The World Bank Legal Review Volume 6 Improving Delivery in Development Part 2

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The World Bank Legal Review Volume 6 Improving Delivery in Development: The Role of Voice, Social Contract, and Accountability


The World Bank Legal Review Volume 6 Improving Delivery in Development: The Role of Voice, Social Contract, and Accountability The World Bank Legal Review is a publication for policy makers and their advisers, judges, a orneys, and other professionals engaged in the field of international development, with a particular focus on law, justice, and development. It oers a combination of legal scholarship, lessons from experience, legal developments, and recent research on the many ways in which the application of the law and the improvement of justice systems promote poverty reduction, economic development, and the rule of law. The World Bank Legal Review is part of the World Bank Law, Justice and Development Series managed by the Research and Editorial Board of the Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency. Publication of The World Bank Legal Review, Volume 6 was made possible with support from the OPEC Fund for International Development.


The World Bank Legal Review Volume 6 Improving Delivery in Development: The Role of Voice, Social Contract, and Accountability

Jan Wouters Alberto Ninio Teresa Doherty Hassane CissĂŠ Editors


© 2015 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org Some rights reserved 1 2 3 4 18 17 16 15 This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Nothing herein shall constitute or be considered to be a limitation upon or waiver of the privileges and immunities of The World Bank, all of which are specifically reserved. Rights and Permissions

This work is available under the Creative Commons A ribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO) h p://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo. Under the Creative Commons A ribution license, you are free to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt this work, including for commercial purposes, under the following conditions: Attribution—Please cite the work as follows: Wouters, Jan, Alberto Ninio, Teresa Doherty, and Hassane Cissé, eds. 2015. The World Bank Legal Review, Volume 6. Improving Delivery in Development: The Role of Voice, Social Contract, and Accountability. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi: 10.1596/9781-4648-0378-9. License: Creative Commons A ribution CC BY 3.0 IGO Translations—If you create a translation of this work, please add the following disclaimer along with the a ribution: This translation was not created by The World Bank and should not be considered an official World Bank translation. The World Bank shall not be liable for any content or error in this translation. Adaptations—If you create an adaptation of this work, please add the following disclaimer along with the a ribution: This is an adaptation of an original work by The World Bank. Views and opinions expressed in the adaptation are the sole responsibility of the author or authors of the adaptation and are not endorsed by The World Bank. Third-party content—The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content contained within the work. The World Bank therefore does not warrant that the use of any thirdparty-owned individual component or part contained in the work will not infringe on the rights of those third parties. The risk of claims resulting from such infringement rests solely with you. If you wish to re-use a component of the work, it is your responsibility to determine whether permission is needed for that re-use and to obtain permission from the copyright owner. Examples of components can include, but are not limited to, tables, figures, or images. All queries on rights and licenses should be addressed to the Publishing and Knowledge Division, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org. ISBN (paper): 978-1-4648-0378-9 ISBN (electronic): 978-1-4648-0379-6 DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0378-9 Cover photo: © Nugroho Nurdikiawan Sunjoyo / World Bank. Further permission required for reuse. Cover and interior design: Nigel Quinney


The World Bank Legal Review Volume 6

Improving Delivery in Development: The Role of Voice, Social Contract, and Accountability EDITORS Jan Wouters Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of International Law and International Organizations, University of Leuven Alberto Ninio Deputy General Counsel, Regulatory Aairs and Operations of Vale S.A. Teresa Doherty Judge of the Special Court of Sierra Leone Hassane CissÊ Director of Governance and Inclusive Institutions, Governance Global Practice, The World Bank Group

PRODUCTION EDITOR Elise Wei Tan Legal Consultant, Legal Vice Presidency, The World Bank



Contents Foreword Albie Sachs, Former Judge, Constitutional Court of South Africa Preface Anne-Marie Leroy, Senior Vice President and Group General Counsel, the World Bank Editors and Contributors Introduction Improving Delivery in Development: The Role of Voice, Social Contract, and Accountability Hassane Cissé PART I: Human Rights and Development 1. Human Rights and Service Delivery: A Review of Current Policies, Practices, and Challenges Axel Marx, Siobhán McInerney-Lankford, Jan Wouters, and David D’Hollander

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Delivering Development and Good Governance: Making Human Rights Count Rajeev Malhotra

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The Right to Development: Translating Indigenous Voice(s) into Development Theory and Practice Felipe Gómez Isa

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The Curse of Riches: Sharing Nature’s Wealth Equitably? Emilio C. Viano

PART II: Sustainable Development 5. Fostering Accountability in Large-Scale Environmental Projects: Lessons from CDM and REDD+ Projects Damilola S. Olawuyi 6.

The Constitutional Regime for Resource Governance in Africa: The Difficult March toward Accountability Francis N. Botchway and Nightingale Rukuba-Ngaiza

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Conceptualizing Regulatory Frameworks to Forge Citizen Roles to Deliver Sustainable Natural Resource Management in Kenya Robert Kibugi The Impact of the Legal Framework of Community Forestry on the Development of Rural Areas in Cameroon Emmanuel D. Kam Yogo

PART III: Urban Law and Policy 9. Urban Law: A Key to Accountable Urban Government and Effective Urban Service Delivery Ma hew Glasser and Stephen Berrisford 10. Confronting Complexity: Using Action-Research to Build Voice, Accountability, and Justice in Nairobi’s Mukuru Informal Se lements Jane Weru, Waikwa Wanyoike, and Adrian Di Giovanni 11. “Good” Legislation as a Means of Ensuring Voice, Accountability, and the Delivery of Results in Urban Development Maria Mousmouti and Gianluca Crispi

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PART IV: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence 12. Justice Sector Delivery of Services in the Context of Fragility and Conflict: What Is Being Done to Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence? 273 Waafas Ofosu-Amaah, Rea Abada Chiongson, and Camilla Gandini 13. Sexual Violence in Conflict: Can There Be Justice? Justice Teresa Doherty

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PART V: Improving Access to Justice 14. The Ministério Público of the State of Minas Gerais and the ADR Experience 313 Danielle de Guimarães Germano Arlé and Luciano Luz Badini Martins 15. ICT-Driven Strategies for Reforming Access to Justice Mechanisms in Developing Countries Karim Benyekhlef, Emmanuelle Amar, and Valentin Callipel 16. Courts and Regulatory Governance in Latin America: Improving Delivery in Development by Managing Institutional Interplay Rene Urueña

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PART VI: Anticorruption and Stolen Assets Recovery 17. The New Brazilian Anticorruption Law: Federation Challenges and Institutional Roles William Coelho and Letícia Barbabela 18. Voice and Accountability: Improving the Delivery of Anticorruption and Anti–Money Laundering Strategies in Brazil Fausto Martin De Sanctis

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19. Development-Oriented Alternatives to Debarment as an Anticorruption Accountability Tool Frank A. Fariello Jr. and Giovanni Bo

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20. Making Delivery a Priority: A Philosophical Perspective on Corruption and a Strategy for Remedy Morigiwa Yasutomo

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21. Measures for Asset Recovery: A Multiactor Global Fund for Recovered Stolen Assets Stephen Kingah

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PART VII: Perspectives on the World Bank Inspection Panel 22. Improving Service Delivery through Voice and Accountability: The Experience of the World Bank Inspection Panel 477 Dilek Barlas and Tatiana Tassoni 23. The World Bank’s Inspection Panel: A Tool for Accountability? Yvonne Wong and Benoit Mayer

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24. The Inspection Panel of the World Bank: An Effective Extrajudicial Complaint Mechanism? Karin Lukas

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Concluding Remarks Alberto Ninio

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Foreword FORMER

ALBIE SACHS JUDGE, CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

OF

SOUTH AFRICA

Our South African Bill of Rights goes beyond the political and civil rights that have been provided in most constitutions over the last two and a half centuries. It certainly includes the right to free speech, to equal treatment before the law, to due process, to freedom of religion, to freedom of expression, and, above all, to vote. But it is far more comprehensive. Coming out of our struggle for human rights and democracy, we South Africans went further and introduced fundamental economic and social rights: the right to have access to adequate housing, health care services, food and water, and social security. Some of the most important cases in which I participated as a Justice of the Constitutional Court concerned this second generation of rights, and the issue of ensuring their progressive realization in the context of limited resources. This is not always easy. Indeed, our very first case on the subject concerned access to expensive dialysis treatment. We had to recognize that we simply did not have the resources to deliver the most expensive forms of health care to everyone. Yet we could not work on the principle that if we could not treat everybody equally, we could not treat anybody at all. The answer to this was a form of rationing based on constitutionally compliant criteria. The applicant died of renal failure two days after the court gave its decision refusing to advance the applicant in the queue for treatment. Fortunately, there were many other cases where the court was able to prescribe immediate remedies. The work we do as lawyers and judges can be transformative. I have been privileged to be part of the great project of using law to help the poor and vulnerable, and to bring these social and economic rights to life in ways we could never have anticipated. For example, in the seminal Grootboom case, we ruled that families who are in crisis through no fault of their own—in this case, mothers and children who have lost their shelter because of floods, fires, or evictions—are constitutionally entitled to emergency shelter. Then, in the Treatment Action Campaign case, our court ruled that women living with HIV and about to give birth are entitled, as a ma er of right, to have access to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. One consequence is that South Africa now has one of the largest and most effective ARV programs in the world. Although these cases have been credited with global impact, the legacy that means the most to me is the message of hope embedded in their outcomes and reasoning. Someone once said that the function of the law is to convert misfortune into justice. These cases do that. They provide that, in appropriate xi


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circumstances, manageable responses to extremes of poverty, homelessness, and other desperate circumstances can be achieved by actionable claims in court. Governments are alerted to the fact that they are not doing anyone a favor by providing the basic decencies of a dignified life, but fulfilling their constitutional duties. Judgments by progressive courts throughout the world have an impact far beyond the particular parties that bring the case to court. They allow us to declare that the poorest and most disadvantaged among us—people living with disease and stigma, people living without shelter—have rights. They affirm human dignity and encourage people to stand up and claim their rights. They promote transparency and accountability in public administration. As lawyers and judges engage with these rights, they affect the lives of millions. And as this message of hope radiates beyond the courtroom, each mother, each child, each immigrant will know that they ma er. In November 2013, as the keynote speaker for the World Bank’s annual Law, Justice and Development Week, I had the opportunity to address a global gathering of lawyers, judges, and other people from various disciplines interested in the role of voice, social contract, and accountability, which is also the theme of this volume. The materials collected here offer concrete ideas and motivation to those working to achieve real development impact by using the tools of law and justice, as well as instruments from other disciplines. The chapters that follow make it plain that the world that the World Bank serves is not merely a geographical entity. Nor is it simply a concatenation of economies and markets. It is a planet peopled by human beings with an immense variety of needs and huge differences of life circumstances. One theme that runs through these chapters is that the notion of development cannot be restricted only to a aining measurable material and structural goals, important though this must always be. Development must include promoting the intangibles relating to human dignity and the affirmation of individuals and communities. The multiple voices and perspectives from different parts of the globe represented in this volume all seek an appropriate and commendable blend of the measurable and the intangible.


Preface SENIOR VICE

ANNE-MARIE LEROY PRESIDENT AND GROUP GENERAL COUNSEL THE WORLD BANK

The vast range of development challenges that characterize today’s world demand effective solutions. Current development challenges are numerous and include promoting sustainable development and conserving the environment; finding solutions to developing countries’ rapid urbanization; generating enhanced social equality along gender, racial, and cultural lines; improving law and justice systems’ effectiveness and accessibility; and addressing the wide economic disparity between developed and developing countries. Against this backdrop, if we are to achieve our goals, humanitarian aspirations are essential and desirable, but insufficient. It is crucial that development initiatives are designed and implemented to deliver tangible and positive outcomes. Clearly, finding solutions to today’s development challenges will be no small feat—and will require cohesive and commi ed international cooperation including through multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations. The contributions in The World Bank Legal Review, Volume 6, titled Improving Delivery in Development: The Role of Voice, Social Contract, and Accountability, examine key values that must underpin development initiatives for effective and efficient development impact. This book showcases a range of development problems, challenges, and solutions. The World Bank’s dual goals of eradicating extreme poverty and enabling all countries to share equitably in global economic prosperity are addressed through loans to member countries and the Bank’s continued provision of a rich wealth of shared development knowledge, as well as advisory and technical assistance. Yet, if such global development support is to materialize into successful development impact, it must be channeled into projects that from the outset, and through to their completion, are carefully designed and implemented to a ain and deliver such targeted and positive outcomes. This fundamental and significant theme of delivering beneficial development impact—to inclusively enhance the lives of all peoples, especially the poor—resonates throughout this book on many levels. The World Bank Legal Review is a collaborative effort among development practitioners, whose work involves a range of disciplines, including law, economics, sociology, and other social sciences. In this volume, recent, innovative, and cu ing-edge perspectives on significant law, justice, and development issues are showcased and shared with all for whom such knowledge is important and relevant. These chapters offer practical solutions to and xiii


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useful perspectives on current and pressing development issues, which can be adapted by experts all over the world to meet the specific needs of beneficiaries in different local contexts. This volume has been shaped by the insightful and carefully researched contributions of various law and development experts, and the invaluable guidance provided by our distinguished team of editors: Hassane Cissé, Director of Governance and Inclusive Institutions, Governance Global Practice, the World Bank Group; Alberto Ninio, Deputy General Counsel of Vale; Professor Jan Wouters, Jean Monnet Chair and Professor of International Law and International Organizations, University of Leuven; and Justice Teresa Doherty, who was appointed by the United Nations in 2005 as a judge of the Special Court of Sierra Leone. My appreciation goes out to the editors who have led the direction of this publication. My sincere appreciation also goes out to Albie Sachs, a former Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, who graciously wrote this volume’s foreword. The foreword brings to mind that law and justice systems worldwide are the essential structures on which beneficial development impact may be tangibly and enduringly realized for intended beneficiaries. Relevant development knowledge from other disciplines, pertinent to the design and implementation of development initiatives, also provides essential support to the law in ensuring continued positive development impact. Sachs’s wisdom and insights into law, justice, and development, and the core values that must underpin these, enrich the contents of this volume. The chapters contained in this book explore a variety of themes: human rights and development, sustainable development, urban law and policy, sexual and gender-based violence, enhancing access to justice, regulatory governance, perspectives on anticorruption and stolen assets recovery, and the World Bank Inspection Panel. Contributions under each of these key themes highlight in different ways the importance of delivering positive development impact, and how achieving this goal necessitates consistent engagement with the fundamental concepts of voice, social contract, and accountability. The significance of these three concepts is richly and meaningfully illuminated across the chapters of this book.


Editors and Contributors Editors Hassane Cissé is Director, Governance and Inclusive Institutions, Governance Global Practice, at the World Bank. In this capacity, he leads a department composed of teams of experts to support countries in building sustainable, inclusive, and trustworthy governance systems. Key areas of focus include citizen engagement and social accountability mechanisms, institutional reform and strengthening in respect of justice and rule of law institutions, legislatures, independent accountability mechanisms, centers of government, and other areas of public sector management. Previously, Mr. Cissé was Deputy General Counsel, Knowledge and Research, of the World Bank from 2009 to June 2014. In this capacity, he managed the Bank’s advisory work on legal and justice reforms, and led the Bank’s knowledge activities on law, justice, and development. Prior to this role, he served for several years as Chief Counsel for Operations Policy, and as legal adviser on Governance and Anticorruption. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1997, Mr. Cissé worked at the International Monetary Fund where he started his professional career in 1990. Mr. Cissé has lectured and published widely. He has in particular coedited several volumes of The World Bank Legal Review. He serves on several international boards and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Justice and its Meta Council on Global Governance Architecture. Mr. Cissé holds an LL.B. from the Dakar University School of Law, in Senegal, and a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies (D.E.A.) in international law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas. He received his D.E.A. in international economic law from the Sorbonne, where he also obtained a D.E.A. in African history. He also holds an LL.M. from Harvard University. Teresa Doherty is from Northern Ireland. She studied law after working as a civil servant and as a volunteer in Zambia. She worked in legal aid clinics in “no go areas” of Belfast as a student in early 1970s during the “troubles.” She was called to the bars of Northern Ireland, New South Wales, and Papua New Guinea. In the la er, she worked from 1976 to 1987 in the Public Solicitor’s office and, later, as the provincial legal officer for Morobe Province. She was noted for her civil and constitutional rights work, particularly on prisoners and women’s issues. Justice Doherty was the first woman to be elected as a councillor of the Papua New Guinea Law Society. She was appointed as the principal magistrate for the Momase region in 1987 and as a National and, later, Supreme Court judge in 1988, the first woman to hold any high judicial office in the Pacific Islands region. She returned to Northern Ireland and to the bar in late 1997. Justice Doherty was appointed a judge of the High Court of Sierra Leone in 2003 following the civil war in that country and sat in the Court of Appeal. She was appointed by the United Nations in January xv


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2005 as a judge of the Special Court of Sierra Leone and was elected the first presiding judge of Trial Chamber 11. She is currently a parole commissioner for Northern Ireland and a part-time chairman of Appeal Services; she also works on consultancies and speaks internationally. She received a CBE for “outstanding Contribution to the Judiciary and the Community” and an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Ulster. Justice Doherty has wri en widely on developments in international law and the status of women in the Pacific region. She is also the author of a guide to custody and maintenance law in Papua New Guinea for lay readers, titled So You Have Been Left Holding the Baby. Alberto Ninio is a lawyer with 25 years of experience in regulatory, international, environmental, and corporate responsibility who has also held various technical and managerial positions. He is Deputy General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs and Operations of Vale S.A., the world´s leading iron ore–mining company, where his duties focus on all operational issues, including contracts, civil and criminal litigation, environmental and social issues, corporate responsibility and interaction with civil society, governments and regulatory agencies, mining rights, and regulation of energy, ports, and railways in Brazil and abroad. As Chief Counsel of the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank for 18 years, he led a series of pioneering environmental initiatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, such as structuring investment projects, delivering wri en and oral defenses, conducting contract negotiations related to funding, and participating in environmental and social studies. Prior to joining the Bank in 1993, he worked as a lawyer at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C., and in Brazil as a lawyer specializing in foreign investments. He was Professor of Environmental Law at American University and is affiliated with numerous professional organizations. Mr. Ninio holds a degree in environmental law from the National Law School of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and a master of international law from American University. Jan Wouters is Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair Ad Personam EU and Global Governance, and the founding director of the Institute for International Law and of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, an interdisciplinary center of excellence, at the University of Leuven. As a visiting professor, he teaches EU external relations law at Sciences Po (Paris), Luiss University (Rome), and the College of Europe (Bruges). He is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts; is president of the United Nations Association, Flanders, Belgium; and practices law as Of Counsel at Linklaters, in Brussels. He is the editor of the International Encyclopedia of Intergovernmental Organizations, deputy director of the Revue Belge de Droit International, and an editorial board member for 10 international journals. He has published widely on international, EU, corporate, and financial law, including more


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than 50 books, 100 journal articles, and 150 book chapters. His recent books include Accountability for Human Rights Violations by International Organizations (Intersentia), Upgrading the EU’s Role as Global Actor (CEPS), The European Union and Multilateral Governance (Palgrave Macmillan), International Prosecutors (Oxford), Informal International Lawmaking (Oxford), Private Standards and Global Governance (Edward Elgar), China, the European Union, and Global Governance (Edward Elgar), The EU’s Role in Global Governance (Oxford), National Human Rights Institutions in Europe (Intersentia), and The Law of EU External Relations (Oxford). Apart from his participation in many international scientific networks, he advises various international organizations, trains international officials, and often provides commentary on international events in the media. He is the coordinator of a large-scale FP7 Programme FRAME, “Fostering Human Rights among European (External and Internal) Policies,” and of the InBev-Baillet Latour EU-China Relations Chair at the University of Leuven.

Contributors Emmanuelle Amar holds a master’s degree in international law from the Université de Montréal and is a member of the Quebec Bar. She is interested in access to justice, international humanitarian law, and international cooperation. Ms. Amar is a research officer at the Cyberjustice Laboratory of the Université de Montréal, where she coordinates a project evaluating the development of cyberjustice worldwide. She previously worked for the International Commi ee of the Red Cross in Geneva as an intern at the Advisory Service on international humanitarian law. She has also worked in the field of refugee law. Danielle de Guimarães Germano Arlé graduated in law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro in 1991. She is currently enrolled in a master’s degree course in conflict resolution systems at the National University of Lomas Zamora, Argentina. Mrs. Arlé has been a prosecutor at the Ministério Público do Estado de Minas Gerais (MPMG) since June 1992, having previously worked at the Prosecutor’s Office for children and young lawbreakers in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state. Since December 2012, she has been the adviser prosecutor to the A orney General at Ministério Público for the Institutional School of MPMG. She is also a member of the Study and Mediation Group for Improving Performance of the MPMG, of the Ministério Público’s National Council; an MPMG representative in the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development; and a teacher of courses in adequate dispute treatment within the Brazilian Ministério Público. Luciano Luz Badini Martins has been a prosecutor in the Ministério Público do Estado de Minas Gerais since June 1993 and was responsible for the pros-


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ecutor’s public entrance exams. He served as the A orney General’s secretary from 2005 to 2008; as coordinator of the Center for Prosecutors’ Operational Support of Environmental Defense, Historical and Cultural Heritage, Housing, and Urban Planning from 2009 to 2012; and as a representative in the State Council for Environmental Policies from 2009 to 2012. He was a coordinator of state prosecutors working on ma ers related to the São Francisco River from 2002 to 2005, and interstate coordinator from 2009 to 2012. Mr. Badini was presented with a national award in the “Public Prosecutor” category for “Justice without Bureaucracy.” Currently, he is the director of the MPMG Institutional School; the president of its Academic, Scientific, and Editorial Council; and president of its memorial. He also is a representative on the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development. Letícia Barbabela is a judicial clerk at the Ministério Público do Estado de Minas Gerais (MPMG), where she works at the Anticorruption Special Unit conducting research and writing briefs related to bidding procedures and public procurement. She is a graduate of the Federal University of Minas Gerais’s School of Law and holds a postgraduate degree in administrative law from Cândido Mendes University. Before graduation, Miss Barbabela worked in the university’s Judicial Assistance Division providing juridical guidance to underserved students and citizens, mainly on ma ers related to labor law and family law. She participated in the Federal Justice’s internship program in Belo Horizonte, analyzing cases involving administrative law and tax law under a judge’s supervision. She also received a scholarship to provide tutoring on labor law for fellow students. Dilek Barlas is Executive Secretary of the World Bank Inspection Panel. Prior to her current position, she served as the Panel’s Deputy Executive Secretary, from 2007 to 2014. A Turkish national, Ms. Barlas has more than two decades of experience in the field of development. A lawyer by training, she joined the World Bank in 1992 and served as Senior Counsel in the World Bank Legal Vice Presidency for the Europe and Central Asia Region. As Senior Counsel, she was responsible for the legal aspects of Bank operations in numerous countries; her work included an overseas field assignment to the Bank Office in Ankara, Turkey, from 2004 to 2006. Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Barlas served with the Undersecretariat of the Treasury and Foreign Trade of Turkey and played a critical role in the preparation of Turkey’s antidumping and subsidies legislation. Her private law practice includes work as an associate with White and Case in its Washington, D.C., office. She holds a law degree from the University of Ankara and an LL.M. in international legal studies from the Washington College of Law at American University, Washington, D.C. Karim Benyekhlef has been a professor at the Université de Montréal’s Faculté de droit since 1989, and since 1990 he has worked at the Centre de recher-


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che en droit public, serving as its director from 2006 to 2014. A member of the Quebec Bar since 1985, he practiced at the federal Department of Justice from 1986 to 1989. His areas of teaching and research are information technology law (privacy, domain names, online dispute resolution, freedom of expression), constitutional law (human rights and freedoms), international law, legal theory, and legal history. In 1995, Professor Benyekhlef founded the electronic law journal Lex Electronica; he is also the originator of the first online dispute resolution projects: the CyberTribunal project (1996–99), eResolution (1999–2001), and the ECODIR project (2000–). As the director of the Cyberjustice Laboratory, he oversees Towards Cyberjustice, its multidisciplinary international research team, which is composed of 36 researchers from 23 academic institutions and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He also holds the Lexum Chair on Legal Information at Université de Montréal. Stephen Berrisford is an independent consultant working at the intersection between law and urban planning in Southern and Eastern Africa. Previously, he worked for local government in Cape Town and Johannesburg, as well as for the South African Department of Land Affairs, where he was responsible for both the implementation of the first postapartheid planning and land development legislation and the promotion of further legal reforms. In addition to his consulting work for international and South African clients, Mr. Berrisford works with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, where he is an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor, involved in building a platform for improved urban legal reform in Sub-Saharan African countries. He holds an LL.B. and a master of city and regional planning degree from the University of Cape Town, and an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge. He is coauthor, with the late Patrick McAuslan, of the forthcoming Urban Legal Guide for Sub-Saharan African Countries. Giovanni Bo is Counsel with the South and East Asia and Pacific Practice Group of the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency. He joined the Bank’s Legal Department in 2010 and worked, as an advisory lawyer, in the Environmental and International Law and Operations Policy Practice Groups and, as an operational lawyer, in the Latin America and the Caribbean Practice Group. Prior to joining the Bank, he was a legal researcher at Human Rights Watch and worked for the European Commission in Brussels. He has also practiced European Union law in the Brussels office of Pavia & Ansaldo. A foreign-trained a orney admi ed to practice law in the state of New York, he holds an LL.M. in international and comparative law from The George Washington University Law School (2009), an advanced degree in European Union law from the University of Bologna (2007), a certificate in legal studies from University College London (2004), and an LL.B. from the University of Genoa (2004). His recent publications include “The World Bank Group Sanctions System and


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Access to Justice for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises” (The World Bank Legal Review, vol. 5, 2014). Francis N. Botchway studied law at universities in Ghana, Canada, and the United States. He was awarded the C. R. Allen Fellowship at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, where he obtained his Ph.D. Professor Botchway taught at universities in the United Kingdom before moving to Qatar University as the associate dean of law. He was also an adjunct professor at Leuven University, Warwick, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and a visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico. He is consulted by law firms in the United Kingdom and the United States on transactions and arbitration ma ers. Governments, institutions, and international organizations also consult him on varied subjects, particularly in international investment, natural resources, and environmental law. He has published books and dozens of journal articles internationally. His latest edited book is titled Natural Resource Investment and Africa’s Development. He is working on Defences in International Investment Law (Routledge). Valentin Callipel is a project leader at the Cyberjustice Laboratory of the Université de Montréal. In charge of multiple projects focusing on the modernization of the legal system, he combines his expertise in private judicial law with information technology law. Mr. Callipel holds a master’s degree in private judicial law from the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne. He also holds an LL.M. in business law from the Université de Montréal and has been admi ed as a member of the Paris Bar and the Quebec Bar. Mr. Callipel’s interests are centered on the links between law and new technologies, and he is presently focusing one of his several research projects on cyberspace privacy. Rea Abada Chiongson is a lawyer with almost 20 years of experience on gender, justice, rule of law, and development issues. She was a gender consultant with the World Bank Institute’s gender and fragility program. From 2010 to 2013, she also was Gender and Justice Advisor of the Justice for the Poor Program under the Justice Reform Practice Group of the World Bank. Ms. Chiongson worked with the Asian Development Bank, UN Women, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. She developed frameworks for governments and civil societies for assessing compliance of existing national laws with international conventions, leading to several legal, policy, and administrative proposals for gender equality. She also worked with the Ateneo Human Rights Center in the Philippines, providing legal aid and legal empowerment initiatives to marginalized segments of society. Ms. Chiongson earned her B.A. and J.D. degrees from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines and her LL.M. from Columbia University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.


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William Coelho is a public prosecutor at the Ministério Público do Estado de Minas Gerais (MPMG), where he works at the Anticorruption Special Unit, investigating and filing actions related to bidding and public procurement fraud. He is a graduate of the National Law University in Rio de Janeiro and holds a postgraduate degree in intelligence and human rights from the Fundação Escola Superior do Ministério Público. Mr. Coelho lectures on the new Brazilian anticorruption law and teaches at the Prosecutor’s Institutional School. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Brazilian Institute of Criminal Intelligence, a collaborator at the National Council of the Public Ministry, and an Institutional Articulation and Projects adviser at the Brazilian Ministry of Justice. He also represents MPMG at the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, as part of the Governance and Anticorruption Thematic Working Group. Gianluca Crispi is an Italian lawyer with 10 years of experience in supporting policy formulation and the review of urban legal systems. He serves as legal officer in the Urban Legislation Unit of UN-Habitat, providing legislative advice to UN-Habitat’s projects and assisting member-states and local authorities in translating urban policies into effectively implementable laws. Mr. Crispi leads the Essential Law Programme, an initiative that analyzes the main constraints of practicability and enforceability of urban legislation in developing countries. Prior to his current position, he worked as research officer for the UN State of the World’s Cities report, a normative tool geared to informing policy discussion and assisting local governments in designing sustainable urban policies. Fausto Martin De Sanctis holds a doctorate in criminal law from the University of São Paulo’s School of Law and an advanced degree in civil procedure from the Federal University of Brasilia. He is a federal appellate judge in Brazil’s Federal Court in São Paulo, deputy director of the Federal Judicial School, a member of the Portuguese-Language Jurists Community, and an Advisory Council member of American University’s Washington College of Law on its Brazil-U.S. legal program. Dr. De Sanctis was selected to handle a specialized federal court that exclusively hears complex cases involving financial crimes and money laundering. In 2012, he was a fellow at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. He was a public defender in São Paulo, 1989–90, and a State Court judge, also in São Paulo, 1990–91, before being appointed to the Federal Courts. His 18 publications include Football, Gambling, and Money Laundering: A Global Criminal Justice Perspective (Springer), Money Laundering through Art: A Criminal Justice Perspective (Springer), and Criminal Law: General Rules (Forense). He has lectured at numerous universities and international organizations in the United States and Europe.


