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DAM-L Comment on World Commission on Dams Final Report (fwd)
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Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 21:14:49 -0600
Subject: Comment on World Commission on Dams Final Report
Content-Disposition: inline
To: William J Braun/Winnipeg/MCC
From: Will Braun
Date: 11/20/2000 8:51:57 PM
Subj: Comment on World Commission on Dams Final Report
Statement of the James Bay Cree Nation and the Pimicikamak Cree Nation on the
occasion of the release of the World Commission on Dams Final Report
Summary
On November 16, 2000, the World Commission on Dams (
[Charset iso-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]
?WCD?) released its Final
Report, recommending international standards, guidelines and criteria for
decision-making in the planning, design, construction, monitoring operation and
decommissioning of dams. On the occasion of the release of the WCD Final
Report, indigenous peoples, organisations and individuals around the world have
endorsed the attached call on financial institutions to immediately implement
strict guidelines to prevent and address the adverse impacts of water and energy
projects.
We, the James Bay Cree Nation and Pimicikamak Cree Nation, indigenous peoples in
the boreal, subarctic regions of Canada, have suffered ongoing violations of our
fundamental human rights (as was recently recognized by two United Nations human
rights monitoring bodies) as a result of massive hydro-electric development in
our traditional lands.
As peoples who have been dispossessed and devastated by the adverse biophysical,
socio-economic and cultural affects of water and energy projects, we:
_ call upon international financial institutions to refuse funding to
all water and energy projects for which the consent of the peoples or
communities affected has not been obtained; and
_ endorse the attached call on all public international financial
institutions to immediately implement, in direct cooperation with
affected peoples, including indigenous peoples, stricter guidelines
for all current and future water and energy projects; to halt all
projects which do not comply with these guidelines; and to immediately
fund reparations mechanisms and otherwise address the devastating
consequences of energy development projects on the peoples and
communities affected by them.
Background
The James Bay Cree Nation and Pimicikamak Cree Nation are indigenous peoples in
the Quebec and Manitoba regions of boreal, subarctic Canada that have been
adversely affected by hydro-electric mega-projects involving river diversions
and river basin re-engineering since the 1970?s.
Tens of thousands of square kilometers of our traditional hunting grounds and
waters have been flooded or rendered inaccessible; our fish and waters have been
contaminated with methyl-mercury; and our environments, economies and societies
assaulted by rapid and imposed change.
We have been dispossessed, displaced and environmentally, culturally,
economically and socially devastated by large hydro-development projects,
initiated and built in our traditional lands by the state-owned electricity
corporations Hydro-Quebec and Manitoba Hydro respectively, against our wishes
and without our consent. The human rights dimensions of what was done to us as
a result of these large dam mega-projects has until now never adequately been
understood.
Human Rights Dimensions
We have long known that these projects and their impacts constituted violations
of our human rights.
However, this has only recently become adequately acknowledged. In December
1998, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
assessed Canada?s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights. In finding Canada in violation of its international human
rights obligations with respect to its treatment of indigenous peoples in
Canada, the Committee declared:
The committee views with concern the direct connection between Aboriginal
economic marginalization and the ongoing dispossession of Aboriginal people
from their lands...
Then in April 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee assessed Canada?s
compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(?ICCPR?). In finding Canada in violation of its international human rights
obligations with respect to its treatment of indigenous peoples in Canada --
most particularly the fundamental human right of self-determination enshrined in
Article 1 of the ICCPR ? the U.N. Human Rights Committee declared:
The Committee notes that, as the State Party [Canada] acknowledged, the
situation of the Aboriginal peoples remains ?the most pressing human rights
issue facing Canadians.? In this connection, the Committee is most
concerned that... without a greater share of lands and resources
institutions of aboriginal self-government will fail, [and] the Committee
emphasizes that the rights of self-determination requires, inter alia, that
all peoples must be able to freely dispose of their natural wealth and
resources and that they may not be deprived of their own means of
subsistence (art. 1 , para. 2).
Our own cases
In our particular cases of dispossession and deprival of our own means of
subsistence, the governments of Canada and the relevant provinces and the
hydro-electric utilities have benefited from over 20 years of multi-billion
dollar revenues at our expense. However, they have to date in no way adequately
mitigated, remediated or compensated us as peoples for the profound and ongoing
injuries and losses we have suffered.
Deprived of adequate lands and resources, we now endure mass poverty and
unemployment, ill health including epidemics of infectious disease and suicide,
and crises of hopelessness and despair. Moreover, promises of economic
development assistance, employment, training and community development, made to
us in formal treaties entered into as minimal, after-the-fact dispensations,
have never been meaningfully fulfilled. This state of affairs led a June 1999
Inter-Church Inquiry into Northern Flooding to conclude, in the case of the
Manitoba project affecting Pimicikamak Cree Nation, that it has been ?a moral
and ecological catastrophe.?
