A Roadmap for Integrating Human Rights into the World Bank Group

Purpose of this Report

This report argues that human rights are an integral part of effective and sustainable development, and thus should be explicitly considered in all World Bank Group (WBG) investment decisions. We examine the WBG’s integration of human rights standards into its operations—highlighting accomplishments, shortcomings, and barriers—and suggest ways forward. The international human rights framework has a complex and often politicized history. Human rights have traditionally been seen as duties held by a government with respect to each citizen in its jurisdiction.

Defining the role of other actors — whether private or intergovernmental—has proved more controversial. Human rights are also difficult to quantify, and thus difficult to manage. While many countries recognize a human right to clean water, for example, the question of how much clean water per day is essential for individual human dignity remains unresolved. Furthermore, the implementation of human rights remains a challenge.

The UN and numerous human rights organizations are working to clarify roles and responsibilities, help guide implementation and resolve key questions such as: which rights are universal? Do human rights refl ect cultural biases of western countries? How does the human rights framework help manage trade-offs when resources are scarce?

Given the complexity of human rights, we recognize the challenges of defining the appropriate role of the WBG. The WBG is owned by more than 180 countries with diverse traditions, has a culture of quantifying the costs and benefits of its investments at the level of national economies rather than individuals, and aspires to be respectful of the boundaries between its role and the role of governments.

We therefore do not advocate that the WBG should shift its identity from a development to a human rights institution. We argue instead that as a development institution, the goals and values that human rights represent are already at the core of the WBG’s mission, and that the explicit and systematic integration of human rights into WBG operations could improve its effectiveness by enhancing the WBG’s ability to manage risks and improve development outcomes. We hope this report will encourage staff and executive directors to begin examining how the WBG can incorporate human rights approaches beyond niche programs into mainstream activities.

Human Rights and Development

In the past decade, a wide range of development actors, from private multinationals to international development agencies, has begun to use human rights standards as a means of managing risks and recognizing the rights of disempowered people, particularly the poor. In many cases these efforts respond to the growing incorporation of human rights—ranging from the right to life, food, and health to freedom from discrimination—into national constitutions and laws. The goals of human rights and development are inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing.

Upholding human rights can help ensure the success of a development project by addressing the root causes of poverty. Conversely, violations of human rights—such as the repression of dissent, loss of community access to food and water supplies, poor health conditions for local laborers, or discrimination against poor communities— can prevent the investment from generating net development benefits.

Despite this clear linkage, the integration of human rights policies and programming into the World Bank Group’s activities has met with resistance. The economic benefits of human rights protections are often difficult to quantify. As a result, the WBG has often judged investments successful on the basis of short term economic returns, rather than the extent to which they protect and promote human rights — particularly those of the poor. As this report discusses, this can raise risks that lead to the suspension of WBG investments, as it did in 2009 in the context of the entire oil palm sector.

Internal constraints are a major factor limiting the WBG’s ability to integrate human rights into its practices. The WBG’s governing boards have thus far failed to reach consensus on whether human rights risk management is within the explicit mandate of these institutions. Even governments that have supported human rights in other forums have been hesitant to discuss human rights at the WBG. This is despite the fact that in practice, the WBG’s safeguard policies already protect some rights of affected communities. This report argues that the failure of the WBG to more fully and systematically integrate human rights into its policies and programs has prevented these institutions from delivering on the development outcomes they seek.

Benefits of a Human Rights Approach

Human rights standards can help guide development institutions towards investments that focus on the needs and concerns of the poor and the vulnerable. Human rights standards can help empower citizens to engage in making development decisions, by directing attention to the structural causes of poverty, including discrimination, exclusion, lack of accountability, and abuse of state power. They are also increasingly employed as a tool for managing risks and measuring the effectiveness of development. And studies have shown that many countries that demonstrate a higher respect for human rights experience higher economic growth.