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David D’Hollander is a research fellow at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at the University of Leuven. His research focuses on the role of human rights and democratic governance within international development policies, with an emphasis on the theory and practice behind rightsbased approaches to development cooperation. In addition, he has worked and published on a variety of topics related to sustainable development, particularly regarding market-driven sustainability standards and sustainable procurement. He holds a master’s degree in history and a master’s degree in conflict and development studies from the University of Ghent, and was a visiting scholar at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO— Ecuador). He has contributed to various policy reports for, inter alia, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Belgian federal and regional governments. Adrian Di Giovanni, LL.M., New York University; LL.B., University of Toronto; B.A., McGill University, is Senior Program Officer, Law and Development at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in O awa, where he has been initiating a portfolio of research projects focusing on public law and accountability in the global South. Before joining the IDRC, Di Giovanni worked for the Canadian Department of Justice’s Human Rights Law Section, where he provided legal advice on Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and represented Canada in litigation before UN human rights tribunals and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Di Giovanni is also an alumnus of the World Bank’s Legal Department and a part-time professor at the University of O awa’s Faculty of Common Law. He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and an honorary member of the Uganda Law Society. Frank A. Fariello Jr. is a Lead Counsel with the Operations Policy Practice Group of the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency. He is the Bank’s primary legal focal point for its Governance and Anticorruption Strategy and is legal adviser to the Bank’s Governance Global Practice. Mr. Fariello recently concluded a comprehensive review of the Bank’s sanctions system, and is coordinating an ongoing multi-institutional study on the Drivers of Corruption in IFI operations. Since joining the Bank in 2005, he has also worked on a range of other legal policy issues, including the Legal Harmonization Initiative, Bank engagement in the criminal justice sector, and the legal aspects of the Bank’s Middle-Income Countries strategy. He is Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s International Anticorruption Commi ee. His recent publications include several chapters in previous volumes of The World Bank Legal Review and in the George Washington Law Review. He has lectured at the Joint Vienna Institute, George Mason University, and the New York University School of Law. Prior to joining the Bank, he was Special Adviser to the Vice President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Senior Counsel in IFAD’s Office of the General Counsel. Prior to IFAD, he


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practiced corporate law in a number of New York–based law firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He holds a B.A. in history from Brown University and a J.D. from New York University Law School. He is admi ed to practice law in the state of New York. Camilla Gandini is a gender specialist at the World Bank with a focus on gender-based violence (GBV), male gender issues, and masculinity. She is currently a researcher on sexual trafficking of children at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Previously, Ms. Gandini worked with the European Commission to support the government of Pernambuco, Brazil, in the design and implementation of public policy for violence prevention and social cohesion. She also was a researcher at the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town, where she investigated structural violence, GBV, and masculinity and femininity identity issues. Ms. Gandini has substantial experience working directly with local NGOs and communitybased projects in Brazil, Costa Rica, and South Africa. She worked at the operational level on preventing violence against women, promoting men-women cooperation, coordinating crisis interventions, and supervising women and children protection efforts. She earned her M.A. in anthropology and ethnology from the University of Bologna, and an M.A. in human rights and conflict management from the Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy. Matthew Glasser’s legal career began in 1977 as a municipal bond counsel and then as Broomfield’s City A orney in Colorado, and he has also worked as a registered professional lobbyist in Washington, D.C., on behalf of Colorado cities. Before joining the World Bank’s urban sector team in 2003, Mr. Glasser worked as an adviser in the South African National Treasury, where he helped develop regulatory frameworks for municipal borrowing and financial emergencies. For more than 20 years, he has worked with national and local governments in Africa, Asia, and Europe on policy and legislation regarding urban finance and development. Mr. Glasser is working on a book exploring the legal, regulatory, and institutional framework within which the developing world’s cities operate. He obtained his J.D. from Cornell University Law School and his B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Colorado. Felipe Gómez Isa is Professor of Public International Law and a researcher at the Institute of Human Rights of the University of Deusto, in Bilbao, Spain. He is the national director of the European Master’s in Human Rights and Democratization, (E.MA.) Program, organized by 42 European universities in the framework of the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization, in Venice, Italy. He was also the Spanish representative to the UN Working Group for the Elaboration of an Optional Protocol to the CEDAW (1997–1999). Mr. Gómez Isa has been a visiting professor in several European, Latin American, Asian, and U.S. universities. His publica-


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tions include The Right to Development in Public International Law (University of Deusto), Privatisation and Human Rights in the Age of Globalisation (coedited with Koen de Feyter; Intersentia), International Human Rights Law in a Global Context (coedited with Koen de Feyter; University of Deusto), Rethinking Transitions: Equality and Social Justice in Societies Emerging from Conflict (coedited with Gaby Oré, Intersentia), and “Freedom from Want from a Local Perspective: Evolution and Challenges Ahead,” in The Local Relevance of Human Rights (Cambridge). Emmanuel D. Kam Yogo holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Leiden. He is a senior lecturer, and the coordinator of the Research Group on Natural Resources Law at the University of Douala’s Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences. He also lectures at the International Relations Institute of Cameroon and at the National School of Administration and Magistracy of Cameroon. He is an associate fellow of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, an associate professor of the Faculty of Law of Laval University in Quebec, and a member of the International Law Association. Dr. Kam Yogo has published various articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and books on environmental law, human rights, economic law, and constitutional law. He has served as a consultant for the Central Africa Forests Commission and for the German Cooperation Agency in Cameroon. Robert Kibugi is a lecturer in law at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and the University of Nairobi’s School of Law, and has previously taught at the Faculty of Law, University of O awa. His legal and policy research agenda focuses on public participation in natural resource governance; land use law for sustainable development; climate change, including the role of law and policy in the adaptation and mitigation to climate change; and energy law, water resources management and rights, water, and sanitation. He holds an LL.B. and a LL.M. from the University of Nairobi School of Law, and an LL.D. from the University of O awa School of Law, and is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He has published various chapters and articles in peer-reviewed books and journals. Stephen Kingah, LL.M. and Ph.D. (in law) is a research fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies in Bruges, Belgium. Previously, he worked as a research fellow at the Institute for European Studies at the Free University of Brussels. He also served as an ad hoc administrator at the European Union Commission, where he was in charge of relations between the European Union and international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the African Development Bank. He has taught in various universities in Africa, Latin America, and Europe. Dr. Kingah teaches at the University of Maastricht’s Master’s Program in Governance and Public Policy. He has published in many international peer-


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reviewed journals, including International and Comparative Law Quarterly, European Foreign Affairs Review, and International Organizations Law Review. He is working on topics such as asset recovery, international law in emerging markets, access to medicine, and the interaction between human rights and free trade agreements. Karin Lukas is Senior Researcher and Head of Team at the Ludwig Bol mann Institute of Human Rights. In January 2011, she joined the European Commi ee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe. She has been a consultant for various national and international organizations, such as the UN Development Programme and the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She has done research as well as project-related activities in the field of human rights, in particular women’s rights, development cooperation, and business since 2001. Dr. Lukas holds an LL.M. in gender and the law (American University), an E.MA. in human rights and democratization (University of Padova), and a Ph.D. in legal studies (University of Vienna). She works on the issues of labor rights in global production networks, and international as well as companybased complaint mechanisms. Rajeev Malhotra bridges the world of academics and policy making. He is a professor and the executive director at the Centre for Development and Finance, School of Government and Public Policy, O. P. Jindal Global University, in the Delhi National Capital Region. A development economist with over 25 years of experience, he worked with the government of India until August 2012, as the economic adviser to the then Union finance minister. From 2002 to 2008, he worked at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and prior to that at the Planning Commission, New Delhi. He has published on methodological issues in estimation of poverty, human development, human rights indicators, right to development, fiscal policy, and specific issues on the Indian economy. His most recent publications include India Public Policy Report 2014 (Oxford) and A Critical Decade: Policies for India’s Development (Oxford). He is interested in researching and writing on macroeconomic issues in development policy and on human rights in development. He has a master’s degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, and also from the London School of Economics. Siobhán McInerney-Lankford is Senior Counsel in the World Bank Legal Vice Presidency and a recognized expert in international human rights law, advising the Bank in this area since 2002. She regularly represents the Bank in international human rights fora, including the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). She has published widely on human rights law and its links to development and is Adjunct Professor at American University’s Washington


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College of Law, having also taught at the Venice Master’s program and the UN Summer Academy. She is cochair of the Human Rights Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, cochair of the GFLJD Community of Practice on Human Rights and Development and adviser to the Health, Nutrition, and Population and Governance Global Practices. Dr. McInerneyLankford holds an LL.B. from Trinity College, Dublin, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and a B.C.L. and D.Phil. in EU human rights law from Oxford University. In 2010 and 2011, she was named among the Irish Legal 100 by the Irish Voice newspaper. Before joining the Bank, she worked in private practice in Washington, D.C. She is admi ed to practice law in the state of Rhode Island. Axel Marx is Deputy-Director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, University of Leuven. He studied sociology and political science in Leuven, Hull (M.A.), and Cambridge (M.Phil.), and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Leuven. His research mainly focuses on global governance, sustainability standards, non-state market regulation, human rights, international development, and research methodology. His international academic publications have appeared, inter alia, in European Political Science Review, Regulation and Governance, Political Research Quarterly, Research in Sociology of Organizations, Journal of Socio-Economics, Globalizations, and Sociological Methodology. As an academic expert, he has contributed to over 15 policy reports for, inter alia, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Commi ee of the Regions, and Belgian federal and regional governments. Benoit Mayer is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Law in the National University of Singapore. He holds an M.A. in political sciences from Sciences Po Lyon and an LL.M. from McGill University. His research focuses on international governance in the fields of climate change, migration, and development, with a particular interest in analyzing law as a tool for social progress. He has coauthored a book on environmental migration (Presses de Sciences Po), coedited a volume on critical international law (Oxford), and published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles in, among other journals, the European Journal of International Law, the Chinese Journal of International Law, the Asian Journal of International Law, and Climatic Change. He received the 2010 CISDLIDLO Award of Excellence in Legal Scholarship on Sustainable Development. Morigiwa Yasutomo is Professor of Philosophy of Law at the Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University. He teaches legal theory, legal ethics, and anticorruption in English and Japanese. His interests range from the theory of justice to legal assistance programs, engaging not only with philosophers of law but also with legal professionals in many countries. After beginning his career at the University of Tokyo, he worked on theories of law and language at Oxford University. He is now active in work on interpretation and in promot-


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ing the practical import of legal philosophy, explaining to the practicing jurist the nature of professional responsibility. The legal ethics textbook he edited has been translated into Chinese and Mongolian. He was the acting president of the International Association of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy from 2009 to 2011, and has been a director since 2003. He is also a director of the International Association of Legal Ethics and the Japan Association of Legal Philosophy, as well as a member of the editorial boards of leading journals in the philosophy of law and legal ethics. Maria Mousmouti (LL.M., Ph.D.) is Executive Director of the Centre for European Constitutional Law, an associate research fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) of the University of London, and a codirector of the Sir William Dale Legislative Drafting Clinic (IALS). She specializes in different aspects of legislating and quality of legislation and is coordinating the research cooperation between the IALS and UN-Habitat on improving the quality of urban legislation. Her work throughout the years consists in supporting reform initiatives through research and capacity building in areas related to public administration, human rights, and the quality of regulatory systems and legislation in more than 20 countries. Recent projects include assistance to the Serbian Parliament in the process of EU integration, assessing the impacts of legislation on gender, measuring administrative burdens and reducing bureaucracy, improving the regulatory environment in Syria, and enhancing judicial independence in Azerbaijan. Waafas Ofosu-Amaah, a lawyer, served as the Regional Coordinator for the World Bank Group’s Leadership, Learning and Innovation (LLI; formerly World Bank Institute) Vice Presidency until her retirement in October 2014. Prior to this assignment, she was a Senior Operations Officer with WBI’s Fragile and Conflict-Affected States unit. She was a Senior Gender Specialist with the Gender and Development Anchor in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Vice Presidency for over 10 years. Ms. Ofosu-Amaah’s thematic areas of expertise include integrating gender issues into emerging development themes, especially conflict and fragility, governance, law, and HIV/AIDS. She also coordinated the World Bank Group’s Gender Action Plan, “Gender Equality as Smart Economics.” Prior to joining the Bank, she consulted for various international organizations and NGOs on environmental, gender equality, and development issues. She designed a three-year global program on gender equality and the advancement of women for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and assisted UNDP staff and management in developing “Guidance Note on Gender Mainstreaming.” Ms. Ofosu-Amaah was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1976. She has a master’s degree in law from London University (Queen Mary College) and an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland.


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Damilola S. Olawuyi is Director of the Institute for Oil and Gas, Energy, Environment, and Sustainable Development, Afe Babalola University, Nigeria and an energy associate with the global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright LLP in Calgary, Canada. Dr. Olawuyi’s legal and policy research agenda cuts across broad areas of public international law, specifically natural resources, energy, and the environment. He has published over two dozen journal articles, as well as three books in these areas of law. Dr. Olawuyi holds a D.Phil. in energy and environmental law from the University of Oxford, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, another LL.M. from the University of Calgary, and a diploma in international environmental law from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, in Swi erland. He earned his LL.B. from Igbinedion University in Nigeria, and his B.L. degree from the Nigerian Law School. Dr. Olawuyi is the vice president of the International Law Association (Nigerian Branch), the editor-in-chief of Nigeria’s Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, and an associate fellow of the Center for Sustainable Development Law in Montreal. Nightingale Rukuba-Ngaiza is Senior Counsel, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Practice Group in the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency. She has implemented several legal and judicial reform projects, including being Task Manager for the Kenya Judicial Performance Improvement Project, the first stand-alone, Bank-financed judicial reform project in Africa and the second-largest judiciary project in the Bank’s portfolio. She joined the Bank in 1996 and worked with the Social Development Department on a range of social development issues. She also worked as an advisory lawyer in the Environmental and International Law Practice Group and as an operational lawyer in the Africa Practice Group. Prior to joining the Bank, she served as a consultant to the Bank and the United Nations on a range of issues. Dr. Rukuba-Ngaiza’s recent publications include Judicial Reform: A Journey of Turmoil and Opportunities in Achieving Prosperity in Kenya (World Bank). She holds an LL.B. from Makerere University, Uganda, an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, and a Ph.D. in law, policy, and society from Northeastern University. She is licensed to practice law in New York and Uganda. Tatiana Tassoni has worked in the field of accountability and compliance review for close to 13 years since joining the World Bank Inspection Panel where she is Senior Operations Officer. At the Panel she works closely with Panel members on complaints received concerning a wide variety of development projects, including large infrastructure projects and other investments and policy reform projects and programs. She has been the lead Secretariat staff for 15 Panel investigations and has been involved in the review of over 50 requests for inspection in many countries. She has been a guest lecturer on independent accountability and the Inspection Panel at American University, and has represented the Panel in a number of meetings and conferences on accountability and the right to recourse. Prior to joining the Panel, she prac-


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ticed law in an Italian law firm and worked with a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., focusing her research on workers and women’s rights, domestically and internationally. She holds a law degree from Italy and an LL.M. in international law from the Washington College of Law, American University. Rene Urueña is an associate professor and the director of the Master’s Program in International Law at Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia), where he also belongs to the Global Justice and Human Rights Clinic. He earned his doctorate in law at the University of Helsinki and holds a postgraduate degree in economics. He has been a visiting professor of international law at the University of Utah and a fellow at the Institute for International Law and Justice, New York University. He has published on international law and global governance, and leads a project on interinstitutional relations and economic development. Emilio C. Viano has earned an LL.B. and three master’s degrees in law, an M.A. in sociology and anthropology, and a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) in the sociology of law (New York University). Recently, he has taught and undertaken research chiefly at American University’s School of Public Affairs and Washington College of Law, and he has also been a professor at a number of universities around the world. His work in law, criminal justice issues, and governance has been recognized by his election as president of the International Society for Criminology and as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Penal Law (Paris). He is a member of the Task Force for the Creation of the World Security University. Most recently, he was the program chair organizing the World Congress of Criminology, 2014, in Mexico. He was also the general rapporteur on cybercrime for the International Association of Penal Law. Dr. Viano has consulted worldwide, especially in the developing world and particularly on security issues. He has published extensively, often speaks at international conferences and universities, and frequently appears as a political analyst on television and radio stations worldwide. Waikwa Wanyoike is Executive Director of Katiba Institute, an organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, which works to promote constitutionalism and the rule of law in Kenya. He practices constitutional law as a public interest litigator and appears regularly at the High Court, Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Kenya on groundbreaking constitutional ma ers. Mr. Wanyoike also advises government and nongovernmental agencies on constitutional implementation and policy reforms. Previously, he practiced law in Toronto, with an emphasis on criminal, immigration, constitutional, human rights, and refugee law. He regularly represented clients before various Canadian courts and administrative tribunals. He also taught advocacy at


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York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. Mr. Wanyoike was educated at Kenya a University in Nairobi and York University in Toronto; he received his J.D. from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. He is called to the bar in Ontario, a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and a member of the Law Society of Kenya. He was the winner of the 2010 Precedent Se er Award for excellence in practice of law and his contribution to the community in Ontario, Canada. Jane Weru is trained as a lawyer and holds a master’s degree in NGO management from the London School of Economics. From 1993 to 2001, she worked with Kituo Cha Sheria, a legal and human rights organization in Nairobi. Her work focused on public interest litigation on behalf of communities threatened with forceful eviction. In 2001, she helped found Pamoja Trust, a nonprofit organization that mobilized and supported movements of the urban poor by providing technical, legal, and financial support to urban poor movements. Ms. Weru is the executive director and founder member of Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT), a nonprofit organization working on developing innovative community-led solutions to housing and land-tenure problems for the urban poor in Kenya. AMT is the financing facility of the Kenya Federation of Slum Dwellers (MuunganowaWanavijiji). She was also a member of the Millennium Project’s task force on “improving the lives of slum dwellers.” She is a member of the Provincial Commissioners Informal Se lements Commi ee, a board member of Slum/Shack Dwellers International, and the team leader for the Kenya Railway Relocation Action Plan. Yvonne Wong is an entrepreneur, legal consultant, and academic, based in Yangon, Myanmar. Dr. Wong is an expert in sovereign debt and international finance and banking law. Her current research looks at Myanmar’s evolving banking and finance system. Her recent publications include “Restructuring Responsibility for Greece’s Sovereign Debt: The Need for a Truth and Reconciliation Audit” (Law in Context) and her book Sovereign Finance and the Poverty of Nations: Odious Debt in International Law (Elgar). Dr. Wong has worked as a lawyer, consultant, and academic in various jurisdictions. She was recently in private practice in Cambodia and, prior to that, on the faculty of the Law School at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney. Dr. Wong is a member of the New York State Bar and admi ed to practice in New South Wales. She obtained her BCommerce/LL.B. from University of Sydney, and her LL.M. and J.S.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Law School.


PART IV

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence



12

Justice Sector Delivery of Services in the Context of Fragility and Conflict What Is Being Done to Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence? WAAFAS OFOSU-AMAAH, REA ABADA CHIONGSON, AND CAMILLA GANDINI [D]espite its repeated condemnation of violence against women and children in situations of armed conflict, including sexual violence in situations of armed conflict, and despite its calls addressed to all parties to armed conflict for the cessation of such acts with immediate effect, such acts continue to occur, and in some situations have become systematic and widespread, reaching appalling levels of brutality. — UN Security Council Resolution 1820 (June 19, 2008) Over the past two decades, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) within the international legal framework has come to refer to any violence directed against a person on account of gender and to any violence that affects one gender disproportionately. SBGV includes gender-based acts that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. Some of the earliest internationally agreed-on references to SGBV can be derived from international instruments addressing violence against women (VAW) such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the 1994 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW), and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA). CEDAW’s General Recommendation No. 19 defines VAW as a form of gender-based discrimination that includes “violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately. It includes acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations of liberty.” Both DEVAW and BPFA also state that violence against women encompasses, but is not limited to, physical, sexual, and psychological violence that occurs in the family or in the general community or that is perpetrated or condoned by the state.1 1

Both DEVAW and BPFA state that VAW encompasses “(a) physical, sexual, and psychological violence occurring in the family, including ba ering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation; (b) physical, sexual, and psychological violence occurring within the general

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The definition of SGBV, however, has evolved over the years to include all forms of gender-based violence so as to reflect the reality that men and boys also experience sexual violence. This chapter focuses on sexual violence that affects women, because of its prevalence.

A Brief Background to SGBV Prevalence SGBV is one of the most prevalent forms of abuse. Although no accurate figure on its global prevalence is available, it is estimated that at least 35 percent of the world’s women experience some form of SGBV during their lives.2 Global estimates for men and boys who experience SGBV are even more difficult to obtain. In fragile and conflict situations (FCS), SGBV is a major challenge, but it is often difficult to obtain reliable figures for its incidence.3 Nevertheless, a global study of 50 countries found that significant increases in SGBV occur following major wars.4 SGBV has been widely reported in many FCS: in the former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s; in the Rwandan genocide in 1994; in Somalia in the early 1990s; in the Kashmir conflict; and in the civil wars in Peru, Sudan, and Liberia.5 The results of a population-based household survey in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) indicated a high incidence of rape—an estimated four hundred thousand women had been raped in the 12 months prior to the survey—and showed that the most pervasive form of sexual violence was perpetrated by intimate partners.6

community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution; and (c) physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs.” See Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Fourth World Conference on Women, Sept. 15, 1995), A/CONF.177/20 (1995) and A/CONF.177/20/Add.1 (1995), para. 113. 2

World Health Organization (WHO) et al., Global and Regional Estimates of Violence against Women: Prevalence and Health Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and Non-Partner Sexual Violence” 16 (WHO 2013).

3

Mayra Buvinic et al., Violent Conflict and Gender Inequality: An Overview 119 (World Bank) 119 policy research working paper, Feb. 2013), h p://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596 /1813-9450-6371. See also Dara Kay Cohen et al., Wartime Sexual Violence: Misconceptions, Implications, and Ways Forward (U.S. Inst. Peace Special Rpt. No. 323, U.S. Inst. Peace, Feb. 2013), h p://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/SR323.pdf.

4

Megan Bastick, Karin Grimm, & Rahel Kunz, Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Global Overview and Implications for the Security Sector (Geneva Ctr. for Democratic Control of Armed Forces 2007), cited in World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security and Development, 60.

5

See Buvinic et al., supra note 3, at 120.

6

Id.


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Forms SGBV is manifested in various forms depending on the context. SGBV includes rape, forced impregnation and miscarriages, kidnapping, trafficking, abduction, forced marriage, beatings, domestic abuse, and enslavement. Other prevalent forms of sexual abuse include strip searches, forced nudity, public sexual humiliation, gang rape, rape with foreign objects, and public rape.7 There is also increasing evidence that sexual violence has been used to forcibly displace populations, both internally and across borders, in places such as Colombia, the DRC, Libya, Mali, and the Syrian Arab Republic.8 Postconflict societies also continue to experience or bear the impact of SGBV.9

Causes Several different lines of thought have emerged regarding what causes SGBV in conflict. One view suggests that SGBV is intentionally used as a weapon of war. It is not simply a random act10 but an “assertion of power or an a ack against another military force,” including individuals thought to be supporting the other force. Here SGBV is intended to torture, humiliate, demoralize, weaken, or discredit.11 When claiming conquered territory, military units often view

7

Rashida Manjoo & Calleigh McRaith, Gender-Based Violence and Justice in Conflict and PostConflict Areas, 12 Cornell Intl. L.J. 12 (2011), h p://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/ILJ /upload/Manjoo-McRaith-final.pdf.

8

See, for example, Report of the Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. A/67/792 – S/2013/149 (Mar. 14, 2013). Women and children have been targeted, both inside and outside camps and se lements for refugees and internally displaced persons, and in villages surrounding camps.

9

It is relatively common for postconflict societies to experience increased trafficking, forced prostitution, domestic violence, and rape following a major conflict. See Manjoo & McRaith, supra note 7, at 13). For example, numerous studies have consistently revealed a peacetime reality of extremely high prevalence of SGBV in Liberia. The Liberian Ministry of Gender and Development’s figures show that 6,277 cases were reported from 2010 to 2012. In 2012, rape accounted for 55 percent of cases, with 68 percent involving victims from the ages of 3 months to 14 years (Id.). The postconflict rise of domestic violence, for example, has led to speculation of a relationship between forms of SGBV and the availability of small arms, increased tolerance of violence within society, head of household being engaged in military violence (Id., at 14), and acquisition of “hyper-masculinities.” The experiences in the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, and South Sudan suggest a link between SGBV and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration and security sector reform programs. For example, incidents of SGBV have occurred where improperly trained security forces or ex-combatants have been redeployed or cantoned in proximity to civilian centers. There have been instances of armed groups deserting the national army and perpetrating sexual violence following failed integration initiatives (Report of the Secretary-General, supra note 8, at para. 7.

10

Traditionally, SGBV was seen as an unfortunate and unavoidable part of war, and SGBV “acts were primarily random incidents of frustration and violence caused by individuals.” See Manjoo & McRaith, supra note 7, at 14.

11

Id., at 15.


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women’s bodies as “spoils of war” and rape as a standard practice of war to which the victorious army is entitled.12 The second view sees SGBV as a form of opportunistic violence. In situations of fragility and conflict, the erosion of societal networks, increased militarization, and breakdown of law and order can lead to individuals or groups taking advantage of vulnerable members of society.13 Increased levels of impunity during conflict can often lead to a rise in sexual violence because perpetrators know that they are unlikely to be caught or punished. In some instances, law enforcers are also perpetrators of SGBV.14 The third view considers the prevalence of SGBV in FCS as an extension of already prevailing violent practices:15 “extreme violence women suffer during conflict does not arise solely out of the conditions of war; it is directly related to the violence that exists in women’s lives during peacetime.”16

Consequences SGBV, particularly when directed against women, “impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of human rights and fundamental freedoms under general international law or under human rights conventions” and is a form of discrimination.17 SGBV impacts an individual’s right to (a) life; (b) protection from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; (c) equal protection under the law and, according to humanitarian norms, in time of international or internal armed conflict; (d) liberty and security of person; (e) equality and freedom from discrimination; (g) the highest a ainable standard of physical and mental health; and (h) just and favorable conditions of work, among others.18 Development outcomes, such as in the areas of health, education, economic opportunities, good governance, and violence prevention, have been linked to SGBV.19 Prioritizing SGBV during the postconflict 12

Id., at 16, citing U.N. Econ. & Soc. Council, Commn. on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery, and Slavery-like Practices during Armed Conflict, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/ Sub.2/2000/21 (June 6, 2000), para. 20.

13

Buvinic et al., supra note 3, at 12; Manjoo & McRaith, supra note 7, at 15; World Development Report 2011, supra note 4, at 60.

14

Cohen et al., supra note 3.

15

Manjoo & McRaith, supra note 7, at 16.

16

Elisabeth Rehn & Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Women, War, and Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-Building 10 (UNIFEM 2002).

17

UN Commi ee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19, A/47/38 (1992).

18

Id.

19

Linkages have been drawn between preventing the incidence of violence and its impact on health indicators (such as HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality) and its costs against health care infrastructure, as SGBV survivors require medical, psychological, and other services. Insecurity often prevents girls from a ending schools and women from participating in market activities and farming. SGBV also sometimes hinders good governance. SGBV


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stage can provide an opportunity to design and implement transformative gender policies, just as the transitional period following conflict might provide an opportunity to change underlying inequalities.20

The Existing International Legal and Normative Framework against SGBV Early a empts to address SGBV in conflict are found in military codes and treaties, such as the Lieber Instructions of 1863, which expressly prohibits rape, and the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949 and its additional protocols of 1977, which provide that “women be especially protected from any a ack on their honor, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault.” The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women states that although these efforts are noted, they focus on SGBV as a crime on the woman and family’s honor or morality. This is problematic, because when “rape is perceived as a crime against honor or morality, shame commonly ensues for the victim,” and this has serious implications on women’s ability to report the violence and hold the perpetrators accountable.21 manifests itself as a sexualized form of corruption (also called “sextortion” or “transactional sex”). In Tanzania, many women were pressured into “transactional sex.” See Damien de Walque et al., Coping with Risk: The Effects of Shocks on Reproductive Health and Transactional Sex in Rural Tanzania, Impact Evaluation Ser. (Policy Research Working Paper No. WPS 6751, World Bank Group 2014), h p://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/18832582 /coping-risk-effects-shocks-reproductive-health-transactional-sex-rural-tanzania. In situations of fragility, sextortion may be exacerbated through “pe y” corruption (when basic public services are sold instead of provided by right), which affects poor women and girls in particular. In postearthquake Haiti, for example, many displaced women and girls were forced into “survival sex” by men in positions of power, such as administrators of cash-forwork-programs and men charged with organizing relief distributions. See, for example, Haiti Women Face New Struggles to Survive, h p://blog.amnestyusa.org/americas/haitis-women -face-new-struggles-to-survive/. Addressing SGBV is crucial to violence prevention because, in some cases, it can have an inflammatory impact on existing tensions or perpetuate a cycle of violence, such as when women’s bodies are used as “frontlines” in ideological and political struggles or as a strategic component of warfare or group violence. See Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, WDR Gender Background Paper (World Bank 2011), h ps://openknowledge.world bank.org/handle/10986/9250. 20

This is particularly relevant when new rules are adopted, for example, when drafting a new constitution; se ing up transitional, investigative, or accountability mechanisms; or creating be er protection systems for SGBV. There is also evidence that FCS triggers more inclusive behaviors toward women and other groups that are largely excluded in civil and political life during peacetime. Furthermore, FCS can result in strengthened women’s networks, increased representation in a variety of political spaces, and inclusive and gendered policies, which would show promise for more responsive and inclusive development policies and interventions in the challenging context of fragility.

21

Manjoo & McRaith, supra note 7, at 18. “Rape and other forms of sexual violence are used as instruments of violence and terror—as torture, punishment, intimidation, coercion, humiliation, and degradation. Nonetheless, it is only recently that the international human rights community has begun to recognize rape as violence rather than as an assault on honour or a crime against morality.” See United Nations, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1998/54 (Jan. 26, 1998), para. I(4).


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Recent international standards—from a variety of international, human rights, and humanitarian law instruments—have moved away from the honor paradigm and base condemnation on the rights of women and girls. These treaties, commitments, and resolutions, described below, form the backbone of the international legal framework for protection against SGBV.

International Treaties and Declarations The 1974 Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict calls on UN member-states to take all necessary steps to ensure the prohibition of persecution, torture, degrading treatment, and violence against women and children who are part of the civilian population. The landmark Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted in 1979 and has been ratified by 188 memberstates. Article 1 prohibits all forms of discrimination against women.22 Article 2 requires all states parties to CEDAW to adopt measures that prohibit discrimination, including modifying or abolishing discriminatory laws, customs, and practices. Although CEDAW does not specifically mention SGBV, its General Recommendation No. 19 on Violence against Women (1992) considers VAW as a form of discrimination under CEDAW. General Recommendation No. 19 highlights states’ obligation to address VAW and specifically mentions the special risk of SGBV faced by different groups of women, including those living in the context of conflicts. More recently, states’ obligation to eliminate this form of violence was further strengthened through CEDAW General Recommendation No. 30 on Women in Conflict Prevention, Conflict, and PostConflict Situations (2013). In 1994, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW) contributed to the growing international legal framework by providing a definition of VAW and underscoring the obligation of the state to pursue without delay the elimination of all forms of VAW. In the same year, the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Resolution 1994/45, appointed a UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes, and consequences.23 This mandate has been extended to the present. Also in 1994, the Organization of American States adopted the InterAmerican Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of

22

Art. 1 of CEDAW defines discrimination as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”

23

The mandate of the Special Rapporteur is to (a) seek and receive information on VAW from various actors; (b) recommend measures to eliminate all forms of VAW and its causes and to remedy its consequences; (c) work closely with all special procedures, other human rights mechanisms, and the Commission on the Status of Women in the discharge of its functions; and (d) continue to adopt a comprehensive and universal approach to the elimination of VAW, its causes and consequences.


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Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará), a critical step, both regionally and globally, in acknowledging acts of SGBV as human rights violations. The convention broadly defines violence against women and requires states to undertake measures to combat violence.24

The Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Platform for Action The 1995 Beijing Platform for Action specifically included (i) violence against women and (ii) women and armed conflict as two of its 12 critical areas of concern. Among the actions it recommended to be undertaken by governments are to (a) “investigate and punish members of the police, security, and armed forces and others who perpetrate violence against women”; (b) “urge the identification and condemnation of systematic practice of rape and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment of women as a deliberate instrument of war and ethnic cleansing and provide full assistance to victims of such abuse”; (c) reaffirm that rape is a war crime and a crime against humanity and an act of genocide and take measures to protect women and children from such acts and bring perpetrators to justice; and (d) “undertake a full investigation of all acts of violence against women commi ed during war . . . prosecute all criminals responsible for war crimes against women and provide full redress to women victims.”25

International Criminal Courts International courts such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), and the International Criminal Court (ICC) further redefined rape more broadly based on experiences of women in situations of conflict. In the Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu case, the ICTR defined rape broadly as “physical invasion of a sexual nature, commi ed on a person under circumstances that are coercive,” which includes rape with an object, among other situations. The court in the Akayesu case also highlighted that rape is a form of torture used for the intimidation, degradation, humiliation, punishment, control, or destruction of a person.26 The Rome Statute of the ICC, which came into force in 2002, states that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity can constitute a crime against humanity or war crime.27 The SGBV can also be considered genocide

24

The convention monitors states’ compliance through periodic state reporting and individual complaints to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

25

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, supra note 1, at para. 145.

26

Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, Case No. ICTR-96-4-T, Judm. (Sept. 2, 1998).

27

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, A/CONF.183/9 (July 17, 1998, corrected by process-verbaux of Nov. 10, 1998; July 12, 1999; Nov. 30, 1999; May 8, 2000; Jan. 17, 2001; and Jan. 16, 2002), arts. 7–8.


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when “commi ed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”28

UN Security Council Resolutions In 2000, the groundbreaking Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (SCR 1325) was adopted by the UN Security Council. SCR 1325 reaffirmed women’s important role in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and humanitarian response in postconflict reconstruction and in the promotion of peace and security. Its key provisions include actions to increase participation of women at all levels of peace and security decision making, to take special measures for the protection of women from SGBV, end impunity and prosecute those responsible for SGBV, and to incorporate a gender perspective in peacekeeping operations.29 Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1820, with its specific focus on sexual violence in conflict, was unanimously adopted in 2008. Key provisions include (a) “immediate and complete cessation” by all parties to conflict of sexual violence; (b) protect all civilians from all forms of sexual violence and develop effective protection mechanisms; (c) exclude sexual violence from amnesty provisions in conflict resolution processes; (d) develop training programs for all peacekeeping and humanitarian personnel; (e) implement a “policy of zero-tolerance” for sexual violence in peacekeeping operations; and (f) develop effective guidelines and strategies to protect civilians from all forms of violence.30 In 2009, SCR 1888 strengthened SCR 1820 by providing concrete steps and mechanisms to address sexual violence in conflict, including (a) appointment of a special representative to provide strategic leadership in addressing sexual violence in conflict; (b) deployment of a team of experts to assist national authorities to respond to situations of sexual violence in conflict; and (c) identification of women protection advisers (WPAs) in each UN peacekeeping operation. Furthermore, SCR 1888 calls for sexual violence to be included in all UN-sponsored peace negotiation agendas from the outset of peace processes. In 2010, as mandated by SCR 1888, a UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict was appointed.31 28

Id., at art. 6.

29

This resolution also mandated that the secretary-general carry out a study on the impact of armed conflict on women, women’s role in peacebuilding, and the gender dimensions of peace processes and conflict resolution.

30

S.C. Res. 1820, U.N. Doc. S/RES/1820 (June 19, 2008).

31

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG) functions as the UN’s spokesperson and political advocate on conflict-related sexual violence. She is also chair of the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. The five priorities for the SRSG’s mandate are (1) to end impunity for conflict-related sexual violence, (2) to empower women to seek redress, (3) to mobilize political ownership, (4) to increase recognition of rape, and (5) to harmonize the UN’s response. For more information on the work of the SRSG, see h p://www.stoprapenow.org/page/specialrepresentativeonsexualvio lenceinconflict.


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Other relevant Security Council resolutions include SCR 1889 (2009), SCR 1960 (2010), SCR 2106 (2013), and SCR 2122 (2013).32

Other International Commitments Other international commitments highlight how situations of conflict and fragility can lead to heightened vulnerability to SGBV and demonstrate its negative impacts on development.33 Countries affected by conflict are also paying increased a ention to women’s issues. For example, when the g7+ group of fragile states adopted the Dili Declaration in 2010, they affirmed that the major challenges to achieving their new vision for peacebuilding and state building include insufficient a ention to the protection of women from armed conflict and to the participation of women in peacebuilding and state building.34 Among development institutions, there is already increasing interest in the topic, including at the World Bank through its analytical and operational efforts on gender and FCS.35 Despite these efforts, a recent review by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group indicated that “the Bank has not responded adequately or in a timely manner to conflict-related sexual violence against women.”36

Law and Justice Institutions: Selected Challenges State Inability There was an ongoing war . . . social conditions were terrible . . . rebels were marauding in the countryside. And we sat down to ask people 32

These resolutions, together with SCR 1325, SCR 1820, and SCR 1888, collectively form the UN framework for implementing the women, peace, and security agenda. For texts of these resolutions, see h p://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/issues/women/wps.shtml.

33

For development impacts of SGBV, see note 21.

34

For more information about the Dili Declaration, see h p://www.g7plus.org/news -feed/2010/4/10/dili-declaration.html.

35

These efforts include (a) two recent World Development Reports on FCS (2011) and gender equality (2012); (b) both gender equality and FCS were key themes for International Development Association replenishment round 16 (FY12–FY14) and round 17 (FY14–FY16); (c) in implementing the World Development Report 2012 on Gender Equality and Development, SGBV was identified as one of the Bank’s priority areas for gender work; (d) there is increasing recognition on the role for law and justice institutions in mitigating conflict stresses and preventing violence (see the World Bank’s New Directions in Justice Reform: A Companion Piece to the Updated Strategy and Implementation Plan on Strengthening Governance, Tackling Corruption [May 2012], h p://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/09/06 /000386194_20120906024506/Rendered/PDF/706400REPLACEM0Justice0Reform0Final.pdf); and (e) assessments on the World Bank’s SGBV in FCS work are emerging (see Alys Willman & Crystal Corman, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: What Is the World Bank Doing and What Have We Learned? A Strategic Review [Nov. 2013] at the World Bank’s website, h p://www .wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/12/09/000461832 _20131209163906/Rendered/PDF/832090WP0sexua0Box0382076B00PUBLIC0.pdf.).

36

See Indep. Evaluation Group, World Bank Group Assistance to Low-Income Fragile and ConflictAffected States: An Independent Evaluation (Dec. 2013), at the World Bank Group’s website, h ps://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/evaluations/fcs.