Endorsement of these progressive developments
While there is much further to go, we are gratified by developments such as the
attached call on international funding institutions regarding heightened respect
for the rights of peoples affected by dam projects.
We call on all public financial institutions to refuse funding to all water and
energy projects for which the consent of the peoples or communities affected has
not been obtained.
We also endorse the call on all public international financial institutions to
immediately implement, in direct cooperation with affected peoples including
indigenous peoples, stricter guidelines for all current and future water and
energy projects; to halt all projects which do not comply with these guidelines;
and to immediately fund reparations mechanisms and otherwise address the
devastating consequences of energy development projects on the peoples and
communities affected by them.
Along with governments and initiating and participating corporations,
international financial institutions must acknowledge and share in the
responsibility ? financial and moral ? of the consequences of water and energy
development projects on the peoples affected by them. These parties, and the
societies of which they are part, must immediately and at last take effective
steps to prevent the severe harms of the past from being repeated now and in the
future.
(Annex: NGO call to Public Financial Institutions)
?From Commission to Action?
An NGO Call to Public Financial Institutions
On 16 November, 2000, the final report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) was
released to the international public in London. The WCD?s findings and
recommendations are particularly relevant for multilateral and bilateral
financial institutions.
Public financial institutions have long been major promoters of large dams, and
have played an active role in the WCD process. The World Bank sponsored the
April 1997 Gland workshop, where the decision to create an independent World
Commission on Dams was taken. The Bank was consulted on the Commission?s
proceedings and reports throughout the WCD process. Representatives of the World
Bank, the three major regional development banks and the export credit or aid
agencies of Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S. are also
members of the WCD Forum. Much of the WCD?s funding came from multilateral and
bilateral agencies.
The WCD?s main conclusions
The WCD report concludes that
?? large dams have failed to produce as much electricity, provide as much water,
or control as much flood damage as their sponsors claim;
?? large dams suffer massive cost-overruns and time delays;
?? many large dams have proven to be uneconomic, even before accounting for
their social and environmental costs;
?? better technologies are available to provide the benefits claimed for large
dams;
?? large dams have had huge social and environmental impacts, and efforts to
mitigate these impacts have been largely unsuccessful;
?? reservoirs can be significant emitters of greenhouse gases;
?? the benefits of large dams have largely gone to the already well-off while
poorer sectors of society have borne the costs.
These findings have led the WCD to make a number of important recommendations
which apply to the full spectrum of dams - from existing dams, to those under
construction or in their planning stages. The WCD recommends that
?? comprehensive and participatory assessments of the needs to be met and
different options for meeting these needs should be developed before detailed
studies are done on any specific project;
?? priority should be given to demand side management measures and optimizing
the performance of existing infrastructure before building any new projects;
?? no dam should be built without the ?consent? (in the case of indigenous and
tribal peoples) or ?acceptance? of affected people;
?? periodic participatory reviews should be done for existing dams to assess
issues including dam safety, and the possibility of dam decommissioning;
?? mechanisms should be developed to provide social reparations for those who
are suffering the impacts of dams, and to restore damaged ecosystems.
The WCD?s conclusion on the role of public financial institutions
The WCD report notes that ?overseas development financing agencies, particularly
the multilateral and bilateral agencies, have played an important role in
funding and securing large dam projects?. The World Bank started funding large
dams in the 1950s. At the peak of lending in 1980-1984, multilateral and
bilateral financial institutions committed more than $ 4.5 billion annually to
the funding of large dams. Collectively, these institutions have committed more
than $ 125 billion to the funding of such dams. As the WCD report notes:
?Although the proportion of investment in dams directly financed by bilaterals
and multilaterals was perhaps less than 15%, these institutions played a key
strategic role globally in spreading the technology, lending legitimacy to
emerging dam projects, training future engineers and government agencies, and
leading financing arrangements.?
In the case of developing countries, the selection of alternatives for meeting
water, flood control and electric power needs was, and is, frequently
constrained because, as the WCD report explains, financial institutions have a
preference for ?large dams rather than non-structural alternatives?. At the same
time, the report notes the failure of financing agencies ?to fulfil commitments
made, observe statutory regulations and abide by internal guidelines?. The
situation is particularly grave for the export credit agencies. As the report
points out, ?ECAs generally lack policies on environmental and social issues and
do not necessarily adhere to internationally accepted standards and guidelines.
