Article by Care2 Blogger - Thanks to Nancy Roberts for this wonderful post about Accountability Counsel on the Care2 blog! Read the blog post here.
Jobs and Internships - Our Fall 2010 Law Fellow and Undergraduate Intern Applications will be available on May 1, 2010. Please see our Jobs & Internships page for details.
International Award - Accountability Counsel’s Director Natalie Bridgeman has been awarded a 2009 Echoing Green Fellowship to support our work! Read more here.
Our Work - We’ve been busy! In the Fall of 2009, Accountability Counsel:
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•began a productive series of meetings with the US State Department as part of our ongoing advocacy on reform of the US OECD National Contact Point (a corporate accountability complaint system) (see more here);
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•submitted a letter with a coalition of organizations to US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton regarding reform of the US OECD National Contact Point;
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•submitted a letter to the African Development Bank regarding reform of their accountability mechanism, the Independent Review Mechanism (to which four other organizations signed-on);
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•co-authored a letter to the President of the World Bank Group regarding policy violations in the palm oil sector (the President agreed with our letter and changed World Bank policy as a result!);
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•assisted a Papua New Guinea-based organization with submission of a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel regarding a project to expand palm oil against the wishes of the local community;
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•attended and publicly commented at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standard Review Consultation;
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-The IFC Performance Standards are the rules that govern the World Bank’s project finance and are the rules used by the majority of the private sector even in non IFC-financed projects. We commented regarding improvements needed in the standard regarding community-based grievance mechanisms, and the need for a standard addressing human rights.
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•submitted a letter to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) requesting that they immediately address and remedy problems with an IFC-financed oil pipeline project that has caused four spills in 2009 alone in two neighboring Shipibo indigenous communities.