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The World Bank Legal Review what do you do for justice in this situation? There were no courts. Courts were the first casualties of hostilities. Judges, normally middle class people, they leave . . . lawyers as well. So you leave a society that doesn’t have the instruments for the administration of justice . . . very often in the most serious conflicts you are returning to a situation without the basic infrastructure to provide basic social services.37

Despite ongoing achievements at the international level, addressing SGBV continues to be a struggle for many states. Although law and justice institutions are expected to play a role in preventing and responding to SGBV, in conflict and fragile contexts they are often too weak, unable, or unwilling to address it. Conflict creates disruption in social order and the delivery of justice and basic services. Some institutions may have commi ed the atrocities themselves and hence do not have the legitimacy to address rights violations. This was the situation highlighted in a recent study of conflicts conducted by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo38 that found that between 2000 and 2009 armed state actors were more likely to be reported as perpetrators of SGBV than either rebel groups or progovernment militias.39 Of the government actors included in Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (SVAC)-Africa data, 64 percent were reported as perpetrators of sexual violence at some point during the study period, as opposed to 31 percent of rebel groups and 29 percent of militias.40

Low Levels of Reporting and High Levels of Attrition: What Is happening to SGBV Cases? Law-and-justice sector institutions do not appear to be making sustained efforts in addressing SGBV. Reporting of SGBV cases tends to be low.41 Where reporting occurs, the formal justice chain for rape cases is characterized by high levels of a rition.42 Most cases drop out of the justice system before they reach the court, and very few result in convictions.43 The reasons given for low levels of reporting and high levels of a rition include the following: 37

Barney Afako, presentation at the Delivering Justice: Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the Context of Fragility (panel session, Nov. 19, 2013, during the Law, Justice and Development Week, sponsored by the World Bank), h ps://collaboration.worldbank.org.

38

Peace Research Inst. of Oslo, h p://www.prio.org/.

39

Cohen et al., supra note 3, at 4.

40

SVAC-Africa data, cited in id.

41

Buvinic et al., supra note 3, at 13; UN Women, Progress of the World’s Women 2011–2012: In Pursuit of Justice (report prepared for UN Women, 2011), 51.

42

UN Women, supra note 41, at 49.

43

Id., at 49, 51. Globally, a closer look at how cases proceed through the system shows that nearly half of the cases had been dropped at the police stage because the perpetrator/s cannot be found. Descriptions of the perpetrator were absent in 75 percent of the complaints. One-fifth of the cases that reached prosecution were dropped. Of the cases that went to court, 63 percent were withdrawn by the victims, or the victims were untraceable; in 14 percent, evidence was lost or not obtained. In Gauteng Province, in South Africa, research on the progression of rape cases from police to prosecution to the court system shows that


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Resource Constraints. Chronic lack of human and financial resources is a concern.44 Lack of experienced staff can lead to inefficiency and lack of professionalism, compromising confidentiality and survivor safety.45 Lack of resources can sometimes obscure more complex realities, such as gender discrimination or institutional culture of corruption.

Social Norms and Gender Bias. Women who experience SGBV encounter difficulties dealing with legal systems in which gender-biased norms or practices are part of the institutional culture. Cultural norms of preserving family unity and honor when dominant among justice actors prevent redress for SGBV. In Kiribati, for example, three out of 10 police officers state that it is never acceptable to hit a woman; the rest, however, support the view that a husband has a right to beat his wife based on her behavior.46 In some places, it is believed that this should be se led within the family or the community. In Afghanistan, there is an institutional practice by the police, prosecutors, Department of Women’s Affairs, and Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission of mediating SGBV cases, even if the law mandates a specific punishment.47 Cultural norms also stigmatize and shame women who report, as in this case from Liberia: Olivia’s perpetrator was never caught, because her perpetrator was her uncle. This is the difficulty. We relocated Olivia’s mother because everyone in the village went against her. She had “shamed” the uncle. . . . In their community, the best person to side with was the perpetrator, the one who raped her so badly. He was arrested and taken to the magisterial court, but somehow he has never been put in prison. When Olivia died [of her injuries] nobody from the village came to a end the funeral.48

only 17 percent of cases reach the courts and only 4 percent end up in conviction. In response to these figures, the government of South Africa invested in the Thuthuzela Care Centres, which are one-stop facilities established to provide SGBV survivors with a range of integrated services to improve conviction rates and reduce time for finalizing cases. 44

Courts, police, and prosecutors have claimed to be unable to perform their functions effectively for such reasons as lack of paper to take statements, lack of vehicles to visit sites, and lack of cameras to take pictures for evidence.

45

For example, justice actors are unable to collect, analyze, or understand forensic evidence to be able to build a good case. Lack of good interpreters hinders survivors from testifying effectively and creates inconsistencies in statements or testimonies.

46

UNIFEM, Ending Violence among Women and Girls: Evidence, Knowledge and Data in the Pacific Island Countries: Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography 21 (Aug. 2010), h p://www.uni cef.org/pacificislands/evaw.pdf.

47

UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), A Long Way to Go: Implementation of the Elimination of Violence against Women Law in Afghanistan 21 (report, UNAMA Nov. 2011), h p://www.ohchr.org /Documents/Countries/AF/UNAMA_Nov2011.pdf.

48

SGBV Coordinator, Ministry of Gender and Development, as cited in World Bank, Liberia’s Specialized Sexual Offenses Court: Lessons, Challenges, and Opportunities: A Case Study 3 (World Bank 2014).


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The World Bank Legal Review Limited Access to Justice. Some survivors of SGBV are often unaware of their rights and have limited skills, resources, and support to access justice. In many cases, social and cultural expectations dictate that survivors suffer in silence or keep the violence they suffered within the family. Once the barriers of reporting or filing a case have been broken, delays have real financial, social, and psychological costs for SGBV survivors, who run the risk of revictimization, by going through stigmatization and further violence.49 Legal aid organizations and paralegals provide services to SGBV survivors, but they sometimes do not have the specific skills to address SGBV, such as assessing survivor safety, identifying resources, and devising safety measures.

Tensions around Formal and Informal Justice Processes Most individuals take their cases to local, traditional, or community dispute resolution systems, commonly referred to as informal justice institutions.50 In developing countries, at least four out of five cases are resolved in informal courts.51 These informal institutions are generally geographically, financially, and culturally accessible. However, formal justice systems, including the police, prosecutors, and the courts, have more complicated procedures and are often geographically distant.52 They are also perceived as adversarial and may likely have a built-in bias toward more educated individuals. They are also generally focused on retribution and may exacerbate existing tensions; informal institutions tend to prioritize community cohesion or reconciliation, rather than women’s rights and needs.53 This tension between formal and informal systems can be illustrated by a case example from Liberia. Citizens prefer to resolve disputes through informal or alternative channels, which are seen as based on social harmony and reconciliation.54 A rape case is often resolved through the chiefs, elders, or tribal governors, in a “discrete” manner to avoid shaming all parties involved, and often involves public apologies and fines. Their decisions are generally

49

International Development Legal Organization (IDLO), Accessing Justice: Models, Strategies and Best Practices on Women’s Empowerment 11 (report, IDLO 2013). These burdens are even greater for women who are subject to multiple forms of discrimination on account of their ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation, among other personal characteristics.

50

Informal justice systems refer to those justice institutions whose authority is primarily derived from social and cultural embeddedness, for example, religious and customary systems.

51

IDLO, supra note 49, at 11.

52

Formal justice institutions are those justice institutions whose authority emanates primarily from the state.

53

World Bank, supra note 48, at 4.

54

Id. See also Deborah H. Isser, Stephen C. Lubkemann, & Saah N’Tow, Looking for Justice: Liberian Experiences with and Perceptions of Local Justice Options 4 (Peaceworks Rpt. No. 63, U.S. Inst. Peace 2004).


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accepted by citizens.55 In SGBV cases, adult women survivors very rarely report cases of rape because of perceived shame and other social factors. These cases are seen as “taboo” and, if ever discussed, should be kept within the family or community.56 These challenges should also be viewed in light of Liberia’s chronically weak formal system.57

Legal and Justice-Related Initiatives against SGBV: What Has Been and Is Being Done? What Are Promising Approaches and Pathways? Law and justice SGBV initiatives continue to face chronic challenges in stemming the tide of violence. Nevertheless, there are several law and justice initiatives from both FCS and non-FCS that may be useful in drawing lessons and developing options for addressing SGBV in FCS.

Specialized Legal and Justice Initiatives Specialized approaches are those that involve creating or supporting institutions that specifically target SGBV. Specialization is usually proposed because of its potential benefits, including greater efficiency and awareness, sensitivity to the context or concern, more responsive provisions and processes, higherquality outputs, and be er coordination or integration. Specialized SGBV Courts In a study on specialized family violence courts in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, evidence of the benefits of specialization includes (a) greater sensitivity to survivor needs; (b) greater efficiency, such as be er case tracking, improved interagency collaboration and referral systems, and greater consistency in handling violence cases; (c) be er outcomes for victim satisfaction and safety; and (d) improved reporting, prosecution, and conviction rates.58 UN Women highlighted that when specialized domestic violence courts have adequate resources, they can help ensure accountability and victim safety through streamlining, more-responsive processes, such as closed session hearings, and enhanced capacity of judges and other personnel.59 The 55

World Bank, supra note 48, at 5.

56

Id., at 5–6.

57

For example, (a) the police have li le means to investigate crimes or provide protection to survivors; (b) court renovations and provision of court hardware and vehicles do not translate to be er service delivery; (c) dockets are crowded in urban areas; (d) there is lack of affordable legal aid options; (e) corruption is found at all levels; and (f) public perception of the formal system is overwhelmingly negative (see id., at 3–4).

58

Heike Gramckow & Barry Walsh, Developing Specialized Court Services: International Experiences and Lessons Learned 4 (Justice & Dev. Working Paper Ser. 24/2013, World Bank 2013).

59

UN Women, supra note 41, at 59. Experiences with court personnel in regular courts frequently suggest that personnel frequently do not have the necessary gender sensitivity or comprehensive understanding of laws and processes applicable to SGBV; may not be sensitive to SGBV survivors’ ordeals or gender concerns; and may be overburdened by other cases and responsibilities.


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experience with specialized domestic violence courts in Spain and Brazil60 shows that by “streamlining and centralizing court processes, such integrated courts eliminate contradictory orders, improve complainant/survivor safety, and reduce the need for complainants/survivors to testify repeatedly.”61 However, translating the promise of benefits from specialization is challenging. Specialized structures often mirror the limitations in capacity, administration, and accountability of the wider institutional context. For example, Liberia’s Criminal Court E, the country’s first specialized sexual offenses court, is struggling to deliver justice to SGBV survivors.62 Detailed analysis by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2011 shows that the specialized court has not heard significantly more sexual offense cases than other courts.63 The court completed just 18 such trials between 2009 and 2012.64 The vast majority of cases that the court considered (93 percent) were dropped or dismissed.65 Although the in-camera element is largely viewed as positive by those working with SGBV survivors, especially because a majority of cases before the court involve rape of children, few felt confident about case confidentiality or victim safety.66 Bringing cases to the court remains an expensive endeavor, and survivor endowment funds are insufficient.67

60

They were established by Title V of the Organic Act on Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence (2004) in Spain and the Maria da Penha Law (2006) in Brazil.

61

UN Division for the Advancement of Women, Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women (UN 2010), at 20.

62

Criminal Court E was established in 2008 through an amendment of the Judiciary Law of 1972. The court has exclusive jurisdiction over all sexual offense cases in Liberia’s most populous county, Montserrado. SGBV cases from other parts of the country go to regular circuit courts. The court was designed to make the justice process more victim-friendly for survivors of SGBV, to increase the efficiency of the justice system in dealing with SGBV cases, and to raise the visibility of SGBV. This was set up alongside a specialized prosecution unit (the SGBV Crimes Protection Unit, within the Ministry of Justice) and a specialized unit of the police (Women and Children Protection Service, or WACPS). This “specialized approach” was intended to insulate SGBV from the prevalent inefficiency and non-victim-friendly norms prevalent in the wider justice system. Supporting the court were also other genderfocused policy and legal efforts in the country, including a new rape law that mandated harsher penalties for the crime of rape, made rape a nonbailable offense and in-camera (in private) trials. Liberia also had national actions on SGBV as well as for the implementation of SCR 1325. About 245 WACPS investigators were trained to support SGBV cases that will eventually go to the court. The Ministry of Gender’s GBV unit supports survivors through counseling and referral services. Over US$200,000 went to refurbish the court, including television sets for in-camera sessions (World Bank, supra note 48, at 7–11).

63

On average, a circuit court completes four trials a year, figures similar to what Criminal Court E completes in a year. UNMIL’s court statistics show that in 2011, out of the 2,118 cases on the dockets of the 12 circuit courts, only 44 trials were completed.

64

“2012 Criminal Court E Data,” as cited in World Bank, supra note 48, at 16.

65

Id.

66

There is, however, a lack of wider support from sections of the Liberian legal community that view in-camera trials as a violation of defendants’ constitutional right to due process, despite a Supreme Court decision in 2012 for its constitutionality (id., at 13).

67

Id., at 14.


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Specialized Police and Prosecution Units Specialized police and prosecution units contribute to improved visibility of SGBV concerns and increased levels of reporting. In Afghanistan, the first VAW unit in the A orney General’s Office was established in Kabul in March 2010.68 Preliminary findings of its performance show that, despite challenges,69 the unit is having a positive impact on reporting of SGBV cases.70 In 13 Latin American countries, the visibility of violence against women and levels of reporting have increased since the opening of women’s police stations.71 In Rwanda, the number of cases received has increased and the stigma associated with SGBV has been reduced since the establishment of a gender desk at the national police headquarters.72 Evidence is emerging of the positive correlation between female police officers and increased SGBV reporting.73 Female-run police desks and specialized services for women were first introduced in Brazil and Peru, and they have improved access for women.74 In addition to increased levels of reporting, 70 percent of users of Brazilian women’s police stations (delegacias especiais de atendimentoa mulher) felt welcome, about 75 percent were provided information and guidance on the process, and most received referrals to other agencies for support.75 In Tamil Nadu, India, the introduction of 188 68

The unit was mandated to investigate and prosecute cases of violence and to support victims through the process. It has 11 prosecutors and 11 other employees and is integrated into government staffing. Subsequently, other VAW units were established in other provinces in Afghanistan: Herat, Balkh, Parwan, Kapisa, Nangarhar, Badakhshan, and Bamyan. See IDLO, supra note 49; UNAMA & OHCHR, Still a Long Way to Go: Implementation of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan (report, UNAMA Dec. 2012); UNAMA & OHCHR, A Ways to Go: An Update on Implementation of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan (report, UNAMA Dec. 2013).

69

From March 2010 to March 2011, only 21 cases went to court in the Kabul VAW unit. Most cases were either withdrawn or abandoned by the victims or complainants. The Deputy A orney General for Criminal Investigation stated that few cases were prosecuted because more than 70 percent of the cases (misdemeanors, not felonies) were closed, mediated, or archived. Of the cases remaining, a large number were divorces or other civil ma ers, which were referred to the family courts; a small percentage were VAW cases constituting serious crimes. The deputy a orney general a ributed the high rate of mediation and case withdrawal to Afghan culture and traditions.

70

In its first year of operation, the VAW unit in Kabul received 300 cases from 15 different provinces in Afghanistan. In March 2012, after two years in operation, the total number of registered cases tripled. Two years later, it received almost four times the number of cases. See IDLO, supra note 49; UNAMA & OHCHR (2012), supra note 68; UNAMA & OHCHR (2013), supra note 68.

71

Nadine Jubb et al., Regional Mapping Study of Women’s Police Stations in Latin America (report prepared for Centro de Planificacion y Estudios Sociales [CEPLAES], Quito, 2008).

72

UN Women, supra note 41, at 92.

73

Id., at 59–60.

74

Nadine Jubb & Wania Pasinato Izumino, Women and Policing in Latin America: A Revised Background Paper (paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association conference, Dallas, Mar. 27–29, 2003).

75

In 1985, the first women’s police station, Delegacias Especiaias de Atendimento a Mulher (DEAM), opened in São Paulo. There are about 450 DEAMs throughout the country. More


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all-women police units, covering both rural and urban areas and focusing on crimes against women, increased women’s comfort level in approaching the police, including reporting of domestic violence.76 Specialized Legislation There has been a significant increase in SGBV legislation in the past few years, and some promising outcomes are becoming evident, albeit implementation challenges persist.77 In Timor-Leste, for example, prior to the passage of the Law against Domestic Violence in 2010, intimate-partner SGBV could be prosecuted only under the Penal Code.78 The specialized domestic violence legislation makes all offenses falling within the definition of domestic violence a public offense requiring investigation and prosecution. The impact has been an increasing number of cases of domestic violence before the courts and confirmation from victims that the police no longer turn them away.79 In Afghanistan, UNAMA has examined the implementation of the EVAW law, which was enacted by the government in August 2009. The law was lauded as landmark legislation because, for the first time, it criminalized 22 SGBV acts.80 One-Stop Centers SGBV survivors require a variety of services to overcome institutional, social, and financial barriers. One promising approach is the establishment of onestop centers. These centers integrate medical, legal, and social services for SGBV survivors, reducing the number of steps needed for full redress. In turn,

DEAMs were established under the Maria da Penha Law on domestic and family violence in 2006. The law granted DEAMs broader responsibilities for pu ing protective measures in place, including providing immediate assistance, investigating, and steering cases through the criminal justice system. See UN Women, supra note 41, at 58. 76

M. Natarajan, Women Police Stations as a Dispute Processing System: The Tamil Nadu Experience in Dealing with Dowry-Related Domestic Violence Cases, 16(1–2) J. Women & Crim. Just. 87, 106 (2005).

77

The Women, Business, and the Law survey shows that 76 of the 100 economies covered have laws on domestic violence, and 78 economies formally protect women from sexual harassment in employment. See World Bank & Intl. Fin. Corp., Women, Business, and the Law: Removing Restrictions to Enhance Gender Equality (Bloomsbury Publg. 2013), 25–26. For implementation achievements and challenges, see, for example, UN Women, supra note 41, at 22–45.

78

As a result, most cases were charged as a semipublic crime, requiring the victim to make a complaint. Victims were often pressured to withdraw their complaint and many cases of reported intimate-partner SGBV did not proceed to a hearing. See Lilian Dang, Online Discussion on Law, Justice, and Women’s Rights: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Context of Conflict and Fragility (“Week 2” of the “Gender Issues in Fragile Situations Community of Practice,” a community of practice hosted by the World Bank on its c4d platform, July 22–Aug. 11, 2013), h ps://collaboration.worldbank.org/thread/2190 (membership required for access).

79

Id.

80

UNAMA & OHCHR (2012), supra note 68; UNAMA & OHCHR (2013), supra note 68. Although progress has been documented in terms of increased awareness and reporting, obtaining accurate assessment is challenging absent system-wide data collection and tracking and analysis of cases as they progress from police to prosecution to the courts.


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such centers reduce secondary trauma and victimization, and evidence shows reduced a rition and increased conviction rates.81 An example of this interdisciplinary approach is the Oficina de Violencia Domestica (OVD; Domestic Violence Office) established by the Supreme Court of Argentina. OVD has a team of legal, medical, psychological, and social-work professionals on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This initiative improved efficiency, as courts can now make injunction decisions within one or two days, instead of within four months, as in the past. In addition, judges now have adequate documentation of injuries, eliminating delays in determining injuries that had healed by the time an examination was made.82 Another example is Thuthuzela Care Centres, located in public hospitals and established to provide SGBV survivors with a range of services, such as medical treatment, counseling, and court support in an integrated manner.83 The Soweto Thuthuzela Care Centre located in Gauteng Province works with about 165 survivors each month. The trial completion time for cases dealt with by the Centre is an estimated 7.5 months, compared with the national average of two years. The conviction rate is 89 percent.84 In many FCS contexts, however, se ing up one-stop centers could be daunting, as health providers, social workers, lawyers, and police officers, among others, are few and concentrated in urban centers. One promising development in the DRC is being implemented through Panzi Hospital. The program focuses on three health zones in South Kivu that have a very high incidence of SGBV, insecurity, and inaccessibility. The program’s holistic approach combines medical, psychosocial, legal, and economic support for survivors of violence and children born of rape. The program is gaining international a ention as a model for community hospitals, especially for cases of SGBV in FCS contexts.85

81

UN Women, supra note 41, at 63.

82

Gender Justice in the Argentine Context: Justice Highton de Nolasco Shares Her Views, h p://www .lawschool.cornell.edu/womenandjustice/Featured-Judges/Justice-Highton-de-Nolasco.cfm; UN Women, supra note 41, at 59; Nancy Hendry, Online Discussion on Law, Justice, and Women’s Rights: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Context of Conflict and Fragility (“Week 2” of the “Gender Issues in Fragile Situations Community of Practice,” a community of practice hosted by the World Bank on its c4d platform, July 22–Aug. 11, 2013), h ps://collaboration .worldbank.org/thread/2190 (membership required for access).

83

A victim assistance officer helps the survivor through medical, legal, and other processes. A site coordinator ensures that all services are coordinated to prevent multiple interviews of the victim and assists the survivor through other processes that risk secondary victimization.

84

UN Women, supra note 41, at 57.

85

Panzi Foundation DRC (Apr. 29, 2014), h p://www.panzihospital.org/projects/panzi-foun dation-drc. Other activities are training of community leaders, health care providers, police and paralegals, social assistants and community mobilizers; microfinance services; and literacy trainings.


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Specialized Coordination or Referral Systems Another promising approach to delivering integrated support services is coordination, or referral, systems. In Timor-Leste, for example, an interministerial network between the office of the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality, which deals with policy and advocacy, and the Ministry of Social Solidarity, which handles service delivery, brings together relevant participants from ministries, NGOs, and service providers on a monthly basis. Their work has culminated in the development of the National Action Plan for Gender Based Violence. The network has improved referrals and information sharing and drives policy development and other initiatives.86 Specialized Legal Aid In addition to states providing mostly general legal services, women’s groups and NGOs are providing specialized interventions for SGBV survivors. In Liberia, for example, women’s NGOs, such as the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia, Women AID, and the Women in Peacebuilding Program (WIPNET), are currently aiding survivors by providing support in reporting cases to the police, following up cases with the prosecutors and courts, and relocating survivors to other communities to avoid stigmatization.87 Since the establishment of the Victim Support Service—the first legal aid organization for women and children in Timor-Leste—the rate of reporting of SGBV, the number of court hearings on SGBV, and resolutions of SGBV cases have all increased.88 Strengthening Forensic Capacity Medico-legal, or forensic, evidence is “at the intersection of medical and justice processes and appropriate implementation requires coordination between the range of actors and sectors involved in prevention of, and response to, sexual violence.”89 However, in many countries, there is a lack of capacity among SGBV service providers—police, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and health personnel—on what evidence should be collected to support SGBV cases and how such evidence should be analyzed. In FCS, this capacity gap is further compounded by weakened (or almost nonexistent) health and justice deliv86

See Dang, supra note 78.

87

Peace Medie, Online Discussion on Law, Justice, and Women’s Rights: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Context of Conflict and Fragility (“Week 2” of the “Gender Issues in Fragile Situations Community of Practice,” a community of practice hosted by the World Bank on its c4d platform, July 22–Aug. 11, 2013), h ps://collaboration.worldbank.org/thread/2190 (membership required for access).

88

A local NGO, the Judicial Systems Monitoring Programme (JSMP), established the Victim Support Service to assist women and children victims through every step of the legal process, including reporting their cases to police, transporting them to counseling and forensic examinations, meeting with prosecutors, and a ending court hearings. Victim Support Service separated from JSMP in 2012.

89

Building National System Capacity for Medico-Legal Evidence in Conflict-Affected States is available at h p://stoprapenow.org/uploads/advocacyresources/1386878154.pdf.


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ery systems. In response, the World Health Organization and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime launched a project called Strengthening MedicoLegal Services for Sexual Violence Cases in Conflict-Affected Se ings. The project seeks to support national capacity in the collection and use of forensic evidence in sexual violence cases in FCS.90 Specialized Data Collection, Research, and Evaluations There are very few efforts that focus on data collection, research, and evaluation on SGBV in FCS. The few examples include Learning on Gender in Conflict in Africa or LOGICA, a multidonor trust fund at the World Bank that targets research to improve knowledge and practices among development practitioners; and the Due Diligence Project, a multicountry study that aims to strengthen an accountability framework to assess and measure effective implementation of government measures to end VAW.91 There is a big gap in knowledge relating to men and masculinities. One example that addresses this gap is the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), led by Promundo and the International Center for Research on Women. It is one of the comprehensive surveys on male practices and a itudes in relation to gender equality, household dynamics, intimate-partner violence, health, and economic stress.92

General Initiatives General initiatives may complement the specialized approaches mentioned above. The list of approaches below is informative, although the extent of their impact is hard to gauge due to limited evidence. Gender-Sensitive and -Responsive Justice Processes Institutionalizing gender-sensitive processes can facilitate access to courts. Some good-practice examples on making courtrooms more friendly to survivors of SGBV include (a) ensuring confidentiality and safety for survivors inside and outside the courtroom; (b) arranging the times that the defen90

Id.

91

The Due Diligence Framework is organized around the “Five Ps”: prevention, protection, prosecution, punishment, and provision of redress. See Zarizana Abdul Aziz & Janine Moussa, Due Diligence Framework: State Accountability Framework for Eliminating Violence against Women (Intl. Human Rights Initiative, Inc. Malaysia), www.duediligenceproject.org.

92

The Sonke Gender Justice Network and Promundo have created a new report, based on the IMAGES survey, on men, masculinities, and GBV in the eastern DRC. The report reveals alarming a itudes about rape among many men. Carried out in the DRC, it provides findings on the effects of conflict, the prevalence of factors associated with SGBV, and genderrelated a itudes from 708 men and 754 women interviewed in Goma, North Kivu, and several focus group discussions. IMAGES was also conducted in nine other countries and will have more insights on men’s use of violence, participation in caregiving, and reaction to the gender equality agenda, among other topics. See New Sonke-Promundo Report on IMAGES Report on Men, Masculinities, and GBV in Eastern DRC Reveals Alarming A itudes about Rape amongst Many Men, h p://www.genderjustice.org.za/updates/highlights/2001241-press -release-and-preliminary-results-from-sonkes-images-study-in-drc.html.


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dant and SGBV survivor enter and leave the courtroom to reduce the risk of intimidation and violence; (c) in-camera trials; (d) reducing unnecessary and repeated postponements; (e) allowing a supporting person to be present; (f) be er interpretation and translation services; (g) requiring court personnel to treat witnesses with respect and sensitivity; and (h) prohibiting victim-blaming or gender-biased language in court.93 Access to Justice Initiatives Access to justice initiatives, such as mobile courts, legal aid services, and legal awareness and empowerment programs, aims to bring justice services to those without access. In Somaliland, for example, the Ministry of Justice established mobile courts in the five regional capitals. Judges reported a strong uptake from women and internally displaced persons. In Indonesia, the provision of legal empowerment measures, legal aid through paralegals, and courtfee waivers are increasing access to courts.94 Nevertheless, when specialized knowledge and sensitivity about SGBV is not available, these initiatives may not benefit SGBV survivors. Women’s Participation as Justice Actors There is limited but increasing evidence on the impact of women as justice actors on SGBV. For example, in Sri Lanka, deployment of female Tamil police officers led to decreased SGBV as well as increased trust in the police.95 In Liberia, the deployment of an all-woman Indian police force of 130 women led to increased rates of reporting of GBV in the areas they patrolled. The

93

“It is important for language—which is the embodiment of one’s thought process—not only to be free from gender bias, but also be gender-fair or gender-inclusive. Although it can be argued that a change in the use of language alone is not sufficient to bring about gender-sensitivity, it is an important aspect of it, and can facilitate in the widening of one’s perspective concerning issues on gender equality. Conversely, it is also the most patent manifestation of gender bias, and its power as an effective medium of perpetuating stereotypes and stigma cannot be underestimated. This is especially true for the members of the Bench and Bar, for their profession entails a lot of articulation, both in oral and wri en form.” See Amparita Sta. Maria, CEDAW Interactive Benchbook (2008), h p://cedawbenchbook.org/.

94

In Indonesia, 9 out of 10 female heads of household surveyed were unable to access courts for divorce cases mainly due to financial costs, including court fees and transportation expenses. By failing to access the courts, many of these women also failed to benefit from pro-poor government programs. Of help in court processes was a network of community facilitators and trained paralegals who promoted legal literacy and provided legal consultation and practical support to enable women to access the religious courts to obtain legal documentation for themselves and their children. Also, a series of studies, ongoing dialogue between civil society organizations and government stakeholders, legal empowerment programs, and field visits to rural communities contributed to broader access to justice policy developments, including court-fee waivers, which led to an estimated 14-fold increase in the number of clients able to access the courts. See Cate Sumner, Ma hew Zurstrassen, & Leisha Lister, Increasing Access to Justice for Women, the Poor, and Those Living in Remote Areas: An Indonesian Case Study (Justice for the Poor briefing note, Mar. 2011).

95

Sanam Anderlini, Delivering Justice: Sexual and Gender Based Violence in the Context of Fragility (presentation at the Law, Justice and Development Week forum, World Bank, Nov. 19, 2013).


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recruitment of other women into the force has also increased.96 In Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, women mediators dealt with gender-based violence be er than male mediators and chiefs, because they had a be er understanding of gender subordination and ways to navigate it. However, women justice actors face difficult challenges. In Afghanistan, for example, where there are about 1,551 female police officers—one for every 10,000 women, reports indicate that these officers are “often shunned by their communities and even their families, the stigma facing Afghanistan’s police women has even led to women being killed because of their work.”97 Training of Service Providers and Addressing Their Gender Biases There are some promising approaches on addressing institutional and personal biases and making institutions and individuals more gender-responsive. Sakshi, an Indian NGO, developed an education program to change internalized myths and gender stereotypes.98 It conducted workshops to bring together judges, NGOs, health care providers, and litigants to look at the social context and barriers that women face in accessing justice. Visits by judges to shelters and women’s prisons were organized to enable be er understanding of the challenges faced by SGBV survivors.99 Similarly, in Tanzania, Jurisprudence on the Ground is convening dialogues between members of the judiciary and rural women.100 The project emphasizes the notion that when judges’ understanding improves, they become proponents for simple but effective recommendations to make the system responsive to women, such as waiving court fees, providing forms free of charge, and prioritizing sensitive cases.101 Technical guidance is also important in challenging institutional and personal biases. In the Philippines, a CEDAW benchbook was published by the Philippine Judicial Academy. It analyzed decisions of the Philippine Supreme Court on SGBV using both national and international legal standards. Using 96

UN Women, supra note 41, at 60.

97

OXFAM Intl., Fighting the Stigma Facing Afghanistan’s Women Police, h p://www.oxfam.org /en/development/afghanistan/women-police-fighting-stigma.

98

UN Women, supra note 41, at 61. This is in response to results of interviews conducted with 109 judges from district courts, high courts, and the Supreme Court as well as with female lawyers and litigants on judicial perceptions and its impact on women litigants. The interview results showed that around half of the judges interviewed stated that women are partly to blame for spousal abuse, while another 68 percent stated that provocative a ire is an invitation to rape.

99

Id. In assessing the impact of its work, Sakshi tracked major SGBV cases in the region, including the landmark Vishaka case, which was decided by judges who participated in the workshops.

100 This is a project that brings together members of the International Association of Women’s Judges, the Society for Women, Aids in Africa–Tanzania, and the Tanzania Women Judges Association. 101 See Intl. Assn. Women’s JJ., Tanzania: Jurisprudence on the Ground, h p://www.iawj.org /JOGProgram1.html; Tanzania Women Judges Association, The Jurisprudence on the Ground project, h p://www.tawja .org/the-jurisprudence-on-the-ground-jog-project/; UN Women, supra note 41, at 62.


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the benchbook as a resource, a team of Philippine Judicial Academy experts, including Supreme Court justices and renowned law professors, provide technical guidance to judges on how to decide SGBV cases.102 Local Justice Innovations Work-around local and informal justice systems provide promising entry points for addressing SGBV. In northern Uganda, where access to formal justice systems is difficult, peace rings are used to solve local cases, including SGBV. Peace rings are mostly led by women, handpicked by local chiefs and trained in dispute resolution. In Kenya, Maasai elders vowed to uphold a new tradition of equal rights for women and incorporated this into the katiba, their local constitution.103

Lessons and Recommendations on Justice Sector Delivery in the Context of FCS Lessons and Insights Integrating Gender Concerns in Standard Setting and Peace Processes There are potential gains from including gender issues in the drafting of constitutions, laws, and peace agreements. Integrating gender concerns can contribute to a visible and commonly agreed-on platform for reform and advocacy around gender in general and SGBV in particular.104 Pu ing SGBV on the agenda, however, is more than a budgetary or technical exercise; it requires the ability to engage in and influence political se lements.105 It also 102 Sta. Maria, supra note 93. Workshops were held for judges and their staff to publicize the benchbook and instill greater sensitivity in judges. Chapter subjects in the benchbook include stereotyping, double victimization, stigmatization, and paradigm shifts reflected in actual Supreme Court decisions. 103 Deborah Espinosa, Maasai Elders Vow to Protect and Support Rights of Women and Girls (blog entry, originally posted June 12, 2012), h p://www.landesa.org/maasai-elders-vow-protect -support-rights-women-girls-blog//. 104 UN Women, supra note 41, at 57. For example, the Colombian Constitution provides for a tutela, which facilitates simple and fast access to local courts in cases of domestic violence. In Guatemala, as part of the 1996 peace agreement, the government commi ed to se ing up an Indigenous Women’s Legal Aid Office (Defensoria de la Mujer Indigena) to prevent violence and discrimination against indigenous women. 105 In talking about the tasks of mediators in integrating both gender and SGBV concerns in peace negotiations, Barney Afako points out that SGBV is often misunderstood and its prevalence underestimated or denied by parties to the negotiation, among others. Nevertheless, he highlights the necessity of engaging parties early to find durable solutions to SGBV and to prioritize holistic approaches beyond criminal prosecutions. He suggests strategies to facilitate inclusion, including promoting education on the mediation process; encouraging parties separately to confront issues around SGBV and take unilateral steps in addition to reflecting commitments in agreements; and promoting, in the text of agreements, broader accountability and prevention strategies. He also identifies some of the mediator’s tasks: (a) secure cessation of violence, and a platform for finding lasting solutions; (b) educate himself/herself, and assist parties in understanding SGBV, especially their obligations; (c) tailor interaction


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requires a political positioning that challenges war, violent conflict, and militarized masculinities. The main challenge is that often SGBV efforts are ad hoc and/or siloed.106 Improving Efficiency of Justice Institutions—Taking Context into Account Context is particularly important in se ing up specialized initiatives such as courts and police units. Experience with specialized courts demonstrates the difficulty of insulating a specialized structure from the deficiencies of the wider institutional backdrop within which it must function.107 The decision for a specialized initiative should be informed by analysis of context, including the wider institutional justice sector constraints and social norms that prevent access to justice, among others. Working with Formal and Informal Institutions An understanding of SGBV, gender, law, justice, and development that considers the existence of multiple sources and systems of law is crucial to identifying interventions that can bring about real change. Unfortunately, the common understanding of legal systems has tended to focus on dichotomizing systems: formal and informal.108 Many interventions fail to address the interplay between these systems and their potential to mutually influence and reinforce inequalities or be unresponsive and discriminate against women.109 In the final analysis, both systems need to be enhanced to be er deliver services to SGBV victims and survivors. Shifting the focus away from a choice between institutions (i.e., formal or informal) and toward how women experience SGBV and what they need would lead to forging practical and innovative interventions that can effectively address SGBV in FCS.

with state and nonstate actors; and (d) appreciate what is possible to achieve by mediators and within the text, and what is for other stages and actors to address. In conclusion, he states that fighting for accountability for SGBV is part of gender justice. Nevertheless, the mediation process should be realistic about the capacity of criminal justice systems, without tempering commitment to lasting solutions. He suggests using a multiplicity of approaches required to facilitate the structural societal changes to address SGBV. Lastly, he highlights that men must be a core part of the strategy to address SGBV. (See Afako, supra note 37.) 106 “The Missing Peace Symposium: Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict Se ings,” available at h p://www.usip.org/events/the-missing-peace-symposium-2013. 107 World Bank, supra note 48, at 23–24. 108 Rea Abada Chiongson et al., The Role of Law and Justice in Achieving Gender Equality (background paper prepared for the World Bank’s World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, Sept. 2011), h ps://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle /10986/9194/WDR2012-0028.pdf?sequence=1. Conservative approaches have tended to focus on national state systems, with interventions addressing court reforms such as case management, court infrastructure, and training of justice actors. More recent forms have also engaged nonstate systems, often as a set of institutions only in need of efficiency and/or norm-based reforms. 109 Id.