Experiences from the Three Gorges dam in China, Ilisu dam in Turkey, Maheshwar
dam in India and San Roque dam in the Philippines, underline the need for ECAs
to examine closely the social and environmental impacts of the projects they
support.?
A call for action
We note and appreciate that the WCD report vindicates many concerns raised by
NGO campaigns. Given the role of financial institutions in funding large dams
and in the WCD process, and based on the WCD report?s recommendations, we call
on all public financial institutions, including the World Bank, the regional
development banks, the export credit agencies and bilateral aid agencies, to
take the following actions:
(1) All public financial institutions should immediately and comprehensively
adopt the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams, and should integrate
them into their relevant policies, in particular those on water and energy
development, environmental impact assessment, resettlement, and public
participation. In particular, as recommended by the WCD, no project should
proceed without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples, and
without the demonstrable public acceptance of all those who would be affected by
the project.
(2) All public financial institutions should immediately establish independent,
transparent and participatory reviews of all their planned and ongoing dam
projects. While such reviews are taking place, project preparation and
construction should be halted. Such reviews should establish whether the
respective dams comply, as a minimum, with the recommendations of the WCD. If
they do not, projects should be modified accordingly or stopped altogether.
(3) All institutions which share in the responsibility for the unresolved
negative impacts of dams should immediately initiate a process to establish and
fund mechanisms to provide reparations to affected communities that have
suffered social, cultural and economic harm as a result of dam projects.
(4) All public financial institutions should place a moratorium on funding the
planning or construction of new dams until they can demonstrate that they have
complied with the above measures.
London, 16 November 2000
Peter Bosshard, Berne Declaration, Switzerland
Patrick McCully, International Rivers Network, U.S.A.
The call for action has been endorsed by the following 109 NGOs from 39
countries:
Argentina
Jorge Cappato, Fundaci__n PROTEGER
Elba Stancich, Taller Ecologista
Australia
Melanie Gillbank, AID/WATCH
Tim Fisher,Stuart Blanch, Australian Conservation Foundation
Austria
Martina Neuwirth, Koordinierungsstelle der Bischofskonferenz
Bangladesh
Hossain Shahriar, Environment and Social Development Organization-ESDO
Saleem Samad, Like-Minded Environmental Activists Group
Belgium
Rudy de Meyer, 11.11.11 (the umbrella of the Flemish North South movement in
Belgium)
Belize
Sharon Matola, The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center Belize
Brazil
Sadi Baron, Dam-Affected Peoples' Movement of Brazil
Canada
The James Bay Cree Nation
Pimicikamak Cree Nation
China
Sophia Woodman, Human Rights in China, Hong Kong
Colombia
Marcelino Nu__ez Altamiranda, Asociaci__n de Productores para el Desarrollo
Comunitario de la Ci__naga Grande del Bajo Sin__ - ASPROCIG
Abel Domico Domico, Emiliano Domico Mayore, Cabildos Mayores Embera Katio de los
R__os Sin__ y verde
Hildebrando V__lez, Censat Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Colombia)
Costa Rica
Hugo Mora, Asociaci__n Monta__a Verde
Asociaci__n de Desarrollo Integral del Territorio Ind__gena de Rey Curr__
Asociaci__n de Desarrollo Integral del Territorio Ind__gena de Cabagra
Asociaci__n de Desarrollo Integral del Territorio Ind__gena de Boruca
Gilbert Gonz__lez Maroto, Centro para el Desarrollo Ind__gena (CEDIN)
Comit__ de Defensa de los Rios Afectados por proyectos Hidroel__ctricos
Mar__a del Pilar Ure__a Alvarez, Comisi__n Mixta del Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad
Grupo de Mujeres Ind__genas con Esp__ritu de Lucha
Padre Oscar Navarro, Vicar__a de Pastoral Social; P__rez Zeled__n, Iglesia
Cat__lica
Czech Republic
Petr Hlobil, CEE Bankwatch Network
El Salvador
Mauricio Sermeno, Union Ecologica Salvadorena
France
Ben Lefetey, Amis de la Terre
Roberto Epple, ERN European Rivers Network
Philippe Lhort, SOS Loire Vivante
Sharon Courtoux, SURVIE
Germany
Weiluo Wang, Chinesisches Kulturzentrum Dortmund e.V.
