• 8 April 2019

    ‘An example to all’: the Mongolian herders who took on a corporate behemoth – and won

    By Rod Austin, The Guardian
    Displaced from their land by multinational mining companies, nomadic herders defied the odds to preserve their heritage for future generations. Additional framing can be found on our Communities case page.
  • 4 April 2019

    US Supreme Court rules against World Bank’s claim of absolute immunity

    By Bretton Woods Project
    In late February, the US Supreme Court ruled against the claim by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, to absolute immunity from suit in the US. The case was brought by a community of Indian fisherfolk, represented by EarthRights International and the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, which sued the IFC for harm caused by the $450 million IFC-financed Tata Mundra coal-fired power plant in Gujarat, India.
  • 4 April 2019

    Nod for probe into World Bank-funded project in Jharkhand

    By Abhishek Angad, The Indian Express
    The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved an independent investigation into World Bank-funded water supply project in two villages of Jharkhand. The development comes on the back of allegations that the district authorities “failed” to consult members of local Adivasi communities before implementing the project, “sidestepped” valid Gram…
  • 4 April 2019

    No consent of communities? World Bank to investigate water supply project in Jharkhand

    By Development Channel
    The World Bank has ordered an independent investigation into World Bank-funded water supply project in two villages of Jharkhand, following complaints from the local indigenous people that the authorities “failed” to consult them and the project, which impacts their cultural resources and land was imposed on them using force. The…
  • 29 March 2019

    AAAS connects human rights groups with science experts

    By Andrea Korte
    When a group of uprooted Haitian farmers and the human rights workers advising them sought to understand the environmental impact of an industrial park, they turned to the American Association for the Advancement of Science to enlist the expertise of a water specialist through its On-call Scientists program.
  • 26 March 2019

    What happens when a DFI project goes wrong?

    By Teresa Welsh, Devex
    In this article, Teresa Welsh discusses four DFI-funded projects that resulted in harm towards local communities and lessons learned for lenders, including two cases – Liberia & Mexico – in which Accountability Counsel supported affected communities to achieve remedy.
  • 19 March 2019

    The World Bank Must Clean Up Its Act

    By Vijaya Ramachandran, Nature
    In this Nature article, Vijaya Ramachandran discusses last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on the case of Jam vs. IFC, noting it as a wake-up call for all international development agencies. Ramachandran also offers four suggestions on how the IFC — and the World Bank Group as a whole — can be held accountable.
  • 7 March 2019

    U.S. Supreme Court Rules That World Bank Can Be Sued

    By Tim McDonnell, National Public Radio
    In this NPR article, Tim McDonnell reports on the historical U.S. Supreme Court 7-1 ruling on Jam v. International Finance Corporation, and what it means for international financial institutions as well as local communities who have been harmed by bank-funded development projects.
  • 7 March 2019

    Former Robina Fellow Lani Inverarity ’15 Shares Win for Land Rights in Haiti

    By Yale Law School
    It took nearly eight years to achieve justice. But in December 2018, a complaint filed by more than 420 Haitian farmers and their families culminated in a historic agreement with the bank that once displaced them. Lani Inverarity ’15 L.L.M. explained that what began as a mere dream “now has the potential to change the lives of thousands of people.”
  • 4 March 2019

    Calls for stronger accountability after IFC Supreme Court ruling

    By Sophie Edwards, Devex
    The U.S. Supreme Court decision that the World Bank does not have absolute immunity from prosecution is unlikely to trigger a flood of lawsuits but it could bolster calls for the institution to strengthen its internal accountability mechanisms. In this article, Accountability Counsel’s Policy Director Kindra Mohr and our colleagues at EarthRights International and Namati discuss the reforms needed for a strong and effective accountability framework.
  • 7 February 2019

    Indigenous Communities Appeal to the UN to Help Rectify an “Ethnocide”

    By Tracy Barnett, Intercontinental Cry
    This article covers the Ngäbe-Buglé communities’ fight against the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Dam in Panama, including their complaint to the United Nations Development Programme’s accountability office, the Social and Environmental Compliance Unit (SECU). Accountability Counsel provides context on SECU and the independent accountability office landscape in the article. More information about our recent advocacy to ensure that SECU and its counterpart, the Stakeholder Response Mechanism, are effective avenues for remedy and accountability can be found on our Policy page.
  • 7 February 2019

    WB watchdog flays failure to deliver on commitments to tea workers

    By The Assam Tribune
    In this article, the Assam Tribune covers our case in Assam highlighting the CAO monitoring report which found that the International Finance Corporation and Tata Group plantations have failed to deliver on commitments to address serious health and safety concerns facing the 155,000 people that live and work on tea plantations it owns in India’s North East.
  • 6 February 2019

    Pregnant women are risking their lives to bring people tea

    By Swati Gupta, CNN
    In this CNN article, Swati Gupta covers the gendered impacts of serious health and safety issues rampant on tea plantations in Assam, some of which are owned by IFC and Tata Global.
  • 4 February 2019

    Fem bra saker som hände i januari

    By OmVärlden
    Bönder får rätt i marktvist på Haiti, miljontals träd har planterats i Myanmar och entreprenörskap i Ghana tar itu med plastskräpet. Det är några av januaris hoppfulla nyheter.
  • 4 February 2019

    IFC failed to ensure workers’ safety at APPL plantations: WB investigator

    By Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, Business Standard
    In this article, Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava highlights the findings of the World Bank’s official investigator in which the IFC had failed to address the health and safety concerns of thousands of workers and their families living in Tata group’s tea plantations in India’s Northeast. Accountability Counsel will continue to support and advocate for tea workers in Assam.
  • 29 January 2019

    Displaced farmers’ coalition reclaims their road to sustainable livelihoods years after Haiti’s devastating earthquake

    By Janine Mendes-Franco, Global Voices
    In this article, Janine Mendes-Franco tells the story of a recent victory in Haiti involving a collective of farmers, who were adversely impacted by a bank-financed industrial park, and won a settlement with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Haitian government. Accountability Counsel supported the Haitian farmers throughout the negotiation process and will continue to support the implementation phase.
  • 23 January 2019

    Empowering the Powerless and Changing The World From The Bottom-Up: Natalie Bridgeman Fields

    By The Impossible Network
    AC’s Founder & Executive Director Natalie Bridgeman Fields is featured as a guest in the latest episode of The Impossible Network podcast.
  • 14 January 2019

    Haiti Farmers Demanded Justice After Losing Their Land – Their Victory Shows What Empowering Workers Can Achieve

    By Lani Inverarity, Accountability Counsel, in Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
    In this BHRRC article, AC’s Lani Inverarity reflects on the historic agreement reached by a group of Haitian farmers last month, and how the 2010 earthquake anniversary now holds the possibility of transformation and renewal.
  • 11 January 2019

    Haiti Update: Grassroots Victory in Caracol

    By Tom Ricker, Quixote Center
    In this article, Tom Ricker describes the historic agreements reached by a collective of farmers in Northeast Haiti to restore livelihoods that were lost when they were displaced for an industrial park. Accountability Counsel supported the Haitian farmers to reach these agreements through a dialogue with a development bank that financed…
  • 11 January 2019

    IDB Settles Accountability Case in Haiti, Granting Land to Farmers

    By Teresa Welsh, Devex
    In this article, Teresa Welsh highlights the recent victory in Haiti where a group of farmers, who were adversely impacted by a bank-financed industrial park, won a settlement with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Haitian government. Accountability Counsel supported the Haitian farmers throughout the negotiation process and will continue to support the implementation phase.