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The Importance of Building the Knowledge Base Fragile and conflict situations present unique challenges due to security and accessibility concerns. Recently, a United States Institute of Peace special report on wartime sexual violence highlighted the assumptions and misconceptions around SGBV and the serious knowledge gaps that impinge on the capacity to craft effective policy recommendations, stating: Just as well-substantiated research findings carry implications for policymakers, knowing more about the gaps in the knowledge base can help policymakers avoid the pitfalls associated with incomplete data and highlight areas where greater efforts are needed.110

Working with and Supporting Men Working with men is an integral part of addressing SGBV. Men are generally in positions of power and influence, and hence can be useful allies in combating SGBV. In addition, working with men is important so that they can be er support women seeking justice and address any misconceptions and resentments that they may feel toward women and programs addressed to women. Men also need support because the violence they are exposed to during conflict is the same violence they perpetrate against women. Supporting and assisting men, and not just working with them, is thus crucial to breaking the violence continuum. Moving beyond Victimhood A priority for efforts against SGBV should be to adopt a holistic approach to justice—“moving beyond victimhood”—and, instead, to place SGBV survivors at the center.111 This approach would emphasize that legal systems are only a small part of what is needed to fully respond to the needs of survivors. A promising holistic approach in Iran is being implemented by the Omid-eMehr Foundation, which supports about two hundred young girls who experience severe violence. It has an 86 percent success rate in moving these girls beyond victimhood.112

Recommendations From the promising approaches and lessons discussed, the following options to address efficiency, sensitivity, and responsiveness in delivering justice to SGBV survivors in FCS can be proposed.113 110 Cohen, supra note 3. 111 Anderlini, supra note 95. 112 Id. 113 Adapted from the summary report of Online Discussion on Law, Justice, and Women’s Rights: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Context of Conflict and Fragility (“Week 2” of the “Gender Issues in Fragile Situations Community of Practice,” hosted by the World Bank on its c4d platform, July 22–Aug. 11, 2013), h ps://collaboration.worldbank.org/thread/2190 (membership required for access).


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Enhance performance and accountability of justice sector actors. This can be done through (a) providing technical guidance, such as developing bench books with court authorities and protocols for handling SGBV cases, to judges, prosecutors, police, and other justice actors on SGBV cases; (b) integrating SGBV as a priority for access to justice initiatives, such as free legal aid, help desks, and mobile courts; (c) se ing up survivor-friendly processes, including using gender-sensitive language; (d) supporting justice sector professionals to engage in dialogue with SGBV advocates and undergo social context trainings on SGBV; and (e) ensuring institutional accountability, including through monitoring and evaluation strategies.114 Set up context-appropriate specialized institutions. Specialized institutions are more responsive when informed by context-specific analytical work that takes into account impacts of wider institutional (justice sector) and social norms and the cost-benefit of such an endeavor. Providing a clear mandate, responsibilities and accountability structures, resources (financial, staff, and influence), and evaluation mechanisms are critical for effective operations of these institutions. Improve the capacity of informal justice systems. Promising efforts include (a) undertaking analytical work aimed at understanding the informal justice space and, in particular, understanding how SGBV survivors navigate both formal and informal spaces; (b) developing a coherent policy to address SGBV across formal and informal justice institutions that can inform multiple stakeholders; and (c) improving the capacity of informal justice institutions to address SGBV. Strengthen supporting institutions. Legal and justice initiatives cannot respond to SGBV without the support of other relevant sectors, such as health and social welfare, education, and employment and livelihood. Among the promising intersectoral efforts to consider are (a) se ing up one-stop centers and, where not possible, a referral network with clear mandates and responsibilities; (b) providing relevant sectors with adequate resources, skills, influence, and authority; (c) developing institutional skills for referral, coordination, and collaboration; (d) developing capacity of service providers from all relevant sectors, especially for collecting and analyzing medico-legal and forensic evidence; and (e) supporting new and ongoing work to identify and address norms that perpetuate SGBV. Expand the knowledge base on SGBV in FCS. Such efforts should include (a) compiling context-specific and local knowledge on how women experience SGBV and how they navigate the justice system; (b) gathering evidence on the effectiveness of justice interventions and their impacts on women; and (c) 114 Monitoring, evaluation, and accountability strategies are important in identifying ways to create clarity, measuring effectiveness, and scaling up or replicating interventions, among other tasks. Adopting accountability frameworks is important in identifying indicators, assessing what contributes to their successes (or lack thereof), and using international standards and women’s human rights framework in holding state and nonstate actors accountable for failing to adequately address SGBV.


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building evidence on the impacts and influence of women justice sector actors on SGBV. Expand work on men and SGBV. There is room to improve work on men and SGBV. Among them are (a) undertaking analytical work around masculinities and femininities in FCS; (b) developing and implementing programs for men that help them understand and support SGBV initiatives; and (c) ensuring that male victims of SGBV have adequate support and access to justice.


13

Sexual Violence in Conflict: Can There Be Justice? JUSTICE TERESA DOHERTY I have been involved in three civil war or internal conflict situations: in Northern Ireland as a citizen and a lawyer, and in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and Sierra Leone as a judge.1 Each conflict was precipitated by different events and had different causes, and each was handled differently by the government concerned. However, they all had one thing in common: the government did not, initially, fully appreciate the reason or reasons for the unrest that escalated into civil war and instead took draconian measures. In each of those conflicts, the civilian population, particularly women and children, suffered unduly. In Bougainville and Sierra Leone, the incidence of sexual violence was outrageous. The secretary-general of the United Nations, in preliminary reports leading to the establishment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, referred to the “egregious practice of sexual violence against women and girls in Sierra Leone.”2 Sexual violence was not unique to those internal conflicts, however; it has long been used as a weapon of war and continues to occur.

Reflections on the History of Sexual Violence in War To understand and appreciate why sexual violence persists in war, one must consider how women have historically been perceived in both war and peace. In many cultures, women were considered property under the ownership of men: fathers, husbands, slave owners. Because it could reduce a woman’s work ability or value on the marriage market, rape was often considered a property crime, commi ed not against the woman but against her owner. Roy Porter observes: the crime [of rape] was principally that of stealing and abducting a woman from her rightful proprietors, normally her father or husband. Moreover, in the case of a maiden, rape destroyed her property value on the marriage market, and . . . heaped shame on her family. . . . Violated daughters might be given as offerings to nun-

1

The chapter is adapted from a paper given at the World Bank Law, Justice and Development Week, Nov. 18–23, 2013. Extracts of that paper were also published in Sexual Violence and the Role of the International Courts, 11(3) New Zealand J. Pub. & Intl. L. 693–705 (Dec. 2013).

2

Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Security Council on the Establishment of the Special Court, S/2000/915, Part 111 (Oct. 4, 2000), on the competence of the Special Court and the subject ma er of jurisdiction.

299


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The World Bank Legal Review neries, and in many societies they were married off to the abductor or rapists.3

In war, women were perceived as the property of the defeated clans, towns, or countries. In other words, women were property the conqueror could take, in the same way that the conqueror might take gold and livestock, as the spoils of war. It also showed that the defeated men could not protect their women and children from the conquerors. It occurred in European and Asian conflicts. In the wars waged by Khubilai Khan against the Japanese in the 13th century, women were captured, held, and distributed among conquering troops.4 A recent BBC documentary claimed that there are 23 million descendants of Genghis Khan.5 Kelly Askin, an expert on the history of sexual violence in conflict, writes that although “sexual assault has been increasingly outlawed through the years, this prohibition has rarely been enforced. Consequently, rape and other forms of sexual assault have thrived in wartime, progressing from a perceived incidental act of the conqueror, to a reward of the victor, to a discernible mighty weapon of war.”6 Was the concept of women as a spoil of war ever codified? There is li le evidence to determine if ancient wars were subject to wri en or universally accepted codes or laws; there certainly were traditions, but they did not necessarily deal with the status of civilians. The war code of the Saracens made clear that “[w]omen and minors of both sexes become the immediate property of the captors.” Male prisoners of war could be ransomed, released, or exchanged. However, women could not.7 Some laws prohibited the violation of women. For example, Nicetas records that the Turks prohibited the violation of women, as did Totila the Goth during the sacking of Rome and Alexander the Great, although it has been opined that in the la er’s case this may have been due more to Alexander’s sexual orientation than to altruism.8 Susan Brownmiller notes that to the ancient Greeks, rape was “socially acceptable behavior well within the rules of warfare,” and “women were legitimate booty, useful as wives, concubines,

3

Roy Porter, Rape: Does It Have a Historical Meaning? in Rape: An Historical and Social Enquiry (Sylvana Tomaselli & Roy Porter eds., Basil Blackwell 1986), as cited by Kelly Askin, War Crimes against Women: Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunals (Kluwer L. Intl. 1997).

4

See James P. Delgado, Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet: In Search of a Legendary Armada (U. California Press 2008).

5

BBC, Andrew Marr’s History of the World, www.bbc.co.uk. However, the presenter, Andrew Marr, did not explain how that assessment was made.

6

Askin, supra note 3, citing Donald Arthur Wells, War Crimes and the Law of War 93–94 (2d ed., U. Press of America 1991).

7

Percy Bordwell, The Law of War between Belligerents (Callaghan & Co. 1908).

8

Thomas Cowan, Gay Men and Women Who Enriched the World (Mulvey 1988), as cited in Askin, supra note 3.


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slave labor, ba le-camp trophy.”9 “To the victor go the spoils” has been a war cry for centuries, and Peter Karsten states that women and children were historically considered “fair prey as spoils.”10 Civilian women were sometimes killed because of their ability to produce children of the enemy. During the French Revolution, General François Joseph Westermann massacred women so that they could “breed no more brigands.”11 During the recent Balkan wars, stories circulated that women were raped with the intent that they would give birth to children fathered by the enemy. Forced pregnancy is now a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Statute of the Special Court of Sierra Leone. However, no one has yet been prosecuted for that crime. In 1646, Hugo Grotius, considered by many the father of international law, wrote: You may read in many places that the raping of women in time of war is permissible, and in many others that it is not permissible. Those who sanction rape have taken into account only the injury done to the person of another, and have judged that it is not inconsistent with the law of war that everything which belongs to the enemy [including the women] should be at the disposition of the victor.12

Have a itudes about sexual violence in war changed? The answer is debatable. Some treaties have tried to formulate codes: •

The Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1785 (between the King of Prussia and the United States of America) specified in Article 6 that, in case of war, “women and children . . . shall not be molested in their persons.”

Order No. 20 of 1847, a supplement to the Rules and Articles for War for the United States of America, listed rape as a severely punishable offense.

The Declaration of Brussels of 1874 stated that the “honour and rights of the family . . . should be respected.” (Note the use of the word “should,” rather than “shall”: the respect was not mandatory.)

The Oxford Manual of 1880 asserted that “human life, female honour . . . must be respected. Interference with family life is to be avoided.”

Although in most cases the language is imprecise, authorities such as Askin and Brownmiller propose that the provisions were intended to protect women and children against sexual assault. Yet the term family honor does not 9

Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (Simon & Schuster 1975), as cited in Askin, supra note 3.

10

Peter Karsten, Law, Soldiers, and Combat (Greenwood 1978).

11

Hoffman Nickerson, The Armed Horde, 1793–1939 (G. P. Putnam, 1940), as cited in Askin, supra note 3.

12

Hugo Grotius, De jure belli ac pacis Libri Tres, Francis W. Kelsey trans., vol. 2 of Classics of International Law (James Brown Sco ed., Oxford U. Press 1925).


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automatically acknowledge a woman’s individual rights, including the right not to be assaulted or to suffer. Askin and Theodor Meron note that the Lieber Instructions, passed in the United States in 1863, which outlawed rape and assault on women, was a foundation of the modern laws of war subsequently codified in the Geneva Conventions.13 But even these conventions do not clearly spell out that there should be no rape of and no sexual assault against women. Article 46 of the 1907 Hague Convention stipulated that “[f]amily honour and rights, the lives of persons, and private property, as well as religious convictions and practices must be respected.”14 However, Article 46 did not say that the physical integrity of individual women and girls was to be protected and respected. Here again, “family honour and rights” were to be respected. It seems that the drafters had not moved away from the concept that women and children were the property of husbands or fathers. Twice as many people were killed in World War I than had been killed in all the wars between 1790 and 1913, and invading soldiers raped women and massacred opponents by the thousands.15 Sexual assault was not only an indiscriminate act commi ed by soldiers but also a weapon of terror, rage, and intimidation. In 1919, a war crimes commission reported that there had been “extensive violations of the laws of war.”16 Thirty-two offenses were identified, including rape and forced prostitution,17 but the only recommendation of the commission that appeared in the draft of the Versailles Treaty was Article 229, which provided for the trial of war criminals.18 There were no postwar initiatives to prevent future abuses. There were no prosecutions of sexual violence during World War II. Various explanations have been put forward for this failure to prosecute: because sexual assault was seen as an entitlement allowed to vanquishing soldiers; because some Allied troops behaved as badly as other combatants; and because Stalin was reluctant to take action against his own troops. The first modern postwar criminal tribunals were held in Nuremberg and Tokyo; no sexual crimes were prosecuted. Rape and other forms of sexual violence were not explicitly criminalized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal nor expressly mentioned in the judgments as war crimes or crimes 13

Askin, supra note 3, at 323, citing Theodor Meron, Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth and the Law of War, 86(1) Am. J. Intl. L. 34 (1992). Meron writes that despite the prohibition of “all rape” in the Lieber Instructions, the protection of women’s rights was not a priority.

14

Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, and Annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land (The Hague, Oct. 18, 1907), h ps://www.icrc.org/ihl /INTRO/195.

15

Askin, supra note 3, citing Telford Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir (Knopf Doubleday 1992).

16

Askin, supra note 3, at 42.

17

Id., at 47.

18

Id., at 44.


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against humanity.19 As Jennifer M. Green notes, although rape was recognized as a crime against humanity in Local Council Law No. 10, which governed the trials held by Allied military powers against lower-level Nazis, no one was charged with rape.20 Rape was stated as a crime in the Tokyo statutes, but no one was prosecuted despite the fact that thousands of Korean women and girls had been held as sex slaves, euphemistically called “comfort women.”21 The use of sexual violence in World War II was rampant: thousands of women and girls were assaulted and raped as the Soviet army entered Berlin, to the extent that the Soviet War Memorial erected by the Soviet Union in Berlin as a monument to the unknown soldier has been referred to as the “tomb of the unknown rapist.”22 In August 1949, Article (4)(2)(e) of the Second Protocol to the Geneva Convention spelled out the fundamental guarantee of humane treatment, including the prohibition of rape, enforced prostitution, and any form of indecent assault.23 Under customary international law, detained women were to be separated from men and, while in detention, to be supervised by women.24 The belief that women are a spoil of war persists today. In Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor, I heard evidence of rebel combatants’ belief that rape was “an entitlement.”25 A witness testified that, when challenged about the treatment of captured women, a leader in the Revolutionary United Front (a rebel group fighting in the Sierra Leone conflict) told his troops, “Enjoy yourselves boys. This is your time.” Describing her violent gang rape and subsequent abduction and detention, a young girl averred that her sister had told her, “If they capture [you], they have a right to rape you.”

Has Justice Been Delivered? In the wake of internal conflicts in the 1990s, several ad hoc and hybrid international war crimes tribunals were set up to deal with internal conflicts. They have jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 19

The Charter of the International Military Tribunal, Annex to the Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis (entered into force Aug. 8, 1945), United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 82, 279.

20

Jennifer M. Green, Litigating International Human Rights Claims of Sexual Violence in the U.S. Courts: A Brief Overview of Cases Brought under the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act, in Violence and Gender in the Globalized World: The Intimate and the Extimate 129 (Sanja Bahun-Raunovíc & V. G. Julie Rajan eds., Ashgate 2008).

21

Id., at 129.

22

Frederick Taylor, The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961–1989 32 (HarperCollins 2006).

23

Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977, h ps://www.icrc.org/ap plic/ihl/ihl.nsf/INTRO/475?OpenDocument.

24

Jean-Marie Henckaerts & Louise Doswald-Beck, Customary International Humanitarian Law: Volume 1: Rules, “Rule 119” 431–33 (Cambridge U. Press 2009).

25

Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor, SCSL-03-01-T. The author was a judge in that trial.


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breaches of customary international law. There are variations in the jurisdictions of the tribunals that reflect the conflict that each tribunal deals with. For example, the statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) vests jurisdiction to try the crime of genocide, but the statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) does not. The first international criminal tribunal was the ICTY, established in 1993. Its statute provides for rape as a crime against humanity (Article 5(g)). Rape was widespread during the civil war in the Balkans; women were detained in camps and used by their captors for sex; women of one ethnic group were deliberately impregnated by men of another to ensure that their children were of the other ethnicity.26 The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), established in 1994, is a venue for the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity. War crimes include rape and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution, and any form of indecent assault.27 Initially there were few prosecutions for sexual offenses in the ICTY or the ICTR. Justice Richard Goldstone, an early prosecutor at ICTY, conceded this fact.28 It was not until a witness described the gang rape of her young daughter during evidence in a case against the town mayor, Jean Paul Akayesu, that ICTR judge Navenethem Pillay asked why the rape was not being prosecuted.29 Akayesu had not been prosecuted for rape or any other sexual crime. A new indictment was laid, and Akayesu was convicted; rape was declared “an act of genocide,” and a definition was given.30 The decision was a landmark both for its definition and for showing that rape is as much a crime in war as it is in peace. Women are not automatically the spoils of war. Other cases followed as more women investigators and prosecutors were appointed to the courts. However, the fact that crimes were commi ed did not mean that the perpetrators admi ed that sexual violence happened; at least

26

See Danise Aydelo , Mass Rape during War: Prosecuting Bosnian Rapists under International Law, 7 Emory Intl. L. Rev. 598–99 (1993).

27

Statute of the ICTR, art. 4(e), www.icls.de/dokumente/ictr_statute.pdf.

28

See Courtney Ginn, Ensuring Effective Prosecution of Sexually Violent Crimes in the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber: Applying Lessons from the ICTY, 27 Emory Intl. L. Rev. 566 (2013). Goldstone developed a comprehensive gender strategy that was integral to the recognition of rape as a crime against humanity. Ginn comments that perhaps his most important contribution was the creation of a gender adviser in the Office of the Prosecutor; see 578.

29

Prosecutor v. Akayesu, ICTR-06-4 (Sept. 2, 1998). Justice Pillay was until September 2014 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

30

The chamber stated: “With regard, particularly, to the acts described in paragraphs 12(A) and 12(B) of the Indictment, that is rape and sexual violence, the Chamber wishes to underscore the fact that in its opinion, they constitute genocide in the same way as any other act so long as they were commi ed with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular group, targeted as such. Indeed, rape and sexual violence certainly constitute infliction of serious bodily and mental harm on the victims and are even, according to the Chamber, one of the worst ways to inflict harm on the victim as he or she suffers both bodily and mental harm.”


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one claimed that the sexual relations were by consent.31 A defense witness in Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor stated that because captive women were grateful to their Revolutionary United Front captors for “protecting” them, they showed their gratitude by “loving” the leaders of the rebels. The SCSL was set up at the request of the government of Sierra Leone after civil war raged for 10 years.32 The war was noted for the brutality of the atrocities visited upon civilians, including killing by beating and burning; the chopping off of arms, hands, and legs; the abduction of people for forced labor, as sex slaves, and as child soldiers; the cu ing open of pregnant women to se le bets about the sex of their unborn babies; and the deliberate destruction of homes, villages, and cities.33 The modus operandi was to enter a village; round up people living there; burn their homes; publicly rape women, particularly young women; and take away able-bodied males, females, and children. Children, both boys and girls, were trained to be soldiers. Young girls were used as sex slaves and, according to evidence adduced in Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara, and Kanu, were “given” to young boy soldiers (referred to as SBUs, a name derived from the term “Small Boy Units” used by the rebels of both the Revolutionary United Front and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council). The SCSL is noted for several landmark decisions in international law, including decisions on the nonimmunity from prosecution of a si ing head of state for war crimes and crimes against humanity,34 the application of amnesties in peace treaties to crimes against humanity and war crimes,35 and convictions for the crimes of the recruitment and use of children in war (commonly referred to as child soldiers),36 sexual slavery, and forced marriage. UN reports referred to the egregious and widespread sexual violence toward women and girls in Sierra Leone,37 and they recommended the retention of specialized staff experienced in gender-related crimes and juvenile justice by the court. The SCSL Statute and Rules of Procedure and Evidence provided that person-

31

ICTY Outreach Programme, Sexual Violence and the Triumph of Justice (2011), available at the ICTY website, h p://www.icty.org/sid/10949.

32

Special Court for Sierra Leone, www.sc-sl.org. For more information about the court, see Teresa Doherty, Jurisprudential Developments relating to Sexual Violence: The Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, in Sexual Violence as an International Crime: Interdisciplinary Approaches 157 (Anne-Marie de Brouwer et al. eds., Intersentia 2013).

33

Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara, and Kanu, SCSL-2004-16-T (June 20, 2007) (Trial Chamber II); and Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara, and Kanu, SCSL-2004-16-A (Feb. 22, 2008) (Appeals Chamber).

34

Prosecutor v. Taylor, SCSL-2003-01-I (May 31, 2004) (Decision of Immunity from Jurisdiction).

35

Prosecutor v. Kondewa, SCSL-2004-14-AR72(E) (May 25, 2004) (Decision on Lack of Jurisdiction/Abuse of Process: Amnesty Provided by the Lomé Accord).

36

Prosecutor v. Norman, SCSL-2004-14-AR72(E) (May 31, 2004) (Decision on Preliminary Motion Based on Lack of Jurisdiction (Child Recruitment).

37

Supra note 2.


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nel employed by Prosecutor38 and by the Witnesses and Victims Section39 must include such specialized persons, and appointments were made accordingly. SCSL jurisprudence led to legal developments in the prosecution of gender-based violence. Its statute provided crimes against humanity (rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, and any other form of sexual violence); war crimes (outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution, and any form of indecent assault); and the recruitment, conscription, and use of children under 15 in conflict, and a acks on peacekeepers. The SCSL trial chambers heard evidence from many victims of genderbased violence and admi ed into evidence reports from UN personnel and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that documented widespread and systematic sexual violence. Convictions were returned on counts of rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, outrages against personal dignity, and rape as an act of terror. In the words of Justice Pierre Boutet, the court acknowledged “the necessity for international criminal justice to highlight the high-profile nature of the emerging domain of gender offences with a view to bringing the alleged perpetrators to justice.”40 As tribunals have recognized the many forms that sexual and genderbased violence takes, the law has expanded, and the suffering of victims as individual human beings has been recognized. The international community has moved away from the concept that sexual offenses against women and girls are offenses against the rights of ownership or property crimes or an entitlement of a successful soldier. Rape has been recognized as a weapon of war—as an act of torture in the ICTY, as an act of terror in the SCSL, and as an act of genocide in the ICTR. International law has acknowledged that women, girls, and boys are not an entitlement to conquering troops and that sexual violence is a war crime and a crime against humanity.41

38

Statute Article 15(4) provides: “Given the nature of the crimes commi ed and the particular sensitivities of girls, young women and children victims of rape, sexual assault, abduction and slavery of all kinds, due consideration should be given in the appointment of staff to the employment of prosecutors and investigators experienced in gender-related crimes and juvenile justice.”

39

Rules of Procedure and Evidence R.34(B).

40

Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara and Kanu: Decision on Prosecution Request for Leave to Amend the Indictment, para. 34, SCSL-04-16-PT. See also Dissenting Opinion of Justice Pierre Boutet, in Decision of Prosecution Application for Leave to File an Interlocutuary Appeal against the Decision on the Prosecution’s Request for Leave to Amend the Indictment against Norman, Fofana and Kondewa (Aug. 5, 2004).

41

The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations has made a review of the case law of the ICTY, ICTR, and SCSL regarding sexual violence in light of UN Security Council Resolution 1820 (2009). See Review of the Sexual Violence Elements of the Judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Light of Security Council Resolution 1820, h p://www.icty.org/x /file/Outreach/sv_files/DPKO_report_sexual_violence.pdf.


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How Are Perpetrators Held Accountable? Perpetrators must understand that they are not immune from prosecutions and punishment. Impunity must be eradicated—it is not enough to say “addressed.” As a judge who has dealt with sexual violence in the domestic courts and as war crimes and crimes against humanity, I believe that impunity can be tackled by charging, indicting, and giving a fair trial to those who perpetrate abuse and those who permit, condone, or fail to punish people under their command or control who practice sexual and gender-based violence. Why did prosecutions not happen earlier in the tribunals? Failure to prosecute sexual violence has evoked explanations that women do not want to give evidence or to relive trauma or embarrassment. In some societies and cultures, a woman does not want it known that she has been sexually molested. The knowledge of sexual abuse can lead to a woman being ostracized from her community; she may be unable to find a marriage partner or, if she is married, become divorced or otherwise alienated from her family. Certainly, some women and girls find it traumatic to admit that sexual abuse has happened and to relive the experience by giving evidence in court, particularly if they are subject to strenuous cross-examination that challenges their credibility and personal history. International tribunals, including the ICTY, ICTR, and SCSL, have rules of evidence and procedure that state that credibility or character cannot be inferred by reason of a victim or witness’s prior or subsequent conduct.42 But not all domestic jurisdictions have such evidentiary protection of victims or witnesses. In my experience, a paternalist a itude—“we do not want to upset those poor women so we will not put them through evidence”—is not what women want to hear. Women victims want justice that includes seeing their assailants punished and reparations. Witnesses also appreciate the chance to speak out. A woman witness in Prosecutor v. Brima et al. spoke with feeling and dignity when thanking the SCSL for the opportunity that she had been given to tell “the world” of the cruel gang rape of herself and her daughter.43 That statement was made after, and despite, a lengthy cross-examination. Victims and representative groups have urged that charges involving sexual violence against women be preferred in criminal indictments. For example, in the International Criminal Court case of Prosecutor v. Lubanga, there was lobbying by victims’ groups to have sexual violence counts added to the indictment. The effort was not successful, but it is indicative of the growing voices of victims. Likewise, in the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia in Case 2 Prosecutor v. Nuon Chea et al., victims’ representatives sought to have the indictment amended to include counts of forced marriage as a crime against humanity. 42

Rule 96(iv) of Rules of Procedure and Evidence of SCSL provides: “Credibility, character or predisposition to sexual availability of a victim or witness cannot be inferred by reason of sexual nature of the prior or subsequent conduct of a victim or witness.”

43

Supra note 33.


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The argument that victims are reluctant to come forward because they are reluctant to acknowledge sexual abuse can also apply to sexual violence against men and boys in conflict. There have been no convictions for crimes of sexual violence against men in international war crimes tribunals, even though the statutes of the ad hoc and hybrid tribunals are gender neutral. The original indictment against Charles Taylor charged him with counts of sexual violence against men and women. It was amended to charge crimes of sexual violence (rape, sexual slavery, and outrages against personal dignity) against women and girls in several districts of Sierra Leone. However, in her final submission, the prosecutor asked the court to return verdicts for sexual violence against men. Given that the evidence had closed and that sexual violence against men was not charged in any of the counts for which Taylor was indicted, it would have been contrary to Taylor’s fair trial rights to accede to that submission. However, if sexual violence against men and boys is acknowledged as a crime that arises in conflict, then there is no valid legal reason why indictments cannot be preferred against perpetrators. The explanation that witnesses do not want to relive the trauma can also apply to men and women who were victims of other forms of violence. The sight of male witnesses shouting and weeping as they described the abduction, mutilation, and abuse they suffered at the hands of rebels in Sierra Leone will haunt me forever. To return convictions in criminal trials, convincing and relevant evidence must be adduced at the hearing. Evidence is the vital element in any trial and calls for investigators and prosecutors who are experienced in taking statements from victims, as well as interpreters who are sensitive to what is being said and who properly convey what the witness says. Failure to interpret properly and to adhere to the wording of the original statement can lead to a challenge to the credibility of a witness. Investigators, lawyers, and judges must be sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of the victims and witness. A witness may be precluded from using certain words because of a cultural taboo and therefore may avoid using such words altogether or may use another word that has a different meaning when interpreted. For example, in the SCSL, a victim of sexual violence said, “he used me as his wife” or “he used me” when questioned about what a rebel soldier did to her. A witness describing the violence perpetrated upon her used the word “anus” because (it was explained to the Trial Chamber) cultural a itudes precluded her from using the word “vagina.” A word may be common in several languages but its meaning may vary depending on the language of the speaker—for example, in Prosecutor v. Brima et al., the interpreter repeated the word “mate” used by a witness speaking Krio. In Krio, “mate” means a co-wife, not a friend or fellow worker, as it does in England. The witness was talking about another wife of her husband. Medical evidence is also relevant and can be of corroborative evidentiary value in criminal trials. Forensic medical information that can be readily understood by the lawyers, the accused, and the judges can be persuasive in a trial. The SCSL has heard evidence from doctors retained by the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). They had compiled records of the injuries suffered by those victims of sexual violence whom they treated and


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an explanation of the cause of those injuries. The patients and doctors later agreed to allow some records to be adduced in evidence. FAWE devised forms to be completed by an examining medical professional that can be submitted as evidence in criminal trials of persons charged with sexual offenses in domestic courts. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) devised a form that a medical practitioner can complete describing an injury and stating what caused it. PHR has also developed a dictionary of medical terms to help lawyers and judges to understand what has been recorded. The intention is to enable the mobile courts si ing where the sexual crimes were alleged to have occurred to have forensic evidence available at hearings. Coupled with the belief in some fighting factions that sexual violence enacted on victims of conflict is an entitlement of vanquishing soldiers is a lack of respect for the status of women and girls in some societies and a disregard for their rights and the integrity of their person. This a itude was brought home to me in a trial in Papua New Guinea. Three young men were charged with the rape of a very young girl they saw working in her family’s field. When asked why they raped her, one defendant shrugged disparagingly and said, “Because she was there.” Antiquated a itudes in the domestic courts must also change. I have heard rape described by a member of a judiciary (not my own) as “assault with a friendly weapon,” an expression that he thought amusing. The perpetuation of myths such as “rape is easily alleged and hard to disprove” in national justice systems leads to a perception that proving the crime of rape requires a different standard of evidentiary proof than do other criminal offenses. Many domestic courts require that the prosecution produce a forensic medical report when rape or sexual abuse is alleged. This is not necessarily a statutory requirement but rather a practice that has been adopted and applied over so many years that it has become institutionalized and is considered vital if a prosecutrix’s evidence is to be accepted. Yet the issue should really be the credibility of the witness and the evidence. Decisions made by war crimes tribunals show that a witness’s account of a sexual assault will not automatically be rejected if there is no contemporaneously recorded medical evidence or early complaint by the victim. War crime tribunals hear evidence from witnesses about events that happened years before, when there were no police to make a complaint to or doctors to provide an urgent forensic medical report. There has been a slow erosion of discriminatory a itudes about evidence in sexual violence cases. In particular, the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) has done much to promote gender equality and raise awareness about discriminatory a itudes in Africa, the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas. With the Global Leadership for Women, the IAWJ has promoted gender equality before the courts by educating and raising awareness of international law decisions and their impact on domestic jurisdictions.


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Prosecutions for sexual violence as war crimes and crimes against humanity will not solely eradicate a feeling of impunity among perpetrators. Combatants must be educated that women, girls, and men are not the spoils of war whom vanquishing troops can abduct or rape with impunity. Those who order and command soldiers must be held accountable and know that the laws of war, in particular the Geneva Conventions, mean that they could be held responsible for the actions of their troops. The doctrine of superior responsibility has been spelled out in the international criminal tribunals and in domestic courts. For example, in Sierra Leone the International Military Training Program undertook training in this regard, including education on the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions. This included laws prohibiting violence against civilians. Likewise, peacekeepers must be trained. The defense counsel in Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor adduced evidence (including video footage) of a acks on civilians by ECOMOG (Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group) peacekeepers in Sierra Leone.

Conclusion As long as combatants believe that they can abuse civilians, abuse will continue. However, there is growing acknowledgment that sexual violence in conflict zones or wartime cannot be condoned any more than sexual violence in peacetime is condoned. There are promising signs of improvement. Trends include an increased awareness among the public, political leaders, and the legal profession of the importance of prosecuting leaders who permit or condone the criminal activity of the troops under their command. There is an increasing awareness of the importance of training judges, investigators, medical witnesses, and interpreters to deal with sexual violence crimes. It is vital to teach armies and peacekeepers to respect the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions. All participants in the justice system must be dedicated to ensuring that sexual violence in conflict is no longer condoned.


PART V

Improving Access to Justice



14

The Ministério Público of the State of Minas Gerais and the ADR Experience DANIELLE DE GUIMARÃES GERMANO ARLÉ AND LUCIANO LUZ BADINI MARTINS A porta da verdade estava aberta, mas só deixava passar meia pessoa de cada vez. (The door of truth was open, but, each time, only half a person could pass through it.) — From “A Verdade Dividida” (The Divided Truth), by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, one of the greatest Brazilian poets, from the state of Minas Gerais

Although the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods may be familiar to many readers, the way in which ADR is employed in Brazil, most notably at the Ministério Público,1 deserves to be spotlighted. In particular, the use of ADR by the Ministério Público of the State of Minas Gerais (MPMG) helps highlight one of the goals of the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development: the implementation of the science of delivery.

The Regulation of ADR in Brazil In the Federative Republic of Brazil, there are no laws that specifically treat or regulate ADR methods. There are some laws on arbitration; on conciliation, which in many cases is treated in the Code of Civil Procedures; and on specific negotiations, which can take place at the Administrative Council for Economic Defense,2 between the federal government and companies that violate free market laws. Still, there are no laws clearly stating that ADR can be used in Brazil. Notwithstanding this situation, it is important to note that in Brazil, as in many countries that observe the rule of law, while some people may think that

1

The authors have kept the name of the institution in Portuguese (the language of Brazil), instead of using a direct translation (“Public Ministry”) to emphasize its unique and broader role in the Brazilian constitutional system in comparison with other countries. Although a public institution, it is totally independent of and una ached to any branch of the government and possesses an unusually diverse range of a ributes in its role as “society’s a orney.” Its functions are explained throughout the text.

2

In Portuguese, Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE).

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the use of ADR is not legitimate, it is in fact strongly supported by principles contained in the Federal Constitution.3 One constitutional principle that upholds the possibility of the use of ADR methods in Brazil is access to justice. This constitutional guarantee should be understood as each person’s right to have access to an effective solution for his or her problem. It should be interpreted as a guarantee of access not only to the established judicial system but also to any of the multiple ways to effectively resolve a conflict. To have access to justice is to have available all the possible ways to a ain real justice. The use of ADR in other countries and in private institutions has produced so many positive results that Brazil’s “Judicial Power,” through a National Council of Justice regulatory act in 2010, established that every member-state of Brazil must have judicial mediation as one of the possible methods offered to parties in conflict resolution. (The independent functions of the Brazilian republican state are distinguished as “Powers,” and they are here termed the “Executive Power,” the “Legislative Power,” and the “Judicial Power.”) Also, in 2012, the federal government, through its Ministry of Justice, created a School of Mediation and Conciliation (ENAM, the acronym based on its Portuguese name, Escola Nacional de Mediação e Conciliação). In short, although there is no specific law on ADR, the Judicial Power has determined that each of its tribunals has to offer judicial mediation and conciliation to parties that want to use those methods of conflict resolution.

The Name of the Rose In the final years of the 16th century, Shakespeare’s Juliet famously declared: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.

Her observation remains as true today as it ever was. The MPMG prefers to call the rose “tratamento adequado de conflitos” (adequate dispute treatment; ADT), but in essence, what the institution applies are the methods of ADR, albeit adapted to the local context.

What Distinguishes the Ministério Público’s Rose? Some characteristics of the Ministério Público and the way it, as an institution, uses ADR methods, are unique. This chapter explains this uniqueness and seeks to inspire those who face similar situations when dealing with conflicts in which ADR can be applied.

3

The authors call Brazil’s Constitution “Federal” because each of the 27 member-states also has a constitution; these state-level constitutions are subordinated to the federal one.


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The Ministério Público of Brazil Functions. The Ministério Público is a public institution whose members are in charge of ensuring that the law is applied. It operates independently from the three powers of government. The institution comprises public prosecutors, called “members,” and civil servants who assist the prosecutors and perform administrative functions but, because they are not prosecutors, are not referred to as “members.” The prosecutors’ main job is to uphold justice. Put simply, Brazilian prosecutors can be defined as society’s a orneys. However, the Ministério Público functions not just in the area of criminal law; it also protects civil rights, including those concerning the environment, health, education, anticorruption, governance, and consumers. The prosecutors’ duty is to bring criminal charges and try criminal cases, but they also can request the acqui al of a charge if during a trial they become convinced of a defendant’s innocence. Prosecutors have the last word on whether criminal charges are filed, except when Brazilian law permits civil prosecution. In those rare cases, the prosecutors act as custos legis (law supervisors) and ensure that justice is actually delivered. Besides that important task, Article 129 of Brazil’s Federal Constitution establishes that it is part of the Ministério Público’s job to protect society in many of the cases in which collective rights are involved. Another of the institution’s missions is to protect children, teenagers, elderly people, and any others who are unable to give genuine consent. Article 127 of the constitution states that the Ministério Público “is a permanent institution, essential to the jurisdictional function of the State, and it is its duty to defend the juridical order, the democratic regime and the inalienable social and individual interests.”4 The Ministério Público, an institution that has enormous popular credibility, is one of the institutions that generated the “Brazilian Spring” (a popular protest movement that reached its apex in June 2013), precisely because there was a bill whose objective was to change the Federal Constitution to reduce some of the functions of the Ministério Público. Millions of people throughout the country went to the streets in protest, and the bill was ultimately voted down by federal legislators. The Various Ministérios Públicos. As in the United States, some Brazilian institutions are federal and others exist at the state level. The Ministério Público of Brazil consists of multiple branches: the federal Ministério Público, where all criminal and noncriminal ma ers involving the federation are treated, and the 27 state-level Ministérios Públicos (one for each of the federation’s memberstates), where all the other issues are dealt with (i.e., crimes that do not involve the national interest, as well as state-level civil ma ers). 4

Official translation by the Federal Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal; STF), h p:// www.stf.jus.br/repositorio/cms/portalStfInternacional/portalStfSobreCorte_en_us/anexo /constituicao_ingles_3ed2010.pdf.


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The MPMG is one of these 27 state-level Ministérios Públicos. The state of Minas Gerais is located in the southeast of Brazil and has an estimated population of 20.5 million.5 The state’s main economic activity is mining (Minas Gerais, loosely translated, means “general mining”); its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 was US$199,726 million.6 An Independent Institution. The Ministério Público is considered by the Federal Constitution completely independent. It is not part of the Executive Power at the federal, state, or municipal levels. Nor is it part of the Legislative Power or the Judicial Power. So, in which of these three powers of the republic does it fit? The answer: in none of them. The Ministério Público, in its present form, emerged in 1988, the year in which the Federal Constitution was proclaimed. And it was created as an entirely autonomous body, so that it could protect all Brazilian citizens regardless of the identity of the violator of their rights. Members of the Ministério Público can file a lawsuit against any of the Powers of the republic if they violate (by acting or by being absent from their obligation to act) any civil right of a citizen. At this point, Brazil’s Ministério Público becomes different from other public prosecution services that exist in other countries. It is important to point out this feature because it is one of the reasons that, in Brazil, prosecutors believe that it is their duty to help people obtain access to justice in all possible ways, not just through the judicial system. How Does One Become a Member of the Ministério Público? All members of the Ministério Público are public prosecutors. Individuals who want to join the Ministério Público must already have established themselves as legal professionals and must demonstrate their competence in a meritocratic selection process. Being a prosecutor is not a political decision. Prosecutors are not elected by the population. If a citizen wants to be a prosecutor, he or she has to earn a law degree and have at least three years of experience in a legal practice. Applying for the job means undergoing very demanding and competitive examinations, which include legal, medical, and psychological tests, both oral and wri en. Candidates with the best test results become prosecutors, following a period of rigorous training. This training is conducted by the Ministério Público and includes practical and theoretical classes. At the MPMG, for example, the process of selecting new prosecutors can last eight months. Of 3,523 applicants in 2013, only 33 were accepted; they then went through a two-month training course at the MPMG’s institutional school. During this course, the new prosecutors are prepared to deal with the problems they will face in their work and in society. Upon completion, they go to offices in different parts of the state of Minas Gerais, where they put into practice what they

5

See Instituto Brasileiro De Geografia e Estatítica, h p://www.ibge.gov.br/estadosat/perfil .php?sigla=mg.

6

See h p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_brazilian_federative_units_by_gross_domestic _product.


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have learned. Their performance is periodically evaluated during their first two years of employment. At the time of writing, the MPMG had 1,049 active prosecutors, 2,857 civil servants assisting them, and 1,919 interns, who also help with legal and administrative duties. A member’s career typically consists of two sequential steps: first, one serves as a “promotor de justiça,” a public prosecutor who can act on criminal and noncriminal cases before a judge of the first degree; subsequently, one becomes a “procurador de justiça,” a public prosecutor who can act on criminal and noncriminal cases before a court (judges of the second degree, or courts of appeal). Members of the Ministério Público do not become judges or public defenders; in Brazil, these professions follow completely different and separate career paths. Again, to ensure operational independence, the nomination of members to the Ministério Público does not depend in any way on any of the three Powers; neither the governor (of a member-state) nor the president (of Brazil) chooses the members of the Ministério Público. What Is the Difference between ADT and ADR? The right of access to justice is a right that is guaranteed in Brazil’s Federal Constitution (i.e., it is one of the most important rights), and filing lawsuits through the Judicial Power is regarded as only one way to resolve conflicts. Hence Brazil’s readiness to use ADR. But to avoid using the words “alternative” and “resolution” in the English-based ADR, “tratamento adequado de conflitos” (adequate dispute treatment; ADT) was born. The word for “alternative” in Portuguese means that there is a choice between two or more options. But, in Portuguese, “alternative” can also mean one thing being chosen as a second option, a Plan B, and one of the Ministério Público’s goals in applying ADT methods is to start generating new values, so that when a citizen has a problem, he or she does not think first about going to court. It is important to nurture the idea that a citizen faced with a conflict should not ask a stranger to decide the best way to resolve it. Instead, the person should first think about solving his or her own conflicts. For these reasons, the authors of this chapter chose the word “adequate” to supersede the idea, already ingrained in society, that the use of dispute se lement methods is something that should be undertaken only when one does not have access to the judiciary. Our purpose is to promote the opposite logic. We want to clearly convey the idea that conflicts can be resolved without constantly knocking on the door of the Judicial Power. “ADT” is the term being used in Brazil by many institutions, including the Judicial Power. Also, the word “treatment” was chosen based on the prosecutors’ mission, which is to protect society. “To treat” can be something larger


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than “to resolve.” And “treatment” can be different from “resolution.” In the majority of cases, nonadversarial methods are effective in resolving a case, but when they are not, they still have done their job, because even when a se lement is not reached, the conflict has still been treated. And the treatment consists of making the conflict more bearable (until it can be presented for a judge’s decision, if a lawsuit ultimately has to be filed) and of teaching the parties that respectful conversation is possible. If a conflict is viewed as a process, the value of “treatment” becomes more apparent, because one treats the conflict in totality, rather than focusing on solving a crisis. Nonetheless, the well-known English term “alternative dispute resolution” is used in this chapter instead of “adequate dispute treatment,” so as not to confuse readers, most of whom are more familiar with “ADR” than “ADT.”

The Use of ADR Methods Within the MPMG, ADR is seen as one of the ways in which all citizens can be guaranteed the effective resolution of their conflicts. The use of ADR is not a way to sidestep the judiciary. It is a way to give citizens an opportunity to resolve their conflicts by agreement, by moving toward solutions that will meet the interests of all the parties involved, before asking a judge to decide, as a third person, who is right and who is wrong—the well-known win-lose sentence. (The Judicial Power of the state of Minas Gerais, it should be noted, is effective in solving ma ers that need to be resolved by a third, public party— the judge—an authority who will decide how the conflict will be resolved.) It is also a way to build a more pacific society, because the use of ADR methods has the implicit objective of teaching people how they can resolve their own conflicts at home, at work, with their neighbors, and with others. With this purpose in mind, the MPMG has invested in training all of its members in ADR methods. Moreover, for the first time in the history of this institution, citizens who intend to apply for a career as a prosecutor will have to study the subject, because they will have to answer questions about it during the selection process. This is a way to privilege and encourage the study of such an important ma er to the country.

Negotiation Negotiation of Civil Matters, Including Environmental Issues. The Federal Constitution and other laws allow prosecutors to use all possible ways to protect the many fundamental rights within the purview of the Ministério Público. Besides investigating violations of protected rights, a prosecutor can file a lawsuit to pursue either protection (asking the judge for a decision, if necessary) or negotiation with the violator of the right.


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Scholars have made two arguments. One is that negotiation is not possible in Ministério Público cases because, as a public institution, the Ministério Público is not equal to the other party involved in the conflict. The second argument is that negotiations are not based on the will of the parties, because if an agreement is not reached, a lawsuit can still be filed. Concerning the first of these arguments, the Ministério Público is indeed not equal to other parties because, as a public and special institution, it has some prerogatives that private entities and other institutions do not have. However, “not equal” does not mean “no balance.” Not being equal does not mean that it is impossible to work together in a balanced way to consider the interests of everyone involved. Concerning the second argument, filing a lawsuit is not a prerogative of the Ministério Público; a lawsuit can be filed by anyone who feels that his or her civil rights have been violated. Members of the Ministério Público believe that knowing how to negotiate based on interests, not power, can lead to balanced negotiations and that through negotiation, legitimate, sustainable agreements can be reached. The Brazilian Public Civil Action Law lists the Ministério Público as one of the qualified representative plaintiffs of these actions. However, before starting an action, the Ministério Público can try to reach an agreement with the offender (of an environmental right, for example). This agreement is called a “term of conduct adjustment” (TCA). The Public Civil Action Law does not mention the word “negotiation” itself, but as Shakespeare’s Juliet might say, “TCA is just another name for a rose.” The Ministério Público cannot, as society’s a orney, agree to “give away” the rights of the Brazilian people during the negotiation period. Giving away is not what good collaborative or integrative negotiation is about. However, as has been done in many cases, the Ministério Público can agree to the conditions under which these societal rights will be respected by the offender. Here again, negotiating does not mean giving away. It means finding ways to address all interests. For example, in a conflict between, say, society’s interests and the interests of a mining company, what can be done is to find common or complementary interests of both parties and to work on them, bearing in mind that the company itself is clearly also part of society and the economy. In the cases in which the Ministério Público can act, a se lement means (a) a faster solution for society, (b) a more effective solution, and (c) a solution that recognizes the importance of the interests of all parties of a conflict (whether persons or companies).


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The MPMG tries to implement methods learned from the well-known Program on Negotiation,7 as well as from transformative mediation8 and narrative mediation.9 These concepts are be er applied to mediation than to negotiation, but they also can be very useful when si ing down at the negotiation table. Civil Negotiation Cases A TCA is a kind of out-of-court se lement whereby a party (a person or a company) that puts collective assets—environmental quality, for example—at risk or causes harm to them assumes an obligation to cease the unlawful activity, to adapt its conduct to the law, and to repair the damage. The use of TCAs has contributed to removing the red tape from the usually complex processes of environmental conflict resolution. Court disputes can drag on for years, but TCAs offer speedier resolution of disputes and avoid contributing to the backlog of unresolved cases. (In 2013, 13.7 million lawsuits were filed, but only 12.2 million were concluded in courts of first instance, leaving a backlog of 1.5 million lawsuits.)10 In the environmental area especially, the “effective problem-solving” role of the Ministério Público overshadows the “court demanding” role, and environmental conflicts are normally resolved without the intervention of the judiciary by defining terms and conditions that are consolidated in the TCA.

7

“The Program on Negotiation (PON) is a consortium program of Harvard University, the Massachuse s Institute of Technology, and Tufts University, and serves as an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to developing the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution in a range of public and private se ings. PON’s mission includes nurturing the next generation of negotiation teachers and scholars, helping students become more effective negotiators, and providing a forum for the discussion of ideas.” See the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation website, h p://www.pon.harvard.edu/.

8

“Two main goals of transformative mediation are to empower the disputing parties, and to enhance each party’s recognition of the other. Recognition and empowerment are then key concepts in the theory of transformative mediation. To empower the disputing parties, the mediator seeks to ‘strengthen people’s capacity to analyze situations and make effective decisions for themselves.’” These goals reflect two basic premises of transformative mediation theory. First, the authors claim that mediation is more than just a tool for se ling disputes. Mediation has the potential to produce valuable transformations in the character of the participants. That is, participation in the mediation process has the potential to make individuals more empowered and responsive to others. Second, the authors claim that this transformative potential can best be realized by mediators who use certain a itudes and practices to guide the mediation process. See Joseph P. Folger & Robert A. Baruch Bush, Transformative Mediation and Third-Party Intervention: Ten Hallmarks of a Transformative Approach to Practice, 13(4) Mediation Q. 263–78 (Summer 1996), h p://www.colorado.edu/conflict/transform/folger.htm.

9

“Cobb investigates and critiques current concepts of empowerment, and current mediation practices designed to empower parties. She then suggests a narrative understanding of empowerment, and describes several mediation practices which follow from the narrative approach.” See Sara Cobb, Empowerment and Mediation: A Narrative Perspective, 9(3) Negotiation J. 245–55 (July 1993), h p://www.colorado.edu/conflict/transform/cobb.htm. Summary by Tanya Glaser. Copyright ©1997 by the Conflict Research Consortium.

10

See h p://www.cnj.jus.br/images/imprensa/apresentacao_secretario_geral.pdf.


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To expand the MPMG’s effective conflict-solving performance, which increases the institution’s level of efficiency, emphasis has been placed on theoretical refinement and implementation of a set of techniques aimed specifically at the resolution of environmental conflicts involving the defense of collective (“meta-individual”) rights and inalienable rights. In practice, priority is given to remediation of the damaged environmental area in natura and in situ. In the event that a complete or partial remediation proves impossible, the resolution of the conflict is guided by the definition of in natura and ecological compensation, which involves repairing the environmental damage through restoration or improving another similar area. Finally, if environmental remediation or the establishment of ecological compensation is impossible, financial compensation will be established as an indirect way to repair damage. In this context, methods of assessment of environmental damage in terms of money should be used just as a reference. It is important that the methods should not aim at generating direct profit for the environmental systems, in accordance with the determinations of the Brazilian Constitution and the National Environmental Policy. Transforming the multiple, cumulative, and synergistic impacts of environmental damage into monetary values is difficult. This difficulty is not due to lack of valuation methods but to the variety and diversity of damage caused and of methods of quantifying it. This situation creates legal uncertainty, which hinders the adoption of agreements because of the frequent vagueness of the clauses of the se lement estimating financial compensation for the irreparable damaged caused. In conclusion, giving priority to ecological compensation has proved to be the most appropriate way to resolve many socio-environmental conflicts. This method takes into account both the need to recover the damaged area and the interest of the party responsible for the damage in wanting to preserve its good institutional image. Following this line of thought, the agreements in recent cases concluded by the MPMG have had ecological compensation as their priority, instead of exclusive financial compensation. This approach has enabled, for example, the creation of protected areas donated by the mining sector as compensation for irreparable environmental damages. This adjustment had the necessary official approval of the state government. Another good example, dealing with the urban environment, involved the construction of roads as compensation by real estate companies found to have impaired urban mobility in the building of a shopping center and multifamily dwelling units. Another innovative form of ecological compensation, involving payment for environmental services (PES), has been given to farmers for the following actions: conserving areas of environmental significance within their rural farmland; recovering historical sites, assets, or works of irreplaceable cultural value; constructing roads that divert traffic away from a historic city center; creating private reserves of natural heritage; establishing wild animal sorting


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centers;11 relocating a historic building from an area set apart for mining to another site within city boundaries to be transformed into a museum; and expanding the boundaries of permanent preservation areas and forest reserves within farms. These initiatives, like many others throughout Brazil, deserve to be widely disclosed and discussed because they represent important innovations in fulfilling out-of-court resolutions of environmental conflicts. Negotiations in Criminal Matters In Brazil—unlike in the United States, for example—the Ministério Público has limited bargaining power when it comes to criminal offenses. It can engage in such bargaining only when criminal law permits or when a public prosecutor proposes the application of a penalty (which can never be imprisonment) prior to the criminal trial itself. The proposal is offered in the preliminary hearing and, if denied, can be repeated at the beginning of the trial hearing. If accepted by the defendant, it cannot be offered again in the event of a second infringement. This kind of proposal is not essentially a penal mediation, as in the American judicial system.

Mediation As discussed earlier, the Ministério Público has many functions, all of which converge to protect the most important rights and interests of society. When defending these rights, the Ministério Público can act either as a party (filing a lawsuit as the legitimate plaintiff of the action) or as a custos legis. As a custos legis, the Ministério Público acts not as a party but as a surveyor and has to express an opinion about the case. This occurs only in judicial cases allowed by law, or where an incapable person is involved. At the MPMG, there is an understanding that if, by law, some rights or interests require intervention, it is be er if the institution intervenes before the conflict escalates to the point of going to the Judicial Power. In many conflicts, the more promptly a prosecutor can intervene, the more promptly a solution can be found. That is why the Ministério Público treats some conflicts with mediation before the parties involved pursue a judicial resolution. Mediation is one ADR method, and it can be defined as assisted negotiation, where a third-party neutral (the mediator) helps the parties involved in a conflict to generate options and choose the best solution for that conflict. Mediation in the Ministério Público is different from judicial mediation, which starts when a party goes to the Judicial Power looking for a solution

11

Wild animal sorting centers (Centros de Triagem de Animais) are places managed or supervised by public environmental institutions, with the goal of treating rescued wild animals and reintroducing them into the environment.


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for the conflict. It bears repeating that the Ministério Público is not part of the Judicial Power. In Brazil, the only act that regulates mediation is a resolution issued by the National Council of Justice that explains how a judicial mediation should be conducted. However, when it comes to out-of-court mediation, such as the type promoted by the Ministério Público, there is still no regulatory law or normative act. In the MPMG, the creation of a normative act is under discussion, but it has not yet been published. In the eyes of the Ministério Público, the use of either mediation or negotiation is based on the constitutional guarantee of access to justice, and as such, no other law or regulation is necessary. When promoting mediation, the Ministério Público draws on global concepts and accepted procedures, applying internationally accepted techniques, including the Harvard, transformative, and narrative methods. All prosecutors at the MPMG are trained in mediation, which makes them more efficient in all their work, not only when working on mediation cases.

Conclusion In a world of more than 7 billion people, the MPMG believes that the only way to achieve a peaceful society is to learn to respect all differences. Those who are not part of one’s own community must still be recognized as human beings. By recognizing the existence of the other as a different person, one recognizes one’s own identity. However, this recognition does not mean that the other should be discriminated against or segregated. It means, instead, that society is formed by a rich diversity of cultures and that all people can learn from one another.



15

ICT-Driven Strategies for Reforming Access to Justice Mechanisms in Developing Countries KARIM BENYEKHLEF, EMMANUELLE AMAR,

AND

VALENTIN CALLIPEL

In the wake of an unprecedented period of mobile technology dissemination in developing countries, notably through the use of cell phones and other information and communication technology (ICT) innovations, it has become possible to use those technologies to eliminate or greatly reduce barriers to access to justice in those countries. This recent spread of mobile technology in developing countries has literally transformed communication habits. The World Bank estimates that there were 6.8 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide in 2013.1 When it comes to the justice system, one of the biggest challenges or barriers for people living in developing countries remains physically accessing the justice system. In this context, one has to reflect on the role played by mobile technologies and other ICT initiatives in providing a solution to the global problem of poor access to justice. For instance, with the mobile technologies available today, it is possible to use text messaging to inform clients of the date of their hearing because in some parts of the world people still have no postal address at which they can be reached, but they usually have access to a mobile phone. This chapter argues that the justice system should capitalize on this spread of mobile technologies and that cyberjustice, through the use of ICT, can reduce the costs and delays of the judicial process and provide be er access to justice through the science of delivery. Two concepts—“cyberjustice” and “science of delivery”—that are frequently used in this chapter should be defined at the outset “Cyberjustice,” simply put, “refers both to the integration of information and communication technologies into dispute resolution processes and to the networking of all stakeholders in the informational chain for judicial cases.”2 With the networking of virtually all actors of the judiciary, cyberjustice contributes to an integrated justice system. Cyberjustice initiatives include a wide range of actions such as community radio, text messaging, videoconferencing, digitization, and networking. The “science of delivery” is a multidisciplinary approach aimed at gathering and distributing knowledge that countries can use to get 1

World Bank, The Li le Data Book on Information and Communication Technology (World Bank 2013).

2

François Senécal & Karim Benyekhlef, Groundwork for Assessing the Legal Risks of Cyberjustice, 7(1) Can. J. L. & Tech. 41, 44 (2009).

325


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delivery in a specific local context.3 In the legal field, this approach explores “how law and justice concepts, tools and knowledge can be used to improve development delivery and help translate the values of voice, social contract and accountability into development impact.”4 The first part of this chapter makes the case that by using a methodology based on two pillars, modularity and collaboration (both comprising many different elements, which are explained throughout this chapter), ICT innovations can play an important role in providing effective access to justice in developing countries. Since 2011, the Cyberjustice Laboratory, a nonprofit research center affiliated with the University of Montreal, has used this methodology to develop successful prototypes5 in the fields of online dispute resolution and modernization of judicial proceedings. The second part of the chapter argues that the World Bank’s Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development and its partners, as well as the Community of Practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution (which operates under the auspices of the Global Forum), through their multidisciplinary approach, are effective platforms for developing ICT-driven strategies to modernize and reform mechanisms for access to justice in developing countries. The second part also highlights how mobile technologies can have an impact on transitional justice,6 thereby illustrating how ICT initiatives can effectively improve access to justice. This chapter thus provides food for thought about solutions to improve access to justice in developing countries and stimulate the use of ICT in the judicial process of those countries; this chapter does not try to offer precise solutions, because, as the modular and collaborative methodology points out, any solution must be tailored to the needs and circumstances of each country.

3

World Bank, Law, Justice and Development Week 2013—Concept Note, h p://siteresources .worldbank.org/INTLAWJUSTICE/Resources/LJDWeek2013_ConceptNote.pdf.

4

Id.

5

These prototypes include an Online Dispute Resolution Platform; an Interface for courtroom management that allows the networking of all actors in the trial and allows them to control the courtroom; a digital agreement as to the conduct of the proceeding (Entente sur le déroulement de l’instance; EDI) in accordance with the rules of the Code of Civil Procedure of Quebec; the Metadata Cyberjustice Management, a tool that allows for the defining and categorizing of information being a ached to files generated during a hearing for the purpose of indexing this information; and finally, a Moot Court application, a case management system designed to allow the electronic filing of memoranda during Moot Court activities hosted by the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Law. For more information about the Cyberjustice Laboratory and its ongoing projects, see Cyberjustice Laboratory, Software, available at h p://www.cyberjustice.com/en/software-presentation/.

6

Transitional justice is used after situations of armed conflict or generalized violations of human rights in order to bridge the gap between peace and justice. “Transitional justice is a leading rite of modern political passage and draws upon both legal innovations and ritual acts that enable the passage between two orders—the predecessor and successor regimes.” See Lisa J. Laplante & Kimberly Theidon, Transitional Justice in Times of Conflicts: Colombia’s Ley de Justicia y Paz, 28 Mich. J. Intl. L. 49, 50 (2006–2007).


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Using a Modular and Collaborative Methodology, the Model Chosen by the Cyberjustice Laboratory Many of those involved in judicial processes and proceedings express deep dissatisfaction regarding costs and delays, which put the protection of the court system beyond the reach of many of who need access to it. These obstacles contribute to a lack of trust on the part of litigants in the judiciary as a whole.7 This dissatisfaction provokes people to avoid formal justice and turn to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. A recent survey, for example, asked people in France to identify cases in which they would prefer finding a negotiated solution or compromise rather than going to court. The results speak for themselves: 97 percent responded affirmatively in the case of troubles with their neighbors, 92 percent in the case of commercial disagreements, and 87 percent in the case of purchases made over the Internet;8 a similar preference for negotiation and compromise over litigation was observed in Quebec.9 The computerization of judicial processes and the networking of stakeholders in the legal world, which constitute a vital part of the transition to cyberjustice and a more-integrated justice system, contribute to reducing the costs and delays of the judiciary process and hence improve access to justice as a whole. Activities such as using paper to present procedures, making multiple copies of documents to be sent to all parties, and requesting parties to be physically present in the courtroom all have a definite impact on the costs and delays of the judiciary process. Allowing for official documents to be sent to parties via e-mail, eliminating the need for parties to be physically present in the courtroom, and allowing testimony to be presented via videoconference, among other cyberjustice solutions, significantly contributes to improving access to justice by reducing delays and costs. However, successful cyberjustice initiatives remain the exception, and the a achment to paper and to parties’ presence at all stages of a procedure remains the rule. In fact, some projects aim at developing technological solutions to make the judicial process more efficient and transparent, as was the case of “Courtroom 21,” a project developed at the Center for Legal and Court Technology in the United States.10 The aim of the project was to identify and evaluate technologies that would be useful to the judicial system. The Cyberjustice Laboratory goes farther; it tries to understand why some jurisdictions have successfully implemented hightech case-management solutions,11 while in other jurisdictions millions of dol7

E. Allan Lind & Tom R. Tyler, The Social Psychology of Procedural Justice (Plenum, 1988).

8

France, Ministère de la justice, Sous-direction de la statistique et des études—Secrétariat général, Enquête: Opinions des Français sur la justice—2013, 8 (2013).

9

The majority of average-income households in Québec (53 percent) said that they were in favor of finding alternative solutions to the courts. See Observatoire des services professionnels, L’offre et la demande de services juridiques: Les besoins des ménages à revenus moyens (2013).

10

For more information, see William & Mary Law School, Center for Legal and Court Technology, h p://law.wm.edu/academics/intellectuallife/researchcenters/clct/.

11

For example, British Columbia’s JUSTIN project. In 2004, British Columbia adopted electronic filing software—the Justice Information System, or JUSTIN—to manage records in


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lars were invested without ge ing satisfactory results.12 The failure of some ICT initiatives shows that implementing technological solutions for some of the judiciary’s problems (such as costs and delays) is pointless if the parties refuse to use the technology. The premise underlying the Cyberjustice Laboratory’s research projects is that ICT solutions that respect and understand the human and sociolegal reasons for being apprehensive about using technologies will be implemented successfully, resulting in a reduction of costs and delays associated with the judiciary process. Accordingly, the Cyberjustice Laboratory is studying the legal parameters and sociocultural barriers to the adoption of technological solutions in the field of justice. In other words, it is important to understand that there are legal, cultural, psychological, and social reasons that can block the implementation of ICT solutions for reducing costs and delays. This chapter explains how using a modular and collaborative methodology can help surmount these obstacles. This part of the chapter shows that ICT initiatives using a modular and collaborative methodology can contribute to the reduction of costs and delays in the judicial process, providing more effective access to justice13 and a bona fide delivery of justice in emerging countries through the science of delivery. The World Bank’s conception of the science of delivery is composed of four basic features: First, delivery is about problem-solving with emphasis on contextspecific solutions. Second, delivery is concerned with addressing social goals in complex and interpenetrating systems in a way that identifies capacity gaps as well as intervention points. Third, delivery is collaborative and interactive. Lastly, a future delivery science will necessarily be multidisciplinary and thus, will require expertise from various disciplines to measure results and triangulate data that will help discover what is driving success or failure.14

The modular and collaborative methodology advocated by the Cyberjustice Laboratory encompasses these four basic features of delivery described in the above quotation. Since 2011, the Cyberjustice Laboratory, with its team of 36 researchers and its international and multidisciplinary background, has been working on the identification of sociolegal barriers to the adoption of technological solutions in the justice system. The team has conducted many socio-legal observations, such as testing ICT tools and holding mock hearings, to evaluate new technologies that may be useful in modernizing the judicial criminal ma ers. JUSTIN was later adapted to civil proceedings. See British Columbia Ministry of Justice, Integrated Corrections Operations Network (ICON) II Project, h p://www .pssg.gov.bc.ca/corrections/about-us/technology.htm. 12

The Integrated Justice Project is discussed in the next section.

13

Nicolas Vermeys, La cyberjustice et l’espace OHADA: Des outils virtuels pour une avancée réelle, Journal Africain du droit des affaires, Numéro spécial 102, 104 (2013).

14

World Bank, supra note 3.


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process and rethinking the justice system to meet the needs of individuals. The project’s innovativeness lies in its capacity to make concrete socio-legal observations thanks to the development, in cooperation with the primary stakeholders in the justice community, of a new generation of open-code, interoperable software modules designed to facilitate dispute processing and resolution in ways that are adapted to the needs of users and legal actors. One of the main goals of the Cyberjustice Laboratory is to take advantage of technological advances to make the justice system more accessible and efficient.15 To achieve this goal, the Cyberjustice Laboratory has chosen to use a modular and collaborative methodology. This methodology comprises many different elements, which are explained in the following sections after a brief clarification of why some past ICT initiatives have failed. This chapter thus sheds light on why this methodology, which is in the continuum of the science of delivery, would be effective for implementing ICT initiatives in developing countries.

Failure of Past Cyberjustice Initiatives Before considering the development and implementation of new ICT initiatives in emerging countries, it is important to analyze and understand the reasons why some of the initiatives launched in North America have not been effective. Understanding the reasons behind these failures helps to ensure that the same mistakes will not be made again and that different methods will be used when implementing cyberjustice initiatives in developing countries. With the growth of computer technology, many ICT initiatives have been launched to help courts ease the backlog of cases and improve access to justice for ordinary people. Unfortunately, many of these initiatives have failed, due mainly to high expectations, improper implementation of new technologies by the courts, and misidentification of the needs of stakeholders. Prior ICT initiatives that were ineffective often used a technology-driven or top-down approach. In the context of cyberjustice, this approach refers to a complete overhaul of the system using new technologies. The approach requires a high initial investment and subsequent gap-filling measures. As many authors have stated, in a complete overhaul, there can be resistance from the main stakeholders because of a lack of willingness to learn a new system in a timely fashion.16 This is exactly what happened with the Integrated Justice Project17 in Ontario, where stakeholders and litigants were reluctant 15

Cyberjustice Laboratory, The Project, available at h p://www.cyberjustice.ca/en/the-project.

16

Karim Benyekhlef & Nicolas Vermeys, Buenas practicas en Applicaciones de Ciberjusticia, in Buenas practicas para la implementacion de soluciones tecnologicas en la administracion de justicia, 29–49 (Antonio Caballero, Carlos Gregorio de Gracia, & Line Hammergren eds., IIJusticia 2011).

17

The Ontario project was launched in 1996 by the Ministry of the A orney General and the Ministry of Public Safety and Security. “The objective of the Project was to improve the information flow in the justice system by streamlining existing processes and replacing older computer systems and paper-based information exchanges with new, compatible systems and technologies.” See Office of the Provincial Auditor of Ontario, Integrated Justice Project,


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to use the interesting technological solutions offered.18 The reluctance of the main stakeholders was not due to an inability to develop appropriate technological solutions for the judicial process, but to psychological, social, political, and cultural barriers19 that inhibited research, implementation, and the use of advanced ICT solutions. Thus, to get all parties on board, it is necessary to understand the barriers to the use of new technologies and find a way to circumvent them. Properly identifying the needs of the stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of ICT initiatives is also essential. The failure of some past ICT initiatives was also due in part to poor assessment of costs. This was especially true in cases involving complete system overhauls because, as with any project of significant size, the possibility of hidden costs always exists. When identifying costs, it is important to take into account not only the initial acquisition costs but also the potential costs in relation to expansion and upgrades. As new technology becomes available, it is crucial to take into account the hidden costs related to hardware and software upgrades.20 Therefore, at the onset of a project, a significant cost-benefit analysis is helpful in avoiding any surprises, and contingency plans should be in place when finalizing a budget in order to alleviate any fears of future costs. Achieving a proper budget analysis is easier on smaller-scale projects or on pilot projects as advocated by the modular methodology. In sum, the failure of cyberjustice initiatives implementing a technologydriven approach or undergoing a complete overhaul of the justice system occurred mainly because the stakeholders were not prepared for such huge changes and stakeholder needs were not properly identified. Furthermore, given the complexity of the justice system, finding an answer to the problems in a homogenous, simple manner is implausible. One of the answers to the complexity of the justice system can be found in modularity.

Modularity: A Definition As previously discussed, past ICT initiatives failed because they tried to solve a complex situation using a single software solution in a technologydriven approach. For this reason, the Cyberjustice Laboratory advocates using an “incremental or modular approach where compatible and interconnecting technological solutions are found in order to address precise problems rather than to construct complex networks.”21 Another important aspect of the Cyberjustice Laboratory’s work is that all the modules are developed in open-source code to facilitate the sharing and adaptability of those modules.

283 (Annual Rpt., 2003). 18

For more details, see Carl Baar, Integrated Justice: Privatizing the Fundamentals, 42(1) Can. Pub. Administration 42 (1999).

19

These aspects will be detailed later in this section.

20

Benyekhlef & Vermeys, supra note 16, at 12.

21

Id., at 7.


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The open-source code allows stakeholders to make the changes they consider necessary given their specific situations.22 The goal is to develop justice system–friendly software modules that will contribute to delivering be er access to justice.23 Therefore, it is important when developing those modules to make sure that they are compatible and complementary, ensuring a smooth transition to cyberjustice and avoiding overlapping issues.24 To deliver be er access to justice in developing countries, it would be useful to develop or use existing ICT solutions to create different modules or platforms that would allow, for example, the use of mobile phones for intake, referral, and case management.25 Small-scale changes, made one at a time, enable ICT initiatives to be implemented effectively. Again, the purpose of this chapter is not to provide a precise ICT initiative for developing countries; rather, it suggests that the methodology used by the Cyberjustice Laboratory in the development of ICT initiatives in Canada could be used, where the context is found to be appropriate, in implementing and developing cyberjustice initiatives in these countries. Nor is the purpose of this chapter to argue that the modular and collaborative methodology is a miracle solution to the problem of access to justice. The point is to take advantage of ICT innovations to improve access to justice everywhere, including in developing countries—and having a modular and collaborative tactic optimizes the implementation of those innovations. As Nicolas Vermeys argues in his article on cyberjustice and the Organization for the Harmonization in Africa of Business Law (OHADA), even in developed countries, few substantial investments have been made in the field of cyberjustice, which means that currently the gap between the North and the South is not significant.26 It should be kept in mind that when implementing ICT initiatives in developing countries, a ention must be focused on the specific context in which the initiatives are to be implemented, and that they must be adapted accordingly27.

Identification of the Judiciary’s Factual Needs When developing a cyberjustice system or proposing an ICT initiative, it is essential to properly identify the needs of the stakeholders. Judiciary stakeholders have often been resistant to change; therefore, “the successful implementing of said change will necessarily require stakeholder approval. This approval 22

Cyberjustice Laboratory, supra note 15.

23

Id.

24

Benyekhlef & Vermeys, supra note 16, at 7.

25

Sean Martin McDonald, Law in the Last Mile: The Potential of Mobile Integration into Legal Services (blog entry, Leg. Info. Inst., Corn. U. L. Sch., Dec. 22, 2011), h p://blog.law.cornell .edu/voxpop/2011/12/22/law-in-the-last-mile-the-potential-of-mobile-integration-into-legal -services/.

26

Vermeys, supra note 13, at 103.

27

Further explanations on the topic are found later in this section.


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obviously hinges on whether or not the provided cyberjustice solution corresponds to the needs of each stakeholder.”28 From the Cyberjustice Laboratory’s point of view, implementation of a new technology should be done in a modular way to ensure that stakeholders are comfortable with the tool created for them. In this manner, wasteful technology and redundancy can be averted, and funds spent optimally.29 Generally speaking, ICT initiatives could help to meet some of the basic needs of the judicial system in Latin America and Africa. The Study Center for Justice in the Americas (Centro de Estudios de Justicia de las Américas; CEJA) has highlighted some of those general needs in developing countries in regard to ICT and how ICT initiatives could help improve the delivery of justice: ICT would bring a positive impact on improving levels of transparency in the operation of the institutions of the justice system, improving access to the justice system by the citizenry, improving efficiency and efficacy in the performance of multiple tasks, enabling and enhancing innovation processes in the delivery of justice and in judicial management, enabling citizenry scrutiny over the justice system, facilitating accountability of the judicial authorities by the citizenry, among others.30

When assessing the actual needs of the judiciary in developing countries, it is also important to determine the “ICT readiness” of the countries31 for the implementation of technological innovations in the judicial or extrajudicial system. In recent years, developing countries have improved and increased their ICT capacities, but not all countries are at the same level. In order to evaluate the ICT capacity of a country, three sets of indicators must be considered. First, infrastructure indicators compute the number of personal computers, mainline and mobile subscribers, Internet users, and 3G subscribers in a country. This group of indicators also analyzes the broadband usage, the number of Internet hosts, and the security of the Internet servers available in the country. Second, capacity indicators focus on the education level in a country 28

Benyekhlef & Vermeys, supra note 16, at 10.

29

Cyberjustice Laboratory, supra note 15.

30

C. Hernández & R. Adelardi, Perspectivas de uso e impacto de las TIC en la Administración de Justicia en América Latina 5 (working paper, CEJA & Microsoft n.d.). Original text in Spanish: “Las TIC podrían tener un alto impacto en mejorar los niveles de transparencia en la operación de las instituciones del sistema de justicia, en mejorar el acceso de la ciudadanía al sistema de justicia, en aumentar los grados de eficiencia y eficacia en el desempeño de múltiples labores, en posibilitar y potenciar los procesos de innovación en la impartición de justicia y en la gestión judicial, en posibilitar la auditoria ciudadana sobre el sistema de justicia, en facilitar la rendición de cuentas de las autoridades judiciales a la ciudadanía, entre otros ámbitos.” Cited in Gabriela R. Szlak, Online Dispute Resolution in Latin America, in Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice, A Treatise on Technology and Dispute Resolution, 534 (Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, Ethan Katsh, & Daniel Rainey eds., Eleven Intl. 2012).

31

Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, Online Dispute Resolution for Africa, in Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice, A Treatise on Technology and Dispute Resolution, 562 (Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, Ethan Katsh, & Daniel Rainey, eds., Eleven Intl. 2012).


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and analyze the illiteracy rate, public expenditure on education, and international Internet bandwidth. Third, financial indicators study the economy of the country (e.g., gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment (FDI), and public and private investments in telecommunications).32 Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, who has elaborated on the topic of ICT readiness, explains that according to these indicators, African states’ readiness to implement ICT initiatives can be described as falling into three different groups: (1) ICT ready States such as South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia; (2) ICT progressing States such as Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Algeria, Seychelles, and Ghana and (3) ICT potentially progressing States such as Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Central Africa, Chad, Niger, Guinea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burundi, and Rwanda.33

ICT-ready states are states where all three groups of indicators are at high levels. For instance, most people in the country have access to a computer or have a mobile subscription; the illiteracy rate is very low, the education system good, and the financial situation satisfactory. Implementing an ICT pilot project in such a country should not be very difficult because everything is in place to facilitate implementation, given that the needs of the stakeholders are fully understood and the solution offered is tailored to the realities of the country. ICT–potentially progressing states are states that have the willingness to implement ICT initiatives but that are not yet ready in terms of all three sets of indicators. A good example would be Somalia, a country that experiences internal political conflict.34 It would be very difficult to successfully implement an ICT initiative in such a context because the realities and conditions on the ground do not allow for it to happen. The country first needs to improve crucial areas such as peace, stability, health, and food security before beginning to consider implementing cyberjustice initiatives. As for ICT-progressing states, these lie somewhere in between the ICT-ready states and ICT–potentially progressing states. This means that in ICT-progressing states, the three groups of indicators are somewhat present, but further adjustments have to be made before implementing cyberjustice initiatives, and these initiatives might have to be more basic in design and implementation than in an ICT-ready state.

32

Id., at 563.

33

Id., at 567.

34

The country has been without a strong central government for many years and is facing regular a acks from an extremist group, Al Shabab. The World Bank classified the country as “low income” and indicates that only 29 percent of children are enrolled in primary school. The population is estimated at about 10 million people, of whom only 0.045 percent are connected to the Internet and 0.11 percent have a subscription to a mobile phone. See World Bank, Data by Country, “Somalia,” available at h p://data.worldbank.org/country /somalia; UN Somalia, Fact Sheets, available at h p://www.unsomalia.net/infocenter/fact sheets.htm; BBC News, Who Are Somalia’s al-Shabab? (May, 16, 2014), available at h p://www .bbc.com/news/world-africa-15336689.


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Whether a developing country belongs in the first, second, or third group will have a definite impact on the needs and realistic goals of that country when it comes to improving access to justice through ICT initiatives. Thus it is important to be able to effectively identify the needs of the judiciary and to distinguish needs from wants. Involving the stakeholders in the development phase of a cyberjustice initiative is another aspect to consider when identifying the factual needs of the judiciary.

Collaboration: Involving Stakeholders For ICT initiatives to reflect the reality and needs of the legal field, judiciary stakeholders must be involved in the projects from the beginning. The legal field includes many different actors, and to be faithful to their needs, they all have to be involved, not just lawyers. Judges, law clerks, Department of Justice professionals, lawyers, and court administrators, as well as civil society, all have different needs. Computer programmers, software and application developers, and other IT professionals must be able to establish the needs of the judiciary when developing cyberjustice solutions.35 Being involved from the beginning in cyberjustice projects minimizes stakeholders’ resistance to technological changes and promotes their understanding and ownership of the project. Another way to limit resistance is to develop ICT initiatives that use tools people are familiar with. It follows that, given the huge number of cell phone subscribers worldwide, using mobile cellular technology-driven initiatives would help ensure that stakeholders in developing countries are on board and willing to collaborate.36 The online dispute resolution platform known as PARLe (Plateforme d’Aide au Règlement des Litiges en ligne; Online Dispute Resolution Platform) serves as a good example.37 For this project, the Cyberjustice Laboratory team conducted consultations with mediators, representatives of Quebec’s Consumer Protection Office, the Ministry of Justice, and Educaloi, a local nonprofit organization that aims to improve access to justice in Quebec. These consultations allowed the Cyberjustice Laboratory team to gather valuable information on what the actual needs of the stakeholders and actors were. PARLe uses ICT tools to improve the resolution of low-intensity disputes by reducing costs and delays. This web-based dispute resolution platform adapted to consumer disputes involves a three-step process. The first step is the negotiation stage, where the litigants try to solve the issue on their own. The second step is the mediation stage, which becomes available to the parties only if the first step is unsuccessful. The last step is employed if the litigants 35

Benyekhlef, & Vermeys, supra note 16, at 11.

36

McDonald, supra note 25.

37

It is interesting to note that this application was developed by the Cyberjustice Laboratory in consultation with stakeholders in order to get their opinions on what services the future platform should offer. Implicating the stakeholders from the beginning contributed to getting them on board with the project. See Cyberjustice Laboratory, ODR: PARLe, available at h p://www.cyberjustice.ca/en/odr-parle.


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cannot agree; it involves electronically transferring the case to a competent tribunal. A great advantage of PARLe is that “due to its numerous features, the platform can easily be adapted to the specific needs of administrative tribunals and mediation and arbitration bodies.”38 This means that this project could easily be adapted and implemented in other parts of the world, such as Latin America, as a way to improve the resolution of consumer disputes and other low-intensity disputes. PARLe has been successful in part because the stakeholders were involved from the beginning of the project’s development, ensuring that the actual needs of the actors were clearly understood and that the stakeholders were on board with the project once it was implemented.

Understanding the Socioeconomic Context in which ICT Initiatives Are to Be Implemented The effectiveness of the use of a technology depends on the technological resources available and the sociocultural context in which the technology is implemented. It is not sufficient to merely import existing technology that has been successful in other contexts; doing so could be described as digital colonialism. To use ICT initiatives effectively in the improvement of access to justice in developing countries, digital colonization must be avoided. To avoid this phenomenon, ICT initiatives have to reflect the socioeconomic situation of the country in which they are implemented. For an ICT initiative to be implemented effectively and contribute to improving access to justice, “the technology [used] has to be accessible from a physical, a philosophical as well as an economic stand point.”39 In other words, developing ICT solutions that use the most widely available technologies throughout the country and that people are willing to use is vital. For developing countries, this might mean focusing on ICT initiatives that involve using a mobile device as opposed to a computer, because many people may not have access to the la er. ICT initiatives are more likely to improve access to justice in developing countries if they use technological resources that are readily available on the ground and that take into consideration the socioeconomic context in which they are implemented.40 Implementing technologies that improve the justice system and society at large demands an understanding of the likely cultural, psychological, and social impact of a given technology, inasmuch as technologies can have a positive or a negative effect on human behavior.41 For example, an ICT initia38

Id.

39

Vermeys, supra note 13, at 118 (translated by author). Original: “La technologie se doit d’être accessible tant du point de vue physique, que philosophique, qu’économique.”

40

Karim Benyekhlef, The Rise of Mobile Justice in Developing Regions (address presented at the Law, Justice and Development Week 2013: “Towards a Science of Delivery in Development: How Can Law and Justice Help Translate Voice, Social Contract and Accountability into Development Impact?” [hereinafter Law, Justice and Development Week 2013], World Bank, Washington D.C., Nov. 18–22, 2013).

41

Benyekhlef & Vermeys, supra note 16, at 3.


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tive that makes submi ing certain documents to the court in electronic format mandatory would put those who did not have access to a computer at a disadvantage and contribute to reinforcing the pre-existing socioeconomic divide between the rich and the poor. This is why “we must carefully study how a given cyberjustice solution will cause our habits to change and if those changes are beneficial to the process and its stakeholders.”42 To be effective, a cyberjustice initiative also needs to take into consideration the specific components of the target country’s legal process. “As long as we have not clearly established why such and such a component of [a given] legal process works in a certain way, why people have accepted a certain method of doing things or rather why they are a ached to it, we cannot hope to succeed in implementing technological solutions in order to make that component more efficient.”43 Therefore, to be widely accepted and used in the judicial process, ICT initiatives have to respect and adapt to the judicial rituals of the country.44

Implementing Pilot Projects As previously explained, cyberjustice initiatives involving a technologydriven approach or complete overhauls of the justice system failed mainly because the stakeholders were unable to adapt to huge changes, and the initiatives offered a simple solution to a complex situation. To ensure that cyberjustice initiatives see the light of day and are sustainable, this chapter advocates a modular and collaborative methodology in line with the science of delivery approach. Part of this methodology involves the use of pilot projects and/or small-scale initiatives as a way that the actual needs of the stakeholders are met and that the ICT tools used are effective. Using pilot projects allows for the review of “the policies and practices relating to technology with respect to policies designed to foster the development of access to justice.”45 Pilot projects allow for the study of the impact of ICT initiatives on the justice system and of user satisfaction with the changes made. “This preliminary work will make it possible to adopt best practices and to share the findings with the stakeholders, as well as to conduct an analysis of future prospects so that new projects can be suggested.”46 One concrete example illustrates the point about pilot projects. The Management and Follow-Up of Cases System (Sistema de Gestión y Seguimiento de Casos; SIGESSCA) pilot project aims to improve access to justice through an online platform offering be er access to legal services provided by university legal clinics in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Uruguay.47 The online 42

Id., at 4.

43

Id., at 5.

44

Vermeys, supra note 13, at 131.

45

Benyekhlef, supra note 40.

46

Id.

47

Id.


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platform makes it possible to manage, monitor, and share administrative and court files. Because the platform is decentralized, it provides be er support for members of vulnerable groups. The platform also provides automatic tracking of regulatory legal deadlines and can send notifications to users through e-mails or text messages (SMS, or short message service). The SIGESSCA project has inspired legal clinics throughout Latin America to provide free legal aid to underprivileged groups. “From this point of view, this project clearly illustrates the important role that technology, especially mobile technology, can be called upon to play in delivering legal services to members of underprivileged groups and thereby increasing their access to justice.”48 The first part of this chapter has made the case that the modular methodology advocated by the Cyberjustice Laboratory, which uses open-source code to develop pilot projects such as PARLe, allows for wide dissemination of good practices that will be helpful in the development and implementation of ICT initiatives in developing countries. These good practices in the field of cyberjustice can then be used in emerging countries to develop ICT initiatives that provide be er access to justice. The second part of the chapter advocates utilizing the infrastructure (the knowledge, partners, and multidisciplinary approach) of the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development and the Community of Practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution as a starting point for developing effective ICT initiatives aimed at improving justice delivery in developing countries.

The Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development: A Project Incubator Access to justice remains difficult in a number of developing countries for various reasons, but mainly because of fear of tribunals and state institutions, and technical and procedural difficulties. ICT initiatives can contribute to alleviating some of these difficulties, particularly in the reduction of costs and delays. Using electronic communications in the judicial system would allow litigants to save money, thus improving access to justice for many who cannot normally afford it.49 Cyberjustice also encompasses developing solutions that reduce travel expenses, by developing online dispute resolution platforms and by allowing for witness testimony via videoconferencing.50 Regarding reduction of delays, part of the solution lies in finding ways for litigants to get access to justice without needing the intervention of a judge.51 Thus, “the remedies may involve computerizing and providing online access to ADR (alternative dispute resolution) mechanisms as well as to traditional justice

48

Id.

49

Vermeys, supra note 13, at 105.

50

Id., at 106.

51

Id., at 107.


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systems”52 that have ancestral roots to decrease the number of cases for the formal justice system. This section explains how the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development (GFLJD) and its partners, including the Community of Practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution, using the modular and collaborative method in the science of delivery, can be an effective platform for developing ICTdriven strategies that modernize and reform mechanisms for be er access to justice in developing countries. The multidisciplinary approach of the GFLJD, which brings together an impressive list of partners from all over the world, makes the forum a perfect project incubator. Developing pilot projects to bring together the methodology of the Cyberjustice Laboratory and GFLJD partners such as the World Bank is a good starting point for implementing new ICT initiatives and studying the impact of existing initiatives that offer be er access to justice in developing countries.

Using GFLJD Partners to Modernize and Reform Access to Justice in Developing Countries The GFLJD consists of a permanent forum and an ICT web-based platform that seeks to promote “a be er understanding of the role of law and justice and strengthen and be er integrate legal and judicial institutions in the development process, through selected capacity building initiatives and an open repository of knowledge.”53 The GFLJD offers a platform that allows its 148 partners54 to join in improving justice delivery in developing countries. The forum consists of “a structured partnership, built on a broad network of development partners such as other International Financial Institutions, International Organizations, Central Banks, government agencies, judiciaries, universities, think tanks and civil society organizations.”55 Also, the fact that the partners are from both the North and the South, helps bridge the gap between the two and allow them to share one another’s experiences and knowledge when developing ICT-driven access to justice initiatives. All this knowledge provides “practical legal contributions to development challenges and will improve the legal and judiciary systems which form the intangible infrastructure for sustainable development.”56 52

Benyekhlef, supra note 40.

53

Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, 10 Things about the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development (2011), available at h p://globalforumljd.org/about/10_things.htm.

54

These partners include but are not limited to the African Development Bank (AfDB), Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (COTELCO), Centre de recherche en droit public (CRDP), Centre for Mediation and Law, Instituto de Investigacion para la Justicia (Research Institute for Justice), and World Bank. See Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, Partners (2014), h p://globalforumljd .org/partners/index.htm.

55

Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, Generating Innovative Legal Solutions to Development Challenges—Overview, 12 (Jan. 2012), h p://globalforumljd.org/docs/about /gfld_ppt_light.pdf.

56

Id.


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The work of the GFLJD can definitely contribute to providing more effective access to justice in emerging countries through the science of delivery. Indeed, the GFLJD approach is in line with the four basic features of delivery57 as defined by the World Bank. Thus, the exchange and knowledge transfer of the web-based platform that connects all GFLJD partners to relevant research and practices will improve development outcomes,58 which is in line with the third feature of delivery: collaboration and interaction. Furthermore, the GFLJD “provides targeted audiences a coherent, sustained program of collaborative research and technical assistance to accelerate knowledge translation and use,”59 allowing for the development of solutions for poor access to justice that are context-specific, as the first feature of delivery prescribes. Last, the GFLJD has a multidisciplinary approach because it brings together experts from the economic, legal, and technical fields.60 According to the World Bank, this multidisciplinary expertise will contribute to “measure results and triangulate data that will help discover what is driving success or failure” of ICT initiatives.61 The GFLJD, through thematic working groups of partners, will produce sample agreements, operational manuals, guidance notes, as well as legal and policy analysis. The forum and its partners will also collect data, such as laws, commentaries, and jurisprudence.62 All this information will be invaluable when developing ICT initiatives for emerging countries. Another important actor providing effective access to justice is the Community of Practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution, which operates under the auspices of the GFLJD but is not part of a particular thematic working group, allowing it to have a cross-cu ing approach.

The Work of the Community of Practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution The Community of Practice (CoP) on ADR is a group that brings together institutions devoted to the improvement of alternative dispute resolution processes. The CoP on ADR is co-led by the Cyberjustice Laboratory and the Ministerio de Reforma do Judiciario, Ministério da Justiça of Brazil and operates under the auspices of the World Bank’s Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development.63 The group’s research focuses partly on how ADR mechanisms, such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, can be used to support

57

For a definition of the four basic features of delivery, see note 14.

58

Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, Information Note (2011), h p://globalforum ljd.org/about/index.htm.

59

Id.

60

Id.

61

World Bank, supra note 3.

62

Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, supra note 55.

63

Karim Benyekhlef & Valentin Callipel, CoP on ADR (address presented during the Law, Justice and Development Week 2013).


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development policies related to access to justice. The CoP on ADR is interested in ADR initiatives operating within the margins of the courts and in extra-judicial processes.64 The work of the CoP on ADR is divided into three distinct research dimensions: (a) development of ADR and justice, (b) online dispute resolution contributions to development policies, and (c) ADR contributions to transitional justice policies.65 The CoP on ADR, with its highly qualified, diverse partners, is a good starting point for developing new ICT initiatives as well as for studying the impact of existing access to justice initiatives in developing countries. Using a modular and collaborative methodology, the group is able to give “special a ention to the role played by information technology in support of ADR practice.”66 ADR processes definitely are an important part of improving access to justice and delivery of justice in developing countries. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the CoP on ADR focuses its expertise on studying social changes taking place in conflict resolution using ICT tools. It can closely monitor the impact social change may have on policies of regional development. Also, the CoP on ADR is a very useful tool for promoting awareness of the development, local implementation, and improvement of ICT initiatives in emerging countries.67 Furthermore, the CoP on ADR will study the impact of those ICT initiatives on access to the justice system and justice delivery, as well as on implemented development strategies and policies in developing countries.68 The CoP on ADR believes that as mobile technologies continue to spread in developing countries, access to the traditional justice system will improve, but use of those technologies will also lead to extrajudicial procedural innovations that provide new options and make up for the inadequacies of the traditional justice system. The use of these new technologies is transforming models of justice and the way justice is administered,69 and developing countries need to take advantage of this fact. In regard to ADR, the CoP on ADR believes that “the remedies may involve computerizing and providing online access to ADR mechanisms as well as traditional justice systems that have most often taken root in the shade of courts that, for example, in the case of Africa, date back to colonial times.”70 For this reason, mobile technology can be used as a tool that will improve the classical justice system but that can also be used as a procedural innovation for alternative justice.71 64

Benyekhlef, supra note 40.

65

Benyekhlef & Callipel, supra note 63.

66

Benyekhlef, supra note 40.

67

Cyberjustice Laboratory, Forum on Law, Justice and Development Proposition for a Community of Practice Regarding Alternative Dispute Resolution: Concept Note (unpublished, Feb. 21, 2013).

68

Id.

69

Id.

70

Id.

71

Id.


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Moreover, cyberjustice initiatives have the potential of bringing formal and informal justice closer together. In other words, incorporating ADR processes into a state’s justice system through ICT tools can help improve access to justice.72 If, for example, the legislator of a given country were to decide to incorporate a web-based mediation platform for solving commercial litigation problems into the judicial system by making it obligatory for litigants to go through it before going to court, the delays, costs, and difficulties of accessing the justice system would effectively be reduced. Pierre Meyer explains in an article on arbitration that this reasoning is particularly true for African countries: In African societies, the law has been essential to the search for an acceptable solution which does not break with the social balance. The practice of law aims at obtaining conciliation and reconciliation—rather than the rigid application of a predetermined standard that could disrupt the social equilibrium, increasing tensions within society.73

The next section discusses the CoP on ADR’s argument that mobile technologies can have a particularly important impact in the context of transitional justice, which often takes a hybrid form, bringing formal and informal justice together.

The Use of ICT in the Context of Transitional Justice One important topic to be examined by the CoP on ADR is how ADR processes contribute to transitional justice. ICT initiatives can help improve delivery of justice in the context of transitional justice just as they do in general access to justice. But what is transitional justice, exactly? According to a 2004 report by the UN secretary-general, the notion of transitional justice comprises the full range of processes and mechanisms associated with a society’s a empts to come to terms with a legacy of largescale past abuses, in order to ensure accountability, serve justice and achieve reconciliation. These may include both judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, with differing levels of international involvement (or none at all) and individual prosecutions, reparations, truth-seeking, institutional reform, ve ing and dismissals, or a combination thereof.74

Transitional justice mechanisms are usually employed in the aftermath of armed conflicts or in the context of periods of transition from totalitarian or authoritarian regimes to more democratic regimes.75 There are many benefits 72

Vermeys, supra note 13, at 111.

73

Pierre Meyer, OHADA—Droit de l’arbitrage (Bruylante 2002) (translation by the author).

74

United Nations, The Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies, Report of the Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. S/2004/616 (23 Aug. 2004), at para. 8.

75

Philipp Kastner, Cyberjustice in the Context of Transitional Justice, 2 (Working Paper No. 9, Cyberjustice Laboratory, Nov. 2013), h p://www.cyberjustice.ca/en/documents-en/.


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to using ICT in a context of transitional justice, such as information sharing, cost efficiency, access to the court system, participation, and outreach.76 This chapter focuses on the la er. The criticism has often been made that when it comes to transitional justice, some institutions, particularly international criminal tribunals, have neglected to take into consideration the needs and concerns of local populations. Furthermore, people living in remote areas have often not been able to take part in proceedings that usually take place far away from where the abuses or crimes being tried were commi ed. Local populations also lack a clear understanding of the mandate and work of these institutions.77 ICT initiatives could help improve this type of situation. “New technologies may . . . play an important role in increasing access to transitional justice institutions and in facilitating communication between the institutions and their constituencies. Especially communities with low literacy rates may benefit from visual—ideally live—representation of proceedings held in other areas.”78 Given that a large part of the population in developing countries lives in rural areas, courtrooms are often located miles away and traveling conditions are often far from ideal.79 Therefore, physically accessing the justice system and transitional justice institutions remains one of the biggest challenges for people living in developing countries. In this context, using ICT tools can help alleviate the difficulties of reaching places that are far away in unsafe areas after a conflict for such purposes as participating in inquiries or witness interviews. Also, increasing communication with local communities enhances ownership over transitional justice mechanisms. Using ICT tools can also lead to exchanges of information or dialogue between the different communities affected by the situation in the country, thus promoting social cohesion and national unity.80 “It would, therefore, be useful to encourage decentralized, bo om-up approaches that give a greater voice to grassroots organizations, even in the planning phase of a particular mechanism. The result may be a more collective, and collectively-owned, perhaps even continuously evolving process, exactly what may be needed to deal with situations of massive trauma.”81

Conclusion The recent spread of mobile technologies worldwide has allowed people in developing countries to bypass the landline infrastructure phase and gain almost complete mobile access to networks from their phones. Nowadays, one 76

Id., at 7–8.

77

Id., at 8.

78

Id.

79

McDonald, supra note 25.

80

Kastner, supra note 75, at 9.

81

Id.


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can easily access the Internet from a basic cellular phone, rendering obsolete the need to buy or get access to an expensive computer.82 This chapter has thus argued that governments and other institutions in developing countries must take advantage of this spread of technologies to improve access to justice with ICT-driven strategies that will modernize and reform judicial and extrajudicial mechanisms. This chapter has discussed the issues and challenges in relation to ICTdriven strategies and cyberjustice initiatives. It has been shown that by using a modular and collaborative methodology when implementing ICT initiatives, these initiatives can improve access to justice in developing countries. Adapting pilot projects such as PARLe and SIGESSCA to developing countries could be the beginning of a transition to an integrated justice system. The Cyberjustice Laboratory advocates unleashing the potential of mobile technologies, through a modular and collaborative methodology, to improve access to justice in both the judicial and the extrajudicial processes. This chapter has proposed that combining the experience of the Cyberjustice Laboratory with the GFLJD’s approach, which is in line with the four basic features of the science of delivery, would allow for the development of ICT initiatives that would eectively improve access to justice in emerging countries. Furthermore, the CoP on ADR is a good starting point for developing new ICT initiatives as well as for studying the impact of existing initiatives for be er access to justice in developing countries. Using ICT tools to bring formal and informal justice closer together is yet another way to improve access to justice. The object of this chapter has been less to provide specific solutions to specific problems in highly specialized contexts than to oer some broad and useful guidelines that may serve as the basis for further reflection on possible solutions to improving access to justice in developing countries, and to stimulating those countries to do so. In particular, this chapter has highlighted the use of a modular and collaborative methodology that is in line with the basic features of the science of delivery, so as to harness the potential of mobile technologies and ICT initiatives. In so doing, the goal is to improve access to justice in developing countries through mobile technologies and ICT initiatives, and by extension, to deliver more justice generally in those countries.

82

Benyekhlef, supra note 40.



16

Courts and Regulatory Governance in Latin America Improving Delivery in Development by Managing Institutional Interplay RENE URUEÑA

Courts and the Regulatory State in the South Almost 25 years have passed since the first institutional reforms in Latin America were implemented, following a wide trend toward the privatization of public utilities and other basic services. Part of this deep transformation entailed the adoption of regulatory forms of governance, that is, the role of an interventionist state was reduced in favor of a state whose intervention in the economy was done mostly through rules and regulation instead of taxing and spending.1 One common institutional feature of this transformation was the independent regulatory agency (IRA). The basic premise was that certain areas of the economy, such as public utilities, telecommunications, and banking, were be er served if the regulator remained at arm’s length from political pressures. The answer was to create law-based “agencies,” acting mostly through administrative means on the basis of a particular kind of expertise. The independence of these agencies would foster “credible commitments” on behalf of the state and limit regulatory opportunism.2 Moreover, in the context of privatization, such independence would also provide much-needed assurance to foreign investors that their sunk costs would not be affected by administrative expropriation or manipulation.3 Latin America was particularly fertile ground for the logic of “credible commitments.”4 During the 1990s, independent regulatory agencies proliferated in the region at a rate never before seen. Jacint Jordana and David LeviFaur report that only 43 regulatory authorities (mostly in the financial sector)

1

See Giandomenico Majone, From the Positive to the Regulatory State: Causes and Consequences of Changes in the Mode of Governance, 17(2) J. Pub. Policy 139–67 (1997).

2

See Fabrizio Gilardi, Policy Credibility and Delegation to Independent Regulatory Agencies: A Comparative Empirical Analysis, 9(6) J. European Pub. Policy 873–93 (2002).

3

See Brian Levy & Pablo T. Spiller, Institutional Foundations of Regulatory Commitment: A Comparative Analysis of Telecommunications Regulation, 10 J. L. Econ. & Org. 201 (1994).

4

See Vivien Foster, Ten Years of Water Service Reform in Latin America: Toward an Anglo-French Model (Intl. Bank Reconstruction & Dev.; World Bank 2005).

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existed in the region before 1979; by 2002 they had grown threefold to 138.5 These numbers, though, do li le to explain the impact that such proliferation has in the delivery of basic services in the region. Although the form of the IRA was widely adopted in Latin America (and elsewhere in the world), li le is known about the actual operation of IRAs in their own contexts, and particularly their role in boosting (or hindering) the delivery of the essential services that they regulate.6 This gap seems to be particularly pressing in economies outside Europe and the United States, where the work of IRAs seemed to follow a different trajectory from that predicted by the “credible commitments” literature. This gap has been explored in recent literature through the lenses of the “Regulatory State in South.”7 From this perspective, certain shared contexts of countries in the “South” (e.g., the presence of powerful external pressures, especially from international financial institutions, the greater intensity of redistributive politics in se ings where infrastructure services are of extremely poor quality, and limited state capacity) are crucial to understanding regulatory governance in poorer economies— a reality that simply is lost in the perspective of regulatory transfer and diffusion. Understanding the impact of these shared contexts in the regulatory state is important for advancing regulatory theory and understanding the possibilities (and limits) of regulation in the delivery of essential services to the poorest. One key insight on the Regulatory State in the South project, which was led by Navroz K. Dubash and Bronwen Morgan and consisted of case studies of regulatory governance in countries outside the North Atlantic, was that courts are central actors in regulatory governance in developing countries. Traditional literature on the regulatory state situates the judiciary as protecting contract and property rights, thus limiting state action and curbing discretion.8 In sharp contrast to this view, the experiences of the water sector in Colombia and Indonesia, and of telecommunications in India, show that the judiciary is a privileged site of regulatory governance where international pressures, distributive politics, and limited state capacity operate.9 5

See Jacint Jordana & David Levi-Faur, The Diffusion of Regulatory Capitalism in Latin America: Sectoral and National Channels in the Making of a New Order, 598(1) Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 102–24 (2005).

6

Id. See also Jacint Jordana, David Levi-Faur, & Xavier Fernández i Marín, The Global Diffusion of Regulatory Agencies Channels of Transfer and Stages of Diffusion, 44(10) Comp. Pol. Stud. 1343–69 (2011); David Levi-Faur, The Global Diffusion of Regulatory Capitalism, 598(1) Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 12–32 (2005).

7

See Navroz K. Dubash & Bronwen Morgan, Understanding the Rise of the Regulatory State of the South, 6(3) Regulation & Governance 261–81 (2012). The Regulatory State in the South project explores the possibility of finding particular characteristics in regulatory governance as applied in the global South that are different from the same type of governance in the North.

8

Id.

9

On Colombia, see Rene Urueña, Expertise and Global Water Governance: How to Start Thinking about Power over Water Resources?, 9 Anuario Mexicano de Derecho Internacional 117–52 (2012); on Indonesia, see Nai Rui Chng, Regulatory Mobilization and Service Delivery at the Edge


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Much has been said about the importance of the judiciary to economic and social development, particularly in Latin America, where activist courts have engendered economic transformations.10 Courts are, indeed, a crucial site of distributive politics in the region. However, current efforts have been either focused on the justiciability and enforcement of social and economic rights or taken place in the context of rule of law programs concerned with reducing court backlogs, enhancing judicial training programs, and eliminating judicial corruption. The Regulatory State in the South project brought forth a different perspective on this nexus: in these countries, courts became deeply immersed in formulating regulatory regimes or reforming regulatory agencies; they became crucial players in the delivery of essential services, both as actors in their own right and as an institutional forum in which other actors could interact. This chapter further investigates the implications of this insight for the delivery of essential services in the region. Why do courts get involved in the regulatory process in Latin America? How is this involvement undertaken? What are the effects of courts’ involvement in the regulatory process in Latin America in terms of accountability and participation? Who wins and who loses when courts intervene? To explore these questions, the chapter builds on research done by a group of early-career scholars on the ground in Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina who came together as questions on the role of the judiciary in regulatory politics became part of a wider project on interinstitutional interactions led by the Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia), with the support of the International Development Research Center. The research on which this chapter is based focuses on health care, the environment, and public utilities. Carolina Moreno explored the intervention of the Colombian Constitutional Court in the regulation of waste disposal in Bogota and its impact on the human rights of informal waste pickers. Florencia Lebensohn investigated the role of environmental expertise and regulation by the judiciary, focusing on the Matanza-Riachuelo River basin case in Argentina. Maria Prada and Santiago Rojas researched the impact of the judiciary in the provision of health services in Colombia. One further set of case studies focusing on Brazil will be published in a separate volume edited by Mariana Mota Prado, of the University of Toronto. This la er set of cases is not discussed in this chapter. While each of these case studies will be published soon, the goal of this chapter is to present some of the overall lessons that can be distilled in terms of voice and accountability in the delivery of essential services in the region. The overall point is that the interaction between institutions ma ers for improving of the Regulatory State, 6(3) Regulation & Governance 344–61 (2012); on India, see Arun K. Thiruvengadam & Piyush Joshi, Judiciaries as Crucial Actors in Southern Regulatory Systems: A Case Study of Indian Telecom Regulation, 6(3) Regulation & Governance 327–43 (2012). 10

See Roberto Gargarella, Pilar Domingo & Theunis Roux, Courts and Social Transformation in New Democracies: An Institutional Voice for the Poor? (Ashgate 2006); David Landau, Political Institutions and Judicial Role in Comparative Constitutional Law, 51 Harv. Intl. L. J. 319 (2010).


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delivery of development in Latin America—and courts are a crucial player in such dynamics. The research focuses on three central ideas: first, the notion of a “regulatory space” (both national and global), and its importance in improving delivery; second, the idea of institutional adaptation, and why deviating from “best practices” may not be such a bad thing after all; and, third, the importance of knowledge and experimentalist governance as a platform for fostering be er governance. The final section concludes the chapter.

Interaction in a Regulatory Space: National and Global Although the diffusion of IRAs is a well-established fact, their outcomes cannot be understood by focusing on agencies as discrete units acting in isolation of other institutions. The challenges that regulation poses to the delivery of essential services can be be er understood if the analytical unit is the space where interaction between institutions takes place. In this regulatory space, institutions are dynamic; they change and adapt to their interactions, defining the regulatory framework that impacts delivery of essential services.

A National Regulatory Space A good way to begin thinking about this regulatory space is to highlight that IRAs do not enter a regulatory vacuum when they are implemented locally. A national ecosystem of institutions and actors is already in place when IRAs are adopted (as they were, for example, in Latin America during the 1990s), and there is some sort of regulation that needs to be adopted, transformed, or replaced through the work of the IRAs. These agencies enter as actors in a space where regulation is already being adopted, discussed, implemented, and rejected. As time passes, some IRAs become the main player in the regulatory field, as seen in some of the countries examined herein. However, these dominant agencies do not completely crowd out the regulatory space; on the contrary, this space includes both the IRAs and other relevant actors, with whom IRAs interact. The notion of a regulatory space was suggested as a reaction to the narrow reading of the regulatory process in terms of a conflict between public authority and private interests. Against this view, the regulatory process can be be er understood as a “space,” where it becomes possible to explore the “complex and shifting relationships between and within organizations at the heart of economic regulation.”11 The key is “to understand the nature of this shared space: the rules of admission, the relations between occupants, and the variations introduced by differences in markets and issue arenas.”12 The image of a regulatory space aptly captures some of the dynamic interactions between IRAs and courts we observed in our research. Most of the 11

Leigh Hancher & Michael Moran, Organizing Regulatory Space in Capitalism, Culture, and Economic Regulation, 271 (Leigh Hancher & Michael Moran ed., Clarendon Press 1989).

12

Id.


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regulatory outcomes we encountered (particularly pertaining to waste management and health regulation in Colombia and environmental regulation in Argentina) were not the product of an isolated IRA making a decision but the result of a set of actors that interacted and, through their interaction, determined the outcome. Understanding the impact of regulation in the delivery of development requires a focus not on IRAs alone but on the regulatory space they inhabit. The notion of a space is useful to think about the way in which regulatory governance is undertaken and experienced in the cases we researched in Latin America. Delivery of essential services may be affected as IRAs compete with other actors or develop efforts to coordinate with or even co-opt competing agencies, a dynamic that has been observed in international relations, transnational business governance, environmental governance, and domestic regulation.13 With the exception of Leigh Hancher and Michael Moran’s early insights, the interplay within regulatory spaces has been mostly overlooked by administrative law scholarship, which has focused on individual agencies and their procedures. Recently, some U.S. scholarship has explored interaction,14 focusing on interagency interaction and coordination as a problem of overlapping legislative delegation.15 In this line of scholarship, courts are outside the shared regulatory space and act through judicial review in order to hinder or foster cooperation.16 Our approach is different; it considers courts not as external to the regulatory space but as actors within it, with the same standing as IRAs. This, of course, has implications for judicial review, which are explored in the last section of the chapter. The Matanza-Riachuelo River basin case, researched by Florencia Delia Lebensohn in Argentina, provides a glimpse of the way in which interactions in the regulatory space may hinder the delivery of a healthy environment in Latin America. The Matanza-Riachuelo River basin is home to Argentina’s largest concentrations of urban poor, housing almost eight million people who live mostly in shantytowns that lack basic infrastructure. The basin is horribly polluted; consequently, diarrhea, breathing problems, skin diseases, and 13

On international relations, see Kenneth W. Abbo , Jessica F. Green, & Robert O. Keohane, Organizational Ecology and Organizational Strategies in World Politics, 13–57 (Harv. Kennedy Sch. Govt. Discussion Papers 2013); on transnational business governance, see Burkard Eberlein et al., Transnational Business Governance Interactions: Conceptualization and Framework for Analysis, 8(1) Regulation & Governance 1–21 (2014); on environmental governance, see Sebastian Oberthür & Thomas Gehring, Institutional Interaction: Ten Years of Scholarly Development in Managing Institutional Complexity: Regime Interplay and Global Environmental Change 25–58 (Sebastian Oberthür & Olav Schram Stokke eds., MIT Press 2011).

14

See Keith Bradley, The Design of Agency Interactions, 111(4) Colum. L. Rev. 745–94 (2011); Jody Freeman & Jim Rossi, Agency Coordination in Shared Regulatory Space, 125 Harv. L. Rev. 1131 (2011).

15

See Jacob E. Gersen, Overlapping and Underlapping Jurisdiction in Administrative Law, 1 S. Ct. Rev. 201–47 (2006).

16

See Freeman & Rossi, supra note 14.


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other health problems are common. Cleanup efforts have been undertaken since the 1960s to no avail, a situation that has been traditionally chalked up to a failure of governance and incoherent regulation. More than 50 sets of rules apply to the river basin, which is under the concurrent jurisdiction of the federal government, the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the government of the Province of Buenos Aires, and the governments of 14 municipalities. The Inter-American Development Bank approved a US$250 million loan in the late 1990s that was never used because governance problems proved to be an insurmountable obstacle.17 Lebensohn reports that, in 2004, a group of neighbors filed a claim for damages based on conditions in the basin. The Supreme Court of Argentina adopted two wide-ranging decisions (in 2006 and 2008), which led to an integrated cleanup plan for the basin. The plan can be seen as an effort by the court to organize a regulatory space left in chaos by the historical failure of traditional agencies. It gave specific directions for the coordination of most of the concerned agencies, culminating in the creation of a new agency, the Autoridad de la Cuenca Matanza-Riachuelo (ACUMAR), something akin to a regulatory joint venture, with the participation of the federal government and the provincial and city governments of Buenos Aires. ACUMAR was structured like an IRA and became the crucial player for implementing the cleanup effort. However, its role cannot be understood in isolation of the court’s intervention, either before or after its establishment in 2006. ACUMAR is constantly in touch with the Supreme Court, which played a big role in its creation and whose stature boosts its legitimacy, and with the federal court, which oversees the implementation of the cleanup efforts and provides a forum for the enforcement of those efforts, imposing fines in cases of noncompliance. This interaction opened new spaces for participation and accountability in Argentina’s environmental regulatory process. The Supreme Court itself allowed for participation in its public sessions as it discussed the cleanup plan (thereby defining a procedure that has since been used in ma ers beyond this case). Moreover, the court also ordered the ombudsman to set up a commission, the Comision de Participacion Social, to receive suggestions in relation to the cleanup plan. This body is composed of local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which distribute updated information and have standing to file administrative challenges before ACUMAR in ma ers related to the plan. As discussed later, a similar pa ern was found in the Colombian case of health care, where the Constitutional Court held public hearings, which were widely a ended, and required other institutions involved to provide for 17

See Decree No. 145/98, by which the Executive Branch approved a model contract to be entered into between the National Bank of Argentina and the Inter-American Development Bank to receive the US$250 million loan to clean the Matanza-Riachuelo River basin. The contract was signed on Feb. 5, 1998, between the Argentine state and the Inter-American Development Bank. See Florencia Delia Lebensohn, Regulatory Role of the Supreme Court of Argentina: The Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin Case (on file with author).


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spaces of participation and notice-and-comment procedures in their regulatory processes. The Matanza-Riachuelo River basin case evidences the existence of a regulatory space where IRAs act and a possible role that courts could play in facilitating essential services. In Argentina, the regulatory space was densely populated by numerous institutions with overlapping mandates, which proved to be an obstacle for effectively solving the pollution problem. The Supreme Court thus entered to organize the regulatory space and, by doing so, it opened spaces of participation and accountability. The court, though, triggered the creation of a new agency. That is one more actor in the regulatory space that has to interact with existing agencies, which in turn will adapt their strategies, forcing ACUMAR to adapt its own. Interactions in the regulatory space are in this sense decidedly nonlinear: the shape of the regulatory space changes as interactions occur and creates loops that influence the actors, their behavior, and cognitive frameworks.

A Global Regulatory Space The regulatory space that IRAs inhabit is mostly circumscribed by national borders; IRAs interact mostly with other national institutions, and their impacts are felt within nation-states. That was the case in Colombia, where domestic IRAs interacted with domestic courts in order to solve social problems, thus affecting the regulatory process. But some interactions may also involve international institutions, such as international development banks or international courts. These interactions are part of an emergent “global administrative space,” which has been defined as “a space, distinct from the space of inter-state relations governed by international law and the domestic regulatory space governed by domestic administrative law, although encompassing elements of each.”18 Some aspects of regulatory governance in Latin America have been situated in the global regulatory space, particularly in connection with investment arbitration and the human rights to water.19 Our research confirms the importance of this space beyond the nation-state. In the Matanza-Riachuelo River basin, the Supreme Court expressly tied the monitoring of ACUMAR’s performance to the use of international 18

See Benedict Kingsbury, Richard B. Stewart, & Niko Krisch, The Emergence of Global Administrative Law, 68 L. & Contemporary Problems 15–61 (2005).

19

On investment arbitration, see Andréa Rocha Postiga, A emergência do Direito Administrativo Global como ferramenta de regulação transnacional do investimento estrangeiro direito, 10(1) Revista de Direito Internacional (2013), doi:10.5102/rdi.v10i1.2369; Nicolás M. Perrone, Los tratados bilaterales de inversión y el arbitraje internacional: ¿En dirección al mejor funcionamiento de las instituciones domésticas? 17 Revista de Derecho 63–88 (2012); Benedict Kingsbury & Stephan Schill, Investor-State Arbitration as Governance: Fair and Equitable Treatment, Proportionality, and the Emerging Global Administrative Law (N.Y.U. Pub. L. & Leg. Theory Working Papers, Sept. 2009), h p://lsr.nellco.org/nyu_plltwp/146. On water rights, see Rene Urueña, The Rise of the Constitutional Regulatory State in Colombia: The Case of Water Governance, 6(3) Regulation & Governance 282–99 (2012).


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indicators, which fostered the adoption of quantitative instruments developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), which became crucial to ACUMAR’s task. More important, though, was the role of the World Bank. Lebensohn writes that, soon after the 2008 decision, Argentina secured from the World Bank one of the largest loans to a Latin American country for environmental purposes: US$1 billion. The grant was directly geared to boosting the cleanup effort by ACUMAR and others. The role of the World Bank in shaping interactions in the emerging global regulatory space cannot be understated. One part of the story is, obviously, financial clout: the Bank is in a privileged position to steer resources to particular players, thus boosting one actor and not the other. In this case, the Bank supported the Supreme Court’s role in organizing the Argentinean regulatory space and put its funds behind ACUMAR. Perhaps as important as its financial muscle is the Bank’s epistemic clout: its intervention lends expert authority to some of the players in the regulatory space. In this case, the Bank’s expertise lent its aura of technocratic expertise to ACUMAR, which badly needed it in order to become an important player in an already populated regulatory space. Most crucially, the Bank helped define the “problem” to be tackled: the overall shape of the regulatory space, both domestic and global. The Bank’s role here was to underscore that the problem was one of governance (and not of, say, availability of technology or of technical capacity), hence the strategy was to boost the institutional capacity of ACUMAR. This exercise of epistemic framing was important in the process of improving delivery of essential services in that it created the conceptual infrastructure that will guide the decision-making process in the future.

Policy Transfers, “Best Practices,” and Deviations IRAs are not merely “transplanted” or their policies “transferred” from their original site (usually the Anglo-Saxon world) into a new environment (in this case, Latin America). The trajectory of independent regulatory agencies examined suggests that institutions that are “transplanted” are then transformed by contextual interactions, creating doubt as to whether, over time, the very idea of “transfer” is still useful. The Matanza-Riachuelo River basin case is a clear example of this dynamic. ACUMAR was created with the sole purpose of regulating and managing the cleanup project, but it had an unclear policy goal (beyond, of course, the general objective of cleaning up the basin). Its ideological and technical bent remained unclear as it started operating: was it a strong proenvironment agency that would use its legitimacy to prioritize the cleanup effort over all other (economic) interests? Or was it an agency more akin to a public utilities regulator, concerned with economic efficiency and cost recovery? As it turned out, ACUMAR was neither. Its emphasis changed as it interacted with other actors in the regulatory space—from focusing on the environment, to considering costs, and then back to the environment. This


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finding differs from the idea of policy transfer, which implies that the “policy” remains for the most part unchanged as it is transferred.20 To be sure, the idea of “transfer” does acknowledge that the policy must “take root” and deal with its context, but it frames this as a problem of effectiveness; the policy’s internal rationale remains untouched. The same can be said of literature on transplants and “legal origins,” and the prescriptive agenda a ached thereto,21 which has had some influence on thinking within multilateral institutions working in the development field.22 The concept of transplant assumes that law is an instrument that can be used to solve certain kinds of problems in varying contexts. Again, the most sophisticated versions of this literature acknowledge that the effectiveness of these transplants may require that the context be considered, but the instrument itself is not transformed as it is used. The focus remains on the IRA as an isolated and static actor that adopts regulation based on its expertise and that is required to consider the impact of its regulation on the wider context but remains oblivious of the effects of the wider context on itself. In contrast, our research suggests that the internal rationale of some IRAs does change as their policies are implemented over the years, and courts have an important role in this process. The case of waste management in Bogotá, researched by Carolina Moreno, provides an example. Colombia is a standard case of expertise-based regulation for public utilities, adopted by IRAs established in the 1990s. In the case of Bogotá, waste management was arranged, also in the 1990s, through the concession of exclusive service areas to private providers. The creation of these exclusive areas required the approval of the national IRA; once approved, the municipality’s independent agency signed the concession contracts with private providers and set the tariff structure through the contract. In doing this, both the national IRA and the municipality’s agency followed an efficiency-based rationale, in which the main considerations were cost recovery and universal coverage. As Moreno reports, this regulatory framework overlapped with the human rights of informal waste pickers (recicladores), who traditionally have earned a living by going through the city’s garbage containers. The tariff structure failed to recognize a cost associated with their work. Moreover, it established a duty on consumers: to dispose of waste using private concessionaries (mainly through closed garbage containers, which could be picked up by trucks), thus pu ing waste pickers out of business. This conflict ended up before the Constitutional Court, which ordered that the tariff structure both take into consideration the human rights of waste pickers and, eventually, strike down the whole bidding process—not because of disputes related 20

David P. Dolowi & David Marsh, Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy-Making, 13(1) Governance 5–23 (2000).

21

Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, & Andrei Shleifer, The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins, 46(2) J. Econ. Lit. 285–332 (2008).

22

Alvaro Santos, The World Bank’s Uses of the “Rule of Law” Promise in Economic Development, in The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal 253–300 (David M. Trubek & Alvaro Santos ed., Cambridge U. Press 2006).


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to the contract but because the tariff structure underlying the bidding process failed to consider the human rights of informal waste pickers.23 The trajectory of the regulatory agency in this case suffered important changes. As it interacted with the Constitutional Court for almost a decade, both the national and the municipal IRAs struggled to include the language of human rights in their decision making. The Constitutional Court spoke in deontological terms, requiring the regulator to consider the right to work of waste pickers and, even more complex, their right to a “vital minimum,” that is, a constitutional construct that imposes on the state the duty to provide for the minimum material needs of its citizens so as to guarantee their dignity. The regulatory agencies, in contrast, had a fairly functionalist view of rights and the law; their role was to create a predictable and stable environment for the investor and to respect property and contractual rights. The clash of rationalities was imminent, but it did not lead to paralysis. The independent agencies shifted their discourse and developed a different kind of regulation but still maintained the overall structure of privatization and concessions. Interestingly, even after the recent political upheaval in Bogotá concerning waste management, when a left-wing mayor tried to terminate the concession contracts, the basic tariff structure remained in place. The deep grammar of regulation that resulted from the interaction between the IRAs and the Constitutional Court, which mixed elements of both standard efficiency-seeking regulatory practice and human rights, became the new regulatory common sense in the country. The fact that an institution (in this case, IRAs) needs to adapt to its context seems intuitive enough. However, the dynamics of change and adaptation seem foreign to the traditional reading of IRAs and their role in the delivery of essential services, as they continue to be portrayed as static actors with univocal rationality that “travels” across the world. Part of the problem is the idea of deviation from what are termed “best practices.” As seen earlier, the logic underlying IRAs is one of credible commitments, which in turn requires a certain level of independence from political pressures. Interactions of the kind described here can be read as a deviation from these best practices. The fact that a Constitutional Court intervenes in the regulatory process can be read not as an exercise in adaptation but as a deviation from the required independence that makes for good regulation. There is a specific meaning a ached to a “good” regulatory system, which can be easily consulted in the World Bank’s Handbook for Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems.24 If a regulatory framework deviates from this standard, it is “wrong” and needs to be “fixed.” 23

Corte Constitucional Colombia, Sentencia T-724, M.P. Jaime Araujo Renteria (2003), h p://corte -constitucional.vlex.com.co/vid/-43620288;] Corte Constitucional Colombia; Auto 275, M.P. Juan Carlos Henao (2011), h p://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2010/T-616-10.htm.

24

Ashley C. Brown, Jon Stern, & Bernard William Tenenbaum, Handbook for Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems (World Bank 2006).


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This prescriptive mode is often problematic, because there is the possibility of normative disagreement with the model of the state that underlies regulatory good practices, as embodied in instruments such as the Handbook, that is, the idea of the state as an interest-driven actor that should remain in the background as regulator rather than play an active role as service provider.25 If such disagreement occurs, then best practices become impositions of multilateral institutions, which then trigger a political debate well known in Latin America. Interestingly, though, the Colombian case study suggests that, in the case of regulatory governance, the disagreement seldom occurs at that level of “hot” ideological politics. Perhaps due to the amazing expansion of IRAs in Latin America, both defenders of best practices and those who resist them assume that the rationale underlying IRAs remains unchanged as time passes. Their rationale is seen as a “fact,” which one embraces or rejects but never tries to change. However, our research suggests that this is not necessarily the case. Even the basic (and admi edly debatable) understanding of the state changes as IRAs live out their lives in their national context. Sometimes it changes toward recognizing a more active role for the state, as was the case in the Colombian example, or it could change otherwise. As IRAs adapt to their environment, their inner rationale also adapts, and this transforms regulatory governance. The same could be observed in the Matanza-Riachuelo River basin case, where there is clear agreement on the overall goal of environmental improvement. However, this goal triggered ever-changing regulatory strategies on behalf of ACUMAR, some of which reflect diverging ideological commitments, some more market-oriented than others. But this is hardly a case of mere deviation from best practices. It implies a complex process of interaction and adaptation that may lead to different courses of action to achieve the goal of an appropriate delivery of essential services, such as appropriate waste management or a clean environment. From this perspective, the experience of judiciary involvement in the cases researched in Colombia and Argentina suggests that there is a wide range of experimentation that is possible in regulatory governance, where institutions are players that repeatedly shape each other. Beyond the top-down approach of best practices, the trajectory of IRAs seems also to involve adaptation and learning from other institutions following a different rationale. This may suggest that a way to improve delivery of services is to go beyond best practices, and to gear the interaction and adaptation that is already occurring to a more purposeful process of experimentation.

Experimentalism, Expertise, and Interactions Much of the dynamic described in the previous two sections can be thought of as instances of experimentalist governance, where an ultimate goal is set and autonomy is given to relatively independent agents to use different means 25

Megan Donaldson & Benedict Kingsbury, Ersa Normativity or Public Law in Global Governance: The Hard Case of International Prescriptions for National Infrastructure Regulation, 14(1) Chi. J. Intl. L. 1–51 (2013).


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to achieve that goal, subject to constant review and deliberation.26 Confirming the need to go beyond best practices, our research suggests that this is an important angle when thinking about regulatory governance in Latin America. However, it still seems unclear whether this is an actual emergence of experimentalist governance in the region. In this respect, the case of waste management in Bogotá stands in sharp contrast with the Matanza-Riachuelo River experience. Interaction between the Colombian judiciary and IRAs seems ill-suited for an experimentalist description; while the interaction indeed occurred and had impacts, it was not part of a purposive process of adaptation and experimentation toward an ultimate goal. Rather, it seemed to be an ad hoc process, with no clear ultimate goal and no organized system of review and deliberation. In this sense, while the waste management case does evidence a process of IRA adaptation triggered by interaction with a court, this process was not crucially driven by iterative sharing of knowledge. Instead, the injection of deontological values (such as human rights) into the functional contractual framework of concessions seems more an instance of bricolage, that is, the tinkering with the deep grammar of neoliberal regulatory governance to achieve new norms, without a notion of the causal pathways that would lead these new legal u erances to achieve the overall policy goal of a be er waste management.27 In contrast, the Argentinean case suggests a more structured process of experimentalist governance, where interaction in the regulatory space seems geared to better knowledge, which would enhance ACUMAR’s effectiveness. The process implies the adoption of a broad goal (the cleanup), and of specific metrics (the UN’s ECLAC indicators), under which the performance of the “autonomous” entity (ACUMAR) would be monitored in consultation with relevant stakeholders, who participated through the spaces opened by the ombudsman, following orders by the Supreme Court. Even if the cases investigated provide uncertain evidence of an actual turn in Latin America toward experimentalist governance, such examples do underscore the importance of knowledge production and diffusion in regulatory governance in the region. Cognitive pathways develop, as knowledge flows between IRAs and other institutions that populate the regulatory space, transforming the way in which issues are framed and understood. To be sure, cognitive frameworks are important in general political processes,28 but they seem particularly relevant in the case of regulatory governance, where techni-

26

Charles F. Sabel & Jonathan Zeitlin, Learning from Difference: The New Architecture of Experimentalist Governance in the EU, 14(3) European L. J. 271–327 (2008); Charles F. Sabel & Jonathan Zeitlin, Experimentalist Governance, in The Oxford Handbook of Governance, 169–86 (David Levi-Faur ed., Oxford U. Press 2012).

27

Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, Nature of Human Society Series (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1966).

28

Robert D. Benford & David A. Snow, Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment, 26(1) Annual Rev. Sociology 611–39 (2000).


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cal expertise plays a key role in shaping the issues, suggesting causal relations, and providing legitimacy for IRAs and other actors in the regulatory space. The important role of knowledge can be seen in the case study on Colombian health care developed by Maria Prada and Santiago Rojas. In 2006, after several years of massive failure in the implementation of a new health care system by regulators, the Colombian Constitutional Court stepped in, adopting an ambitious decision aimed at solving some of the system’s structural problems. The problem, however, was that the court stepped into a regulatory space with a steep learning curve; health care is a very technical field that had been dominated by economists since liberalization occurred in the early1990s. The complexities of the health care system were not lost to the court, which adopted a mammoth four-hundred-page decision that tried to find strategic bo lenecks in the system and gave specific orders to dozens of governmental institutions to fix them. Foreseeing difficulties with the implementation of such a wide-ranging decision, the court implemented a complex monitoring procedure, where agencies constantly had to report back to the court on their improvements. During this process, the court oscillated between judicial activism in the form of direct regulation (mainly in the 2006 decision) and a more restrained tone, adopted during the monitoring process, deferent to the expertise of more-established players in the regulatory space. The institutional form of this dynamic mirrors that of the Matanza-Riachuelo case, as the Colombia court tried here to establish a structure of agency autonomy and monitoring, closely resembling ideas of experimentalist governance. The court would thus rely on the expertise of other agencies in the regulatory space to find the most appropriate means to achieve a given goal, but it still defined the goals to be achieved. This structure required a reliable system of monitoring, which the court tried to develop by establishing the parameters for acceptable indicators, which would in turn be adopted by the regulatory agencies themselves, and then reported back to the court. Highlighting the global dimension of this process, the standard that the court adopted for this purpose was not national but international: the basic framework of health indicators developed by the InterAmerican Commission of Human Rights, which became part of the health care regulatory space where the Colombian court acted. As noted earlier, a similar pa ern was observed in the Argentinean case, where the Supreme Court used international indicators (in that case, the UN’s ECLAC) to structure a credible system of monitoring. The role of knowledge and expertise in the process of monitoring is remarkable. In sharp contrast with its strong (“activist”) original decision, the follow-up process shows a court open to learn from the agencies it interacts with, a move that may point both to a more deferential a itude toward the technical expertise of these agencies and to the relative lack of political power of the court. Moreover, this a itude also applied to “experts” in civil society. The court held open hearings, where it invited NGOs to participate, but, more interestingly, it also created an Expert Commission: a standing commi ee of


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about 30 people, chosen by the court, consisting mainly of NGO and private insurers’ representatives as well as some academics. The commission’s task was to enhance the court’s technical knowledge by discussing the challenges faced by the health care system in implementing the court’s structural injunctions and possible alternative means to comply. The commission met in Constitutional Court building, with court law clerks se ing the agenda and moderating the discussion among the experts. Afterward, a summary of the debate and the conclusions were sent to the justices in charge of the monitoring process. An interesting development occurred during this process, triggered by the interaction of courts and regulatory agencies. Much of the legitimacy of IRAs is derived from their “expert” status, as opposed to the “political” opportunism of nonindependent institutions and of Congress. The court’s intervention seems also to place the onus on the “technical” side of the equation, this time, though, based on a different technical expertise: law. However, the court also creates mechanisms to draw from other technical knowledge and tries to include it in its own process of monitoring—not as a binding order, to be sure, but as a general framework of discussion. The goal of this “expert” consultation seems different from public hearings, which the court also held. The idea here seems less to provide voice to stakeholders than to tap into expertise that the court seems to lack. This layout points to a form of participation in regulatory governance that is different from notice-and-comment procedures and other similar participatory arrangements. It is hard to estimate the exact influence of this process in the final outcome. The court did not refer to this process in its further decisions, and the “Commission of Experts” was not convened again. The very existence of this process, however, underscores the importance of informal expert consensus in the delivery of essential services in Latin America. In much the same way that best practices are often the result of a technocratic consensus among experts who define the vocabulary being deployed by IRAs in domestic se ings, the interaction of such agencies with courts seems also influenced by the role of expert knowledge. The flow of such knowledge can be be er understood in terms of the global regulatory space. It is developed in sites beyond a particular nationstate, such as the World Bank in the case of the Handbook for Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems, or the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in the case of health indicators, and is then deployed transnationally in different domestic se ings. Improving voice and accountability, especially in regard to this specific aspect of the global regulatory space and its impact on the delivery of essential services, remains challenging despite its importance.29 Recent scholarship has tried to frame similar exercises of power through information as expressions of “international public authority,” thus subject 29

Megan Donaldson & Benedict Kingsbury, Ersa Normativity or Public Law in Global Governance: The Hard Case of International Prescriptions for National Infrastructure Regulation, 14(1) Chi. J. Intl. L. 1–51 (2013).


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to requirements of public law or of global administrative law.30 Opening new spaces of participation in the regulatory process risks expanding the influence of experts, whose opinions could outweigh the opinion of nonexperts; in the Colombian case, the “Commission of Experts” seemed to have more direct access to the decision-making process. Moreover, the question of accountability also poses challenges: should scholars think of expertise as a source of authority in the global regulatory space? How can they start thinking about accountability in that context?31

Conclusion: Courts and Agencies as Institutions, Actors, and Spaces of Deliberation Our research posits a regulatory space where different institutions interact. This interaction occurs at three different levels. On a first level, private parties (e.g., consumers and service providers) are actors that are regulated by these institutions; they have exogenous preferences, and courts and IRAs are constraints to their interactions; they are “institutions” in the sense that they embody and enact rules of the game that private actors must follow.32 This is the standard view of regulation and was observed in our research. For instance, in the waste disposal case, the central point was to create regulatory incentives so that informal waste pickers could continue doing their job. The IRA first had to adopt some command-and-control regulation in order to lead private suppliers to open a space for this to happen; it then had to force the discussion on certain contractual clauses to achieve this goal. At this level, interinstitutional interaction presents certain kinds of challenges and opportunities for both private actors and institutions. For private actors, institutional interplay opens a wide range of possible strategic behaviors by adopting cross-institutional political strategies. Forum shopping is a possibility, as was the case in Bogotá, where waste pickers went to the Constitutional Court to get what the IRA was denying. Private parties may also engage in fostering the creation of a new institution (such as ACUMAR, in Argentina) to trigger interaction with existing institutions that may benefit the private actor. Moreover, private actors may seek to trigger internal insti30

On public law, see Armin von Bogdandy & Ma hias Goldmann, Taming and Framing Indicators: A Legal Reconstruction of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Governance by Indicators: Global Power through Quantification and Rankings, 52–85 (Benedict Kingsbury ed., Oxford U. Pr. 2012); on global administrative law, see Sabino Cassese & Lorenzo Casini. 2012. Public Regulation of Global Indicators in Governance by Indicators: Global Power through Quantification and Rankings 465–74 (Benedict Kingsbury et al. ed., Oxford U. Press).

31

See Rene Urueña, The Rise of the Constitutional Regulatory State in Colombia: The Case of Water Governance, 6(3) Regulation & Governance 282–99 (2010); David Kennedy, Challenging Expert Rule: The Politics of Global Governance, 27 Sydney L. Rev. 5 (2005).

32

Douglass C. North, Institutions Ma er, Econ. History (1994), h p://128.118.178.162/eps/eh /papers/9411/9411004.pdf.


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tutional change by using interaction, as when Colombian health care patients used litigation in order to change internal procedures of health regulatory agencies. Finally, though we did not observe this, it is possible to expect that private actors may also seek to create strategic inconsistency, by seeking interaction between institutions that lead to inconsistent results. For institutions, the main challenge at this level is effectiveness. Interinstitutional interplay may hinder the effectiveness of regulation directed toward private actors. In the waste management example, the IRA adopted a set of rules whose impact was undermined by the intervention of a court. However, interaction could also bolster effectiveness, by lending legitimacy to a weak institution (as was the case of health care in Colombia) or by providing an enforcement mechanism that the IRA lacked, as the example of ACUMAR in Argentina shows. At a second level, institutions themselves are actors. As such, their interactions can be driven by strategic behavior as well: institutions can compete with each other, cooperate, or end up co-opting or dominating other institutions in the regulatory space. Our research suggests at least two ways to think about this scenario. First, IRAs behave as actors, and courts set the rules for their interaction. That was the case in Argentina, where several institutions with overlapping mandates behaved strategically and failed to solve an environmental challenge. The Supreme Court consequently stepped in to develop rules of coordination. Second, a court can also be one of the actors behaving strategically: the Colombian Constitutional Court competed with other agencies in the health care case, successfully leading many of them in following its regulatory scheme. This la er situation brings up the question of the role of judicial review in the global regulatory space. As seen earlier, most literature in regulatory governance situates courts either as enforcers of property and contract rights or as a limit to the power of independent agencies. The case studies examined in this chapter suggest a different landscape. Courts seem not to be external to the regulatory space; rather, they appear to be actors within it. They develop specific regulations, compete with other regulatory agencies, and seem to be in need of legitimacy. This need for legitimacy may have implications on the institutional design of judicial review in Latin America, which has been traditionally expansive. Possible normative outcomes could include creating constitutional frameworks that restrain courts in their new regulatory role, or the exact opposite: embracing the role of courts as actors in the regulatory space, and developing constitutional frameworks that set the conditions for a wholly new form of regulation resulting from the interaction between courts and independent agencies. How would regulatory reform and judicial review be transformed if the rule (and not the exception) was active involvement of the judiciary in regulation? At this second level, where institutions behave as actors, interaction also triggers interesting processes of learning and adaptation. The rationale of IRAs does not remain unchanged, as the waste management case showed.


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Interaction can be structured in such a way as to take advantage of this learning process: some of the efforts discussed in this chapter (in Argentina, for instance, and in the health care case in Colombia) seem close to experimentalist views of governance. Such possible influence of experimentalist governance is in stark contrast when the focus is on best practices, but it may suggest an interesting range of possibilities to enhance delivery of essential services to the poorest. Instead of focusing on IRAs as stand-alone units and on the ways that things should be done, scholars could think in terms of interaction and how it triggers learning and experimentation. One way to make this approach operational is to think about institutional design that opens spaces for interactional learning. Some of the examples explored here, though, seem to do that on an ad hoc basis, without purposefully highlighting the learning aspect of the regulatory interaction. From this perspective, multilateral financial institutions may have an important contribution to make. As seen, much of adapting and learning is based on knowledge. In fact, the very definition of the problems that need to be solved is influenced by issues of framing and cognitive path dependencies. While funds for institutional functioning are crucial (e.g., the World Bank’s involvement with ACUMAR), much of the regulatory heavy lifting is done under the form of informal expert networks, often influenced by state-ofthe-art knowledge produced by multilateral institutions. This is an angle of the delivery of essential services that seems important to explore, both in its promises and in its challenges of accountability and participation. At the third level, regulatory regimes may also interact. Although this idea may seem peculiar from the perspective of law and development scholarship, it has proved fruitful in international law and international relations.33 Global regimes, featuring a specialized set of norms, a distinct institutional architecture (including courts), a distinct epistemic community, and a particular rationale, can be seen as independent enough to “collide” with other specialized global regimes.34 We observed some hints of this possibility. The waste management experience can be seen as part of Colombian institutional politics, but also as a Colombian expression of a more global interaction between international human rights and the rules of investment protection. While this approach is less conducive to specific proposals of domestic institutional reform, it would seem that improving delivery of essential services to the poor requires that scholars, activists, and development experts widen their angle to think also of delivery in terms of global governance.

33

See Mar i Koskenniemi, Hegemonic Regimes, in Regime Interaction in International Law: Facing Fragmentation, 305–23 (Margaret Young ed., Cambridge U. Press 2012); Gunther Teubner & Peter Korth, Two Kinds of Legal Pluralism: Collision of Transnational in the Double Fragmentation of the World Society, in Regime Interaction in International Law: Facing Fragmentation (Margaret Young ed., Cambridge U. Press 2012); Robert O. Keohane & David G. Victor, The Regime Complex for Climate Change, 9(1) Perspectives Pol. 7–23 (2011).

34

Gunther Teubner & Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Regime-Collisions: The Vain Search for Legal Unity in the Fragmentation of Global Law, Mich. J. Intl. L. 999 (2004).



PART VI

Anticorruption and Stolen Assets Recovery



17

The New Brazilian Anticorruption Law Federation Challenges and Institutional Roles WILLIAM COELHO

AND

LETÍCIA BARBABELA

After a long period of military dictatorship, Brazil’s democracy established a new constitutional order. The 1988 Constitution laid the foundation for governance and anticorruption strategies that could achieve the objectives specified in Article 3: to build a free, just, and solidaristic society; to guarantee national development; to eradicate poverty and substandard living conditions; to reduce social and regional inequalities; and to promote the well-being of all, without prejudice as to origin, race, sex, color, age, or any other form of discrimination. Corruption has plagued society since the earliest of times, and as history has advanced, corruption seems to have become more resistant to preventive measures. Today, corruption is a billion-dollar business that consumes funds intended for health care, education, and infrastructure, and impedes the realization of Brazil’s constitutional objectives. A study conducted in 2010 by the Federation of Industries of São Paulo State calculated that the cost of corruption in Brazil in 2008 was between 1.38 percent and 2.3 percent of the country’s GDP, or between R$41.5 billion and R$69.1 billion.1 Over the past decade, the Brazilian Congress has undertaken a series of legislative reforms and promulgated new laws enhancing Brazil’s anticorruption legal framework. Even the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Working Group on Bribery2 recognized Brazil’s efforts to implement the International Anti-Bribery Convention and recommendations. Nevertheless, Brazil still scores very low in anticorruption rankings such as the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators. This chapter first explains the national context in which the new anticorruption laws have appeared, focusing on the peculiarities of the Brazilian Federation model and the existing anticorruption legal framework, including the features of the new Anticorruption Law, Act 12,846/2013. The chapter then clarifies the roles of the private sector, the Office of the Comptroller General, and the Ministério Público. The chapter concludes that the Anticorruption 1

See the Federation of Industries of São Paulo State website at h p://www.fiesp.com.br/indices -pesquisas-e-publicacoes/relatorio-corrupcao-custos-economicos-e-propostas-de-combate/.

2

See OECD Working Group on Bribery, Brazil: Phase 2. Follow-up Report on the Implementation of the Phase 2 Recommendations 3 (2010), h p://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/anti-brib eryconvention/45518279.pdf.

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Law is a major paradigm shift in addressing corruption in Brazil, not least because it demands changes in the way that both the public and the private sectors deal with anticorruption challenges.

The Challenges of the Brazilian Federation Model Dynamic political and institutional arrangements shape the use of power; understanding federalism as a way to share power and responsibility is critical to comprehending the roles of national institutions. It is not possible to advocate a pure or authentic model of federalism. Research shows a broad range of federation frameworks and meanings, creating a colorful kaleidoscope of experiences and structures for each and every federalized nation, based on geopolitical factors, political leadership, and diverse historical legacies. Contextual and circumstantial flexibility is inherent to a federal system, and historically the pendulum has swung between more centralized and, at times, decentralized governance. The complex influence of factors on the formation of federations is summarized in James Bryce’s3 notions of centrifugal and centripetal forces on political constitutions. Centripetal forces act on independent states, which merge to form one large sovereign state through an agreement or a treaty after partially giving up their sovereignty (segregative formation). In the United States,4 for example, the township was organized before the county, the county before the state, the state before the union. Conversely, centrifugal pressures impel unitary states to break down and disperse into several states linked by a federation (aggregative formation). Moreover, scholars generally recognize two levels of federal government: national and state.5 On February 24, 1891, the day of the promulgation of the first republican constitution in Brazil, political institutions were modeled on the American federal system, based on the “compound republic” ideas of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.6 But unlike the U.S. experience, Brazil’s federalism was the result of centripetal forces (segregative formation) that,

3

James Bryce, Studies in History and Jurisprudence (Clarendon 1901).

4

See Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 1, 61–81 (Henry Reeve Henry transl., J. C. Spencer ed., J. & H. G. Langley 1841).

5

C. Friederich, Trends of Federalism in Theory and Practice (Pall Mall 1998); M. Burgess, Comparative Federalism: Theory and Practice (Routledge 2006); D. Elazar, Federalism: An Overview (HSRC 1995); E. L. Gibson, Federalism and Democracy in Latin America (Johns Hopkins U. Press 2004); V. A. Earle, Federalism: Infinite Variety in Theory and Practice (F. E. Peacock 1968); Ivo D. Duchacek, Comparative Federalism: The Territorial Dimension of Politics (U. Press Am. 1987).

6

A. Hamilton, J. Madison, & J. Jay, The Federalist: A Collection of Essays WriĴen in Favor of The New Constitution, as Agreed upon by The Federal Convention (H. B. Dawson ed., Morrisania 1864).


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exceptionally, recognized three levels within a symmetrical federal government: the union, the states, and the municipalities.7 In short, the municipalities, together with the states, the Federal District (Brasília), and the union,8 compose the federal entities in Brazil. Each municipality has administrative and political autonomy and its own executive and legislative branches; the municipal taxes, laws, and institutions tend to vary.9 Municipalities occupy a unique position in the Brazilian Federation.10 According to Anwar Shah, a World Bank specialist in fiscal federalism, “municipal governments in Brazil . . . should be the envy of all governments in [the] developing (or even advanced nations) world.” Similarly, another Brazilian scholar, J. A. de O. Baracho, states that the “municipalism, with its strong prestige in Constitutional order, strengthens the ties between state and community, enhancing planning and applying social policies to foster greater interaction between federal and local government.”11 The Brazilian federal model shaped the internalization of international anticorruption mechanisms. Because municipalities are considered federal entities in Brazil, each municipal branch has the same authority as a state or the union to use anticorruption mechanisms. Thus, all of these federal entities have the power to apply fines to companies or strike deferred prosecution agreements, for example. Therefore, unifying the agenda of the numerous colegitimates is a challenge to the implementation of the new Anticorruption Law.

Taking Regulation Seriously Before examining the perspectives of the new anticorruption law itself, a brief look at Brazilian history in terms of anticorruption legislation is in order. During President Getúlio Vargas’s administration, Brazil’s 1940 Penal Code (Decree-Law 2,848/1940) dedicated a full chapter to offenses against public administration, with a range of situations envisaged, including 14

7

According to Article 1 of the Brazilian Constitution: The Federative Republic of Brazil, formed by the indissoluble union of the states and municipalities and of the federal district, is a legal democratic state and is founded on: I – sovereignty; II – citizenship; III – the dignity of the human person; IV – the social values of labor and of the free enterprise; and V – political pluralism.

8

The federal district has both municipality and state competences; therefore, it is not considered a federation-level entity here.

9

Otherwise, municipalities would have no judiciary power and no public prosecutors. For municipal ma ers, state’s judges and public prosecutors are entitled to act.

10

See J. A. L. Sampaio, O Município no Direito Comparado, in Vinte Anos da Constituição Federal de 1988 661–87 (Cláudio Pereira de Souza Neto, Daniel Sarmento, & Gustavo Binenbojm eds., Lumen Juris 2009).

11

A. Shah, The New Federalism in Brazil 14 (PRE Working Paper Series, World Bank 1990); J. A. de O. Baracho, O Principio da Subsidiariedade: Conceito e Evolucao, 200 Revista de Direito Administrativo 25 (Apr.–June 1995).


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articles12 for public officials’ misconduct13 and 10 articles14 for ordinary citizen’s corrupt acts. Articles 316, 317 and 33315 define specific corruption offenses in the Penal Code, including official misconduct, where a public official demands an unlawful advantage16 or practices active or passive bribery.17 In general, any payment or advantage requested, solicited, or received by a public official, whether promised or offered, is against the law, regardless of the value of the payment or advantage. During the 1960s, the Tax Evasion Law (Act 4,729/1965) established the falsification of accounting documents as a criminal offense, and Decree-Law 201/1967 defined a series of acts related to abuse of office by mayors and council members as misconduct and established sanctions for those acts. At the very end of the dictatorial regime, Act 7,492/1986, which regulates crimes against the Brazilian financial system, came into force. Other than these rules, most of the relevant anticorruption legislation was passed under the new constitution.

12

Arts. 312–36 of the Penal Code.

13

Brazil adopted a broad concept of “public official” for criminal law purposes: Art. 327: For the purposes of criminal law, anyone who, even though temporarily or unpaid, performs a public job, position or function is considered to be a public official. Para. 1. Anyone who performs a public job, or holds a function in a para-state body or who works for a service-providing company hired or contracted to carry out any typical activity in the Public Administration is also considered to be a public official. Para. 2. The penalty is increased by 1/3 (one third) if the offender on the crimes established at this Chapter holds a function in a commi ee, steering board or advisory organ of a governmental entity or of an entity owned by the government.

14

Arts. 328–37 of the Penal Code.

15

“Concussão,” according to art. 316: “Demanding an improper advantage, for oneself or for another, directly or indirectly, even when out of his/her duties (functions) or before assuming his/her duties (functions) but because of them. Penalty – deprivation of liberty from 2 (two) to 8 (eight) years and fine.” “Passive corruption,” according to art. 317: “Requesting or receiving an improper advantage for oneself or for another person, directly or indirectly, even if outside or prior to assuming the public office, but due to such function, or accepting a promise of such an advantage. Penalty – deprivation of liberty from 2 (two) up to 8 (eight) years and fine.” “Active corruption,” according to art. 333: “Offering or promising an improper advantage to a public official, in order for him to conduct, to omit or to delay an official act. Penalty – deprivation of liberty from 2 (two) to 12 (twelve) years and fine. Sole Paragraph – The sentence is increased by 1/3 (one third) if in order to get the advantage or to follow the promise, the public official holds back or omits an official act or practices that act breaking his official duties.”

16

In the Brazilian Penal Code, this criminal offense is called “concussão.”

17

In the Brazilian Penal Code, this criminal offense is called “active” and “passive” corruption, the former being the demanding side and the la er the supplying side.


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The “Law on Administrative Improbity” (Act 8,429/1992) is an important piece of anticorruption legislation, regulating both civil and administrative infractions. This law describes in Articles 9, 10, and 11 a series of actions that, if practiced by public officials, are subject to penalties. These articles are divided among acts concerning illicit enrichment of public officials, squandering of public assets, and offenses against the principles of public administration. Anyone who induces or contributes to an act of improbity or who benefits from such an act, directly or indirectly, is subject to punishment under the law, regardless of whether an individual or a legal entity commi ed the act. Even if the public official is the recipient of the money, anyone who took part in the official’s enrichment is also liable. Inasmuch as this law has a civil nature and provides civil sanctions, it may be applied to both individuals and legal entities. The Public Procurement Act (Act 8,666/1993) established rules about public procurement and contains provisions on both criminal and civil penalties regarding procurement and bidding fraud. Complementary Act 135/2010, which amends Complementary Act 34/1990 (the “Law of Ineligibilities”), was the result of a people’s initiative. This was a bill signed by over 1 million voters to increase the anticorruption liability of political candidates. Pursuant to the so-called Clean Record Law, any politician who has been impeached or who has resigned to avoid impeachment, or any politician who has been convicted by a judicial courts will be disqualified as a potential candidate for political office for any level of government for eight years. In this legal context, Brazil signed the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (1996), ratifying it in 2002 (Decree 4,410/2002); the OECD’s Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (1997), ratifying it in 2000 (Decree 3,678/2000); and the UN Convention against Corruption (2004), ratifying it in 2006 (Decree 5,687/2006).18 Even considering that most provisions related to corruption offenses and the relevant penalties had already been laid down in the Brazilian legal framework or were under legislative discussion before the three above-mentioned conventions were signed, their ratification had a significant political impact. Accordingly, some legislative innovations for antimoney laundering crimes and tools, the introduction of a broad legal concept of foreign public officials, and preventive access to information mechanisms are highlighted below.

18

According to a recent study conducted by the National Secretariat of Judicial Reform, the legislative process to internalize international treaties and conventions in Brazil took between five and seven years. See Ministério da Justiça, O Impacto no Sistema Processual dos Tratados Internacionais 166 (José Luis Bolzan de Morais coord., Ministério da Justiça, Secretaria de Reforma do Judiciário 2013).


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Act 9,613/1998, known as the Money Laundering Act, was created through compromises made at the Vienna Convention in 1988 to promote accountability in multiple sectors of the economy. Identifying clients and keeping records of operations and suspicious communications make people and companies subject to it. In 2012, it was amended by Act 12,683, resulting in considerable progress in preventing and combating money laundering by raising the fine to as much as R$20 million, securing goods against deterioration and devaluation, admi ing any criminal offense as the origin of illicitly obtained money, and including new agents subject to the law. In accordance with the Organization of American States (OAS) and OECD Conventions, Act 10,467/2002 amended the Brazilian Penal Code, adding Articles 337-B and 337-C, which established criminal liability for acts of corruption and bribery commi ed by foreign public officials and institutions. Article 337-D was added to provide a legal definition of “foreign public officials” for criminal prosecution purposes. Besides investigative and repressive legislation, transparency has become more evident in Brazil. The Information Access Act (Act 12,527/2011) enhances prevention policies to promote transparency and to open government recognition. An important gain for community empowerment and civil society monitoring was made by impelling public entities to process information requests, ensure proactive disclosure, and guarantee full online access to official information of all branches at the local, regional, and federal levels. As the scope of fraud and corruption varies, legislation also has to develop in order to serve as a starting point to conquer corruption. Brazil has shown, by its commitments made internationally and effective regulation implemented nationally, that fighting corruption is a prominent item on its political agenda and that the new Anticorruption Law is the step that was missing.

Act 12,846/2013: Overcoming the Liability of the Legal-Entity Loophole Although public officials and corrupt agents could be prosecuted under the existing law, the lack of liability of legal entities for corrupt practices constituted a dangerous regulatory gap. The regulation loophole was spotlighted by the OECD Working Group on Bribery in a 2007 report, which recommended19 taking urgent steps. Brazil has not taken the necessary measures to establish the liability of legal entities for the bribery of a foreign public official. The Work19

Other OECD recommendations were raising awareness and providing training for applying the foreign bribery offense on society stakeholders, public institutions, and diplomatic representatives; and pu ing in place the due diligence process to verify that applicants were engaging in acts of bribery, protect whistleblowers, encourage Brazilian business activities in foreign markets, and ensure that law enforcement authorities were provided with sufficient resources. Some clauses related to tax offenses were also introduced.


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ing Group has determined that the current statutory regime for the liability of legal entities is inconsistent with Article 2 of the Convention. As a consequence legal entities are not punishable in Brazil for foreign bribery by effective, proportionate or dissuasive sanctions as required by Article 3 of the Convention. The Group recommends that this serious gap in the law be urgently addressed, and welcomes recent initiatives taken by Brazil in this regard. . . . With respect to the liability of legal entities, the Working Group acknowledges the recent initiatives taken by Brazil in this area and recommends that Brazil (i) take urgent steps to establish the direct liability of legal entities for the bribery of a foreign public official; (ii) put in place sanctions that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, including monetary sanctions and confiscation; and (iii) ensure that, in relation to establishing jurisdiction over legal entities, a broad interpretation of the nationality of legal entities is adopted.20

In a similar vein, during the third round (2011) of review in the implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, when serious concerns were raised about the gap in legal entities’ liability, the Commi ee of Experts suggested the following recommendation: Adopt measures to allow application of the appropriate penalties, subject to its constitution and the fundamental principles of its legal order, to companies domiciled in its territory that engage in the conduct described in article VIII of the Convention, regardless of the penalties that may be applicable to the persons linked to those companies who may be involved in the commission of acts constituting such conduct. 21

Unlike other countries’ legal systems, there were no specific provisions directed at anticorruption compliance in Brazil. There was, for instance, no analogue to the internal controls requirement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Therefore, Brazilian law did not punish corporate corruption properly. Indeed, most cases of grand corruption have at least one thing in common: the use of companies and structures established through legal means to hide illegal acts. A 2011 World Bank study reviewed over 200 cases of corruption and concluded that shelf companies were an active and often-used means of concealing corruption.22 20

OECD Working Group on Bribery, supra note 2, at 4.

21

The recommendations were made in the Final Report that was adopted by the commi ee, in accordance with the provisions of arts. 3(g) and 25 of its Rules of Procedure and Other Provisions, at the plenary session held on Sept. 16, 2011, at its 19th meeting, held at OAS Headquarters, Sept. 12–16.

22

The Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative report reviewed grand corruption investigations from 80 different countries and found that almost 70 percent of these cases involved corporate vehicles that concealed, at least in part, beneficial ownership information. See E. van der D.


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In 2010, the Office of the Comptroller General (Controladoria-Geral da União; CGU) prepared the long-awaited draft bill in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the Federal A orney General’s Office (Advocacia Geral da União; AGU) establishing the direct liability of legal entities for acts of corruption commi ed against the national and foreign public administration. The bill (Bill 6,826/2010), which was inspired by the FCPA Act (1977) and the United Kingdom’s Bribery Act (2010), was submi ed to the Chamber of Deputies in February 2010. At the Chamber of Deputies, apart from the existing Commi ees on Work, Administration, and Public Service; Taxation and Finances; Industrial, Commercial, and Economic Development; Justice, Constitution, and Citizenship, a special commi ee was created to inform the Chamber of Deputies on the ma er. That special commi ee began its work in October 2011. The special commi ee was given a great number of tasks, and it was by far the most active commi ee, and the one that took longest to give its opinion. Among those who took part in the discussion, apart from representatives, were many interest groups, including the CGU; civil society organizations representing companies and entities dealing with compliance, such as the Federation of Industries of São Paulo State, Comitê Anticorrupção e Compliance do Instituto Brasileiro de Direito Empresarial, Instituto Ethos de Empresas e Responsabilidade Social, Instituto de Estudos Sócio Econômicos, and PATRI Políticas Públicas e Relações Institucionais & Comerciais; as well as lawyers, law professors, and agencies involved in anticorruption and governance endeavors. There were organized seminars and forums outside the Congress, in São Paulo, Curitiba, and Recife, and capitals of member-states situated in the southern, southeastern, and northeastern regions of Brazil. There were push-backs on various points and discussions on penalties, whether they should be mitigated, and if so, how it would be achieved. The special commi ee’s final official opinion was given in April 2013. The other commi ees gave their opinions in June 2013. Due to the legislative process of the bicameral Congress, after approval by the Chamber of Deputies was given, the bill was forwarded to the Senate. Plenary sessions and discussions ended in the Senate in July 2013. Back at the Chamber of Deputies, the draft law was sent to President Dilma Rousseff, who rejected three provisions: (a) the limitation of the fine, which would not exceed the value of the good or service provided for in the public contract; (b) the necessity and legal requirement of proving intention or fault for some sanctions, as opposed to civil strict liability; and (c) the provision that the extent of involvement of public officials in the corrupt act must be considered a circumstance for applying the sanctions. After that, the draft law was transformed into the law, Act 12,846/2013, in August 2013.

de Willebois et al., The Puppet Master: How the Corrupt Use Legal Structures to Hide Stolen Assets and What to Do about It (World Bank 2011).


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The draft law was debated at a turbulent time, when government expenses on contracts linked to the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games generated dissatisfaction throughout the population. Consequently, in June 2013, people went to the streets demanding more public spending on public health, education, and transportation. During the year leading up to the World Cup, Brazil experienced an extensive anticorruption campaign largely motivated by citizens through social media. The online mobilization followed large investigations conducted by traditional media outlets. Alongside the protests was the trial, Criminal Case No. 470, in the Supreme Court, well known as the “Mensalão case,”23 which made corruption policies and issues a ma er of popular discussion. The public sentiment of growing intolerance for corruption and the scene of the economic crisis in Brazil created an environment for the new Anticorruption Law’s easy approval.24 23

Criminal Case No. 470 began as a political scandal, known as “Mensalão,” that took place during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government. Since 2004, the Brazilian Press had been writing on an alliance between the Worker’s Party and the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) involving bribery. In 2005, a congressional commi ee of inquiry began investigating a bribery scheme involving the Brazilian Post Office (“CPI dos Correios”). In this context PTB’s president, Representative Roberto Jefferson, first brought up the term “Mensalão” (meaning, roughly, “big monthly payment”), insinuating that there was a bribery procedure organized by important people in the Worker’s Party involving a monthly, expensive payment to congressmen in exchange for political support inside Congress. There was a complex plot, involving advertising agencies, high-ranking political figures, financial institutions, and public companies. The Ministério Público Federal filed Criminal Case No. 470 before the Brazilian Supreme Court in November 2007, accusing 40 people, among them the former presidential chief of staff minister in Lula’s government, the former president of the Worker’s Party, and the former treasurer of the Worker’s Party. The trial, broadcast on a public television channel, began in 2012. The criminal offenses described involved money laundering, bribery (active and passive corruption), tax evasion, fraudulent management of a financial institution, conspiracy, and embezzlement. In 2013, 25 defendants were accused of different criminal offenses, and 11 were arrested. In November 2013 the Supreme Court president ordered the imprisonment of the authorities. In February 2014, after a close vote among justices of the Supreme Court (6 to 5), 8 defendants, including some of those already arrested, were absolved of the crime of conspiracy, which altered their term of imprisonment. Pursuant to the Brazilian Constitution, justices of the Brazilian Supreme Court are chosen by the president and must be approved by the Senate. At the time of the trial of Criminal Case No. 470, 8 out of the 11 justices had been appointed by Worker’s Party presidents, 6 by President Lula, and 2 by President Rousseff. Despite the criticism directed at the trial and the positions held by the justices, Criminal Case No. 470 is considered an unprecedented event in Brazilian history and a victory for democracy. Another high-profile political scandal was the Sanguessugas (leeches) scandal, also known as ambulance’s mafia, that took place in 2006. It was a conspiracy among congressional representatives involved in the purchase of ambulances. These representatives acted together in embezzling public funds consisting of federal transfers for public health care. There were administrative procedures taken to revoke 72 representatives’ terms in office.

24

In addition to the popular display of discontentment, Brazil, with the sixth-largest GDP in the world, has faced economic challenges over the past few years. Since 2010, when economic growth was at 7.5 percent, the Brazilian economy has steadily decreased. In 2011, growth was at 2.7 percent, in 2012 at 1 percent, and in 2013 there was a slight improvement, to 2.3 percent, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators, the “control of corruption” and “voice and accountability” indicators dropped by one percentile from 2011 to 2012. In Transparency International’s International Corruption Perception Index, Brazil lost three positions from 2012 to 2013, going from 69th place to 72nd place. Aside from that, in March 2014 Standard & Poor’s


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The draft law was discussed in the Chamber of Deputies’ special committee for over two years; it was then sent to other commi ees, to the Senate, back to the House, and finally to the president, which took less than four months. That this accelerated legislative process took place during the period of intense popular demonstrations against corruption was no coincidence. It is clear that popular dissatisfaction, expressed at this relevant time, overcame lobbyists’ interests in freezing the legislative process of the Anticorruption Law. International recommendations for Brazil to close the loophole became stronger, as did institutional25 pressure, as well as pressure from the press and civil society. By signing international conventions against corruption such as those of the OAS, OECD, and the United Nations, Brazil commi ed to the implementation of such a law. The fight against corruption is a global ma er, and the liability of legal entities is especially relevant to this issue. Domestically, Brazil had effective legal dispositions on bribing public officials, but corporate corruption was still hard to combat effectively in the existing legal framework. Act 12,846 was approved on August 1, 2013, and pursuant to its influence on the drafting of the law, apart from the president, the minister of justice, the AGU, and the CGU signed the law. The law was promulgated on August 2 and, after a 180-day period of vacatio legis, came into force on January 29, 2014.

The Main Features of the New Brazilian Anticorruption Law Act 12,846/2013, the so-called new Anticorruption Law,26 established a comprehensive system to fight domestic and international corporate corruption in Brazil. The new law created liability for legal entities commi ing illicit acts against foreign public officials or national public administration, that is, in the three branches of government and at all levels of the Brazilian

downgraded Brazil’s credit rating, creating concerns about foreign investment. Expectedly, the Brazilian government is concerned about maintaining those investments. It was an auspicious time to approve a law such as the Clean Companies Act. 25

The National Strategy for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering (Estratégia Nacional de Combate à Corrupção e Lavagem de Dinheiro; ENCCLA) was created in 2003 by an initiative taken by the Ministry of Justice as a way to contribute to the systematic fight against money laundering in Brazil. It is an articulation of agencies from the three branches of government, the Ministérios Públicos, and society that, directly or indirectly, prevent and combat corruption and money laundering and identify and recommend measures of improvement. Currently, around 60 agencies take part in ENCCLA, including the police, the judiciary, the CGU, the Federal Court of Accountability (TCU), and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

26

Strictly speaking, Act 12,486 should not be called the “Anticorruption Law,” because it is really just the missing ,part of the anticorruption legal puzzle; there are other laws directed at curbing corruption. The term “Clean Companies Law” is more appropriate in the sense that it points out the specific innovation implemented by that law. However, inasmuch as the term “Anticorruption Law” has already become widespread among lawyers, public officials, and the juridical community in Brazil, it would not be worthwhile to semantically “swim against the stream.”


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Federation. A recent comparative study concluded that the “Brazilian law either meets or exceeds all OECD Convention requirements, except those on Enforcement.”27

Administrative and Civil Strict Liability According to the Brazilian Constitution—just as in the German and Italian constitutions—only individuals can be held criminally liable for corruption offenses. These individuals may face criminal, civil, and administrative sanctions. A legal entity, however, can face only civil and administrative proceedings.28 Nicola Bonucci, the director of legal affairs at the OECD, predicted that one of the issues the OECD would “vigorously debate” while reviewing the Brazilian Act 12,846 in June 2014 was that, while the OECD gives preference to criminal liability for the offense of bribery of foreign public officials, the Brazilian Anticorruption Act creates only civil and administrative liability for such offenses.29 To consider social interests and comply with international conventions, without neglecting constitutional boundaries, the new Brazilian Anticorruption Law establishes administrative and civil mechanisms to curb corporate corruption. Criminal liability for legal entities, however, depends on constitutional amendments, which require a qualified majority in Congress. Proper implementation of an administrative and civil sanctioning system can enhance the fight against corruption. Another change in Brazilian law is the incorporation of “strict liability”30 for corrupt acts, which means that legal entities are held liable without requiring legal proof or verification of actual fault or prior penalties. It is sufficient to prove the existence and practice of the corrupt act, the resulting consequences, and the casual connection between them. Strict liability sets aside difficulties of demonstrating subjective elements of the acts of the legal entity’s manager, required in criminal proceedings.

Who Is Subject to the New Anticorruption Law? In that corrupt acts have both a supply and a demand side, seeking only the public official’s accountability for corrupt acts is not enough. Thus

27

Sonia Zaheer, Brazil’s Landmark Clean Companies Act: Comparison to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and Issues, Pacific McGeorge Global Business & Dev. L.J. (2014).

28

An exception is art. 225, para. 3, which allows criminal liability for legal entities only for environmental crimes.

29

See Stella Dawson, Brazil’s Corporate Bribery Law Is a Step Forward but Faces Tough Scrutiny (2013), h p://www.trust.org/item/20131122222839-uqg1w/.

30

The use of the strict liability model for corruption acts is innovative. The standard of strict liability (or objective liability) is used in other areas of the Brazilian legal system; for example, in consumer issues, environmental damage, and state liability.


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Act 12,846/2013 includes the liability of other relevant actors in corruption schemes: the companies themselves. In the general provisions, Article 1 establishes the target of the Anticorruption Law, clarifying that the object of the law targets any type of company under Brazilian regulation, whether incorporated or not, and regardless of the form of organization or corporate model adopted for it. The law also governs any foundation, association, or foreign company that has a registered office, branch, or representation in Brazilian territory (even if the registration is temporary). This broad concept embraces all types of enterprises and also oversees companies’ transformation, incorporation, merges, and splits. It also contemplates joint liability cases of controlling or controlled companies, joint ventures, and economic groups that have engaged in corrupt practices.

Typology of Corruption Conduct Article 5 describes in five items corrupt acts that threaten national and foreign public assets, principles of public administration,31 and international commitments made by Brazil. Article 5 For the purposes of this law, all acts commi ed by legal entities mentioned in Article 1’s sole paragraph are injurious to the domestic or to the foreign Public Administration, if they threaten the national or foreign public assets, the principles of public administration or the international commitments assumed by Brazil, by: I – Promising, offering or giving, directly or indirectly, a public agent or third part related to him an improper advantage; II – Financing, funding, sponsoring or otherwise subsidizing, the practice of any illicit acts established in this Law; III – Using a person or an entity to hide or conceal the identity or the intention of the one who benefits from the acts performed; IV – Regarding bids and contracts: a) Frustrating or defrauding, by combination or any other way, the competitive nature of the public bidding procedure; b) Preventing, hindering or defrauding the performance of any act of public bidding procedure; c) Chasing away or trying to chase away any bidder, by fraud or otherwise by offering him an advantage of any kind; d) Defrauding a public bidding or a public procurement;

31

Art. 37 of the Brazilian Constitution defines the principles of public administration as legality, impersonality, morality, publicity, and efficiency.


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e) Creating, fraudulently or irregularly, an entity to participate in public biddings or to conclude public procurements; f) Obtaining advantage or improper advantage by deception, modifications or extensions of contracts with the government, without authorization by law, convening public bidding or its contractual arrangements; or g) Manipulating or defrauding the public procurement arrangement’s economic and financial balance; V – Hindering government’s research or supervisory activities or intervening in its operations, especially regarding regulatory agencies or any of the National Financial System’s supervisory bodies.32

Congress members wisely adopted the strategy of using descriptions of offenses pertaining to individual criminal, administrative, and civil liability that had already been consolidated in Brazilian jurisprudence and by scholars, mostly from the Penal Code, the Law on Administrative Probity (Act 8,429/1992), and the Public Procurement Act (Act 8,666/1993).

Sanctions, Regulation, and Sentencing The Anticorruption Law sanctioning system comprises administrative and judicial sanctions. The principle of audi altera partem, as well as the right of due process, must be observed to enforce the sanctions, provided in Article 6: I – Fine in the amount of 0.1% (one-tenth percent) to 20% (twenty percent) of the gross revenues33 of the year previous to the initiation of administrative proceedings, excluding taxes, which will never be less than the advantage earned when possible to estimate; and II – Special publication of the conviction.

Article 6 is one of the most controversial articles in the Anticorruption Law, because it sets the amount of the fine that can be applied to companies that are accountable for detrimental acts against Brazil’s public administration. Article 7 lists factors to consider when a sentence is about to be passed, namely: the seriousness of the violation; the benefit that the offender could or would have go en from the infraction; the nature of the commission of the crime; the severity of damage or the risk of damage, whichever is relevant under the circumstances; the negative effects of the act; the offender’s economic situation; the company’s cooperation in bringing to light the infractions; the existence of internal mechanisms or procedures toward promoting 32

See the original text in Portuguese at h p://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2011 -2014/2013/lei/l12846.htm.

33

If it is not possible to determine the company´s annual gross revenue as a reference, the fine will be any amount from R$6,000 (approximately US$2,500) to R$60,000,000 (approximately US$25,000). See art. 6, para. 4.


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integrity (compliance); audit and whistle-blowing triggers of accountability; the effectiveness of a code of conduct and ethics applied within the company; and the value of the contracts established. Article 7 could be considered harsh because it states that acts can produce liability without proof of intention and knowledge on the part of company directors. The “name and shame” sanctioning strategy,34 another interesting stipulation in Article 7, refers to the level of publicity that the court’s conviction receives, at the relevant company’s expense, in widely disseminated media. In many commercial markets, upholding a reputation of trustworthiness is crucial for a company’s success and business performance. This legal provision targets the company image, producing a sort of reputation-shaming effect, through the extensive disclosure of the corrupt practice. In the same vein, Article 22 creates the National Registry of Punished Companies (Cadastro Nacional de Empresas Punidas), which gathers all the sanctions applied at all levels of the federation and makes them public. The enforcement of legal stipulations on administrative ma ers does not rule out further enforcement on judiciary terms. The judicial sanctions, described in Article 19, regard (a) the forfeiture of property, rights, or goods that represent advantage or profit directly or indirectly obtained from the corrupt act; (b) the cessation or suspension of activities; (c) the compulsory legal entity’s dissolution in Brazil; and (d) the prohibition from receiving public incentives, grants, donations, or loans from public or publicly controlled financial institutions for one to five years.

Deferred Prosecution Agreement Article 16 provides a sort of deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) that already exists in Brazil as a leniency agreement in Brazil’s Economic Law. Article 17 allows the DPA to be used in Brazil under not just the new Anticorruption Law but also the Public Procurement Act. According to the new Anticorruption Law, the highest authorities of each branch of government can strike an agreement with companies if the la er collaborate with investigations and are cooperative throughout the administrative process, which would result in the identification of other companies involved and in quicker access to documents and information. Therefore, the DPA can be an enforcement tool to address offenses by legal entities. The DPA is intended to encourage self-reporting by companies, as opposed to being 34

See J. G. van Erp, Naming and Shaming in Regulