[Thread] What are the main criticisms of the #WorldBank and the #IMF?

Bretton Woods Project - Critical voices on the world bank and IMF

4 June 2019

"World Bank-funded projects have also continually been found to be in direct, serious violation of international human rights standards. Major recurring issues include mass evictions and the forced displacement of peoples and communities for major infrastructure and agricultural projects (see Observer Spring 2015), violations of the rights of indigenous and forest peoples, targeting of human rights defenders, triggering local food insecurity, and serious labour rights violations, such as child and forced labour reportedly being used in Bank-funded projects (see Observer Winter 2016). The IFC has also been shown on several occasions to have invested in companies that avoid or evade taxes (see Observer Autumn 2016). More recently, the Bank has also acknowledged that its projects can create an environment that can foster gender-based violence, including sexual abuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS (see Observer Spring 2017).

"To safeguard against risks like these, the World Bank launched its revised Environmental and Social Framework in 2018, although it applies only to its project lending and not to its DPF.

"Many in civil society remain unconvinced that the safeguards are fit for purpose if the Bank is to deliver on its mandate to implement policies that benefit the poorest, especially as the Bank is set to focus on more complex and difficult environments from 2018."

https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2019/06/what-are-the-main-criticisms-of-the-world-bank-and-the-imf/

#HumanRights #HumanRightsViolations #IndigenousPeoples #ForestPeoples #Exploitation #IMFLoanSharks #CorporateColonialism #CorruptGovernments #BigOilAndGas #BigMining #SaveTheForests

#ElSalvador faces scrutiny for ‘political’ trial of five #EnvironmentalActivists

UN and legal experts have condemned prosecution of #AntiMining campaigners over alleged civil war-era killing

Nina Lakhani
Wed 9 Oct 2024 11.43 EDT

"Five environmental activists who helped secure a historic mining ban in El Salvador are facing life imprisonment for an alleged civil war-era crime, in a case that has been condemned by #UN and legal experts as baseless and politically motivated.

The trial against Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega, who were arrested in January 2023 for the alleged killing of an army informant in 1989, opened on Tuesday in Sensuntepeque, in the department of Cabañas in northern El Salvador.

"The case has proceeded in almost total secrecy amid widespread allegations of legal violations – and repeated calls for the charges to be dismissed from UN experts, and hundreds of international lawyers, academics and rights groups.

"The defendants, who were at the forefront of a 13-year grassroots-led campaign to ban #MetalMining to protect the country’s dwindling #water and #farmland from further #contamination, were arrested amid warnings that President Nayib Bukele was planning to overturn the 2017 historic law.

"The five anti-mining activists had denounced suspicious land sales and mining interests operating in the area when arrested, accused of murder and illicit association over an alleged crime during the 1979-1992 civil war.

"'This case has no legal basis, but we fear that the lack of judicial independence and the Bukele government’s desire to overturn the metal mining ban risks the five #environmental leaders being subjected to a terrible miscarriage of justice,' said Pedro Cabezas, coordinator of the Central American Alliance Against Mining.

"'The five are respected community leaders, and sentencing them to inhumane prison conditions would be a death sentence.'"

[...]

"In what was perceived as a show of support for the activists, #Canada, #Germany, #France, the #UK and the #EU sent representatives to pre-trial hearings. The #Biden administration has remained silent despite 17 members of Congress condemning the arrests and urging the secretary of state, Antony #Blinken, to join calls for the charges to be dismissed."

Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/09/el-salvador-trial-environmental-activists-mining

#EnvironmentalActivists #CriminalizingActivism #WaterIsLife #TrumpedUpCharges #NoMiningWithoutConsent #BigMining #Corruption

Drug shipments, eh? Is that why they are flying over Lakota and Navajo territory and the Grand Canyon? I suspect this is to spy on #ClimateActivists, especially #NativeAmericanActivists.

From 2019: Pentagon testing #MassSurveillance balloons across the US

Mark Harris
Fri 2 Aug 2019 06.00 EDT

"The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.

"Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural #SouthDakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.

"Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to 'provide a persistent #surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and #HomelandSecurity threats', according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.

"The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.

"Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, 'What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.'

"The tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (#Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the #Caribbean and #CentralAmerica and #SouthAmerica. Southcom is a joint effort by the #USArmy, #USNavy, #USAirForce and other forces, and one of its key roles is identifying and intercepting drug shipments headed for the United States."

Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

#Orwell #WarrantlessSpying #AntiProtestLaws
#BigMining #HumanRights #ClimateJustice
#Environment #AntiProtest #MilitaryIndustrialComplex
#SpyBalloons

What's going on in #IndianCountry?!!

Joy Rides into the Stratosphere, and #MilitaryIntelligence: Helium Balloons over #Navajo and #Lakota Nations, Indian Country

"#WorldView also announced a partnership with the military defense contractor #SierraNevada for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, for the U.S. military using its balloons. One of these balloon flights was for the U.K. defense department in the Grand Canyon."

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Sept. 5, 2024

"Joy rides into the stratosphere, and military surveillance, are two of the purposes for the helium balloons over the #NavajoNation, #LakotaNations in #SouthDakota, and most of Indian country, according to the owners of the helium balloons.

"#TheGuardian exposed the helium balloons #spying platforms and the #ACLU in South Dakota warned of this #surveillance. The balloons are capable of video recording vehicles traveling to #protests, and can reveal where the vehicles arrived from. It's spying without a warrant.

"The balloon owners, Aerostar and World View, have U.S. military contracts for recovering payloads, as was the case with World View's experimental payload recovery in the #GrandCanyon for England's defense department. These balloons can also carry out ground surveys.

"Aerostar is based near #SiouxFalls, South Dakota, and World View is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/09/joy-rides-into-stratosphere-and.html

#WarrantlessSpying #NativeAmericanActivists #AntiProtestLaws #BigMining #ClimateActivists #HumanRights #ClimateJustice #Environment #AntiProtest #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #SpyBalloons

#AntiProtest Laws in #Australia

"In 2019, the #Queensland government passed the Summary Offences and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2019. Four United Nations Special Rapporteurs said the laws were 'inherently disproportionate,' and could criminalise peaceful protest.

"The Queensland government consulted #mining lobby group the Queensland Resources Council on the laws.

#MiningCompanies and powerful #lobby groups are pushing governments to further restrict our right to peaceful assembly in response to recent #ClimateProtests – threatening not just our right to protest, but also our ability to combat the #ClimateCrisis."

https://www.amnesty.org.au/campaigns/right-to-protest/

#ClimateJustice #ProtestLaws #Lobbyists #Corporations #BigMining

At a time when the World's wild salmon runs are dying due to warming, crappy logging practices, open net fish farms, etc, #BigMining wanted to put a giant new mine called #PebbleMine in SE Alaska near Bristol Bay and the world's largest wild salmon run
There was near universal opposition but the usual #GOP crowd fought for it saying 'jobs' & 'economy' like they'd keep us in fish

So this is #EPA announcement is good news!
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-epa-regional-administrator-pebble-stage.html