human rights has been elevated at the World Bank. It is one of the emerging areas in the safeguard review. Human rights are also mentioned in briefly in the new World Bank Group Strategy, released in October 2013. But it remains to be seen if and how human rights will be reflected in these revised policies.
The upcoming week will see a flurry of human rights-focused meetings and panels discussions, both at and outside the Spring Meetings. CIEL has long championed human rights at the World Bank, advocating that it develop policies to respect human rights in all its projects and initiatives, and particularly in its new safeguard policies.
Here are some of the events CIEL will be participating in and reporting on:
- On Monday, April 7th, Georgetown Law will be holding the Samuel Dash Conference on Human Rights, entitled, Multilateral Development Banks & Human Rights: Issues, Opportunities, Challenges
- On Wednesday, April 9th, from 2:00-4:00pm, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission will hold a hearing on World Bank Lending and Human Rights.
- On Thursday, April 10th, 9:00am-10:30am, the Bank on Human Rights coalition, of which CIEL is a part, will be hosting the panel discussion, Smart Assessment: Capturing and Managing Human Rights Risks.
- Also on Thursday, April 10th, 11:00am-12:30pm, Urgewald and the German Federal Ministry for International Cooperation (BMZ) will be hosting the panel discussion, Human Rights and the Safeguard Review.
- On Friday, April 10th, 11:00-12:30, CIEL, Urgewald, Friends of the Earth/USA, Ulu Foundation and Ecological Justice will be hosting the discussion, Safeguarding Forests and Forest Peoples in the Context of the Safeguards Review: Lessons Learned.
Review the full schedule of events here.
We invite you to follow our reporting and analysis of the Spring Meetings by following the hashtag #Spring4HumanRights on Facebook and Twitter. And be sure to use #Spring4HumanRights to join the conversation!
Stay tuned for more.
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