Bernhard Henselmann, EarthLink - The People & Nature Network
German Dolphin Conservation Society
Dario Jana, Red Internacional de Apoyo al Pueblo Pehuenche -RIAP-
Theodor Rathgeber, Society for Threatened Peoples Germany
Heffa Sch__cking, Urgewald
Birgit Zimmerle, WEED (World Economy, Ecology & Development)
Wolfgang Sachs, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy, Environment
Hungary
Andras Janossy, ?For the Danube" Foundation
India
D. Narasimha Reddy, Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights (CHATRI)
D. Narasimha Reddy, Centre for Resource Education and Citizens Against Pollution
D. Narasimha Reddy, Citizens Against Pollution
Leo Saldanha, Environment Support Group
Ambrose Pinto s.j., Indian Social Institute
Smitu Kothari, Lokayan
Minar Pimple, YUVA, Mumbai
Indonesia
Agam Fatchurrochman, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW)
Arianto Sangaji, Yayasan Tanah Merdeka
Italy
Antonio Tricarico, Francesco Martone, Jaroslava Colajacomo, Reform the World
Bank Campaign
Japan
Takeru Shiroiwa,Tatsuya Kubo, A SEED JAPAN
Fujiwara Toshihide, Campaign for Future of Filipino Children (CFFC)
Ikuko Matsumoto, Friends of the Earth Japan
Toshiko Niikura, Heather Souter Rivers!Japan
Sonoko Kawakami, Japan NGO Network on Indonesia (JANNI)
Reiko Amano, Nagaragawa Citizen's Coalition
Reiko Amano, NGO Association for Public Works Review
Satoru Matsumoto, Mekong Watch
Tomoko Sakuma, People's Forum 2001
Masahito Ujiie, Sagamigawa Camp-Inn-Symposium
Kenya
Grace Akumu, Climate Network Africa
Lesotho
Thabang Kholumo, Highlands Church Action Group (HCAG)
Malaysia
Sam Hui, SOS Selangor (Save Our Sungai Selangor)
Sam Hui, SUARAM (Suara Rakyat Malaysia)
M__xico
Scott Robinson (Depto. de Antropologia Universidad Metropolitana Mexico DF)
Fernando Melo Farrera, Servicios para el Desarrollo Sociedad Civil
Netherlands
Wiert Wiertsema, Both ENDS
Johan Frijns, Friends of the Earth International
Nigeria
Onyeagucha Uche, Environmental Rights Action
Norway
Tonje Folkestad, Elisabeth F. Olsen, FIVAS Association for International Water
and Forest Studies
Pakistan
Aly Ercelawn, Muhammad Nauman, creed allliance
Mushtaq Gadi, Pakistan Network of Rivers Dams and People
Naeem Iqbal, Sungi Development Foundation Islamabad
Philippines
Joan Carling, Cordillera Peoples Alliance
Poland
Jacek Bozek, Sally Naylor, Stowarzyszenie Ekologiczno-Kulturalne "Klub Gaja?
Republica Dominicana
Don Marcos Pena, Grupo de Accion por la Defensa del Rio Yaque del Norte
Jarabacoa, L.V.
Slovakia
Roman Havlicek, Juraj Zamkovsky, Friends of the Earth Slovakia
South Africa
Liane Greeff, Environmental Monitoring Group
Philip Owen, Southern African Water Crisis
Patrick Bond (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)
Sweden
Klas Ronnback, Milj__f__rbundet Jordens V__nner (Friends of the Earth Sweden)
Switzerland
Peter Bosshard, Berne Declaration
J__rg Krummenacher, Caritas Switzerland
Pfr. Andreas Nufer, Ecumenical Parish Halden, St.Gallen
Alex Sutter, Human Rights Switzerland
Amanda Weibel, Gertrud Ochsner, Independent Network Monitoring the Swiss
Financial System
G__pf Berweger, Hanspeter Bigler, Society for threatened peoples - Switzerland
Brigitte Anderegg, SOLIFONDS
Hanspeter Finger, Petra Engelhard, SWISSAID
Peter Niggli, Swiss Coalition of Development Organisations
Thailand
Ka Hsaw Wa, EarthRights International
Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South
United Kingdom
Thomas Griffiths, Forest Peoples Programme
Kate Geary, Ilisu Dam Campaign
Steve Fisher, ITDG
Roger Moody, Partizans
Geoff Nettleton, Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links
Nicholas Hildyard, The Corner House
Uruguay
Gerardo Honty, CEUTA
Roberto Bissio, Instituto del Tercer Mundo
Ricardo Carrere, World Rainforest Movement
USA
Korinna Horta, Environmental Defense
Andrea Durbin, Friends of the Earth U.S
Kate Showers, Institute for Environmental Awareness, Inc
John Gershman, Institute for Health and Social Justice
Patrick McCully, International Rivers Network
Jonathan A. Fox (Merrill College, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Julie Tanner, National Wildlife Federation
Sandy Buffett, The Nautilus Institute for Security & Sustainable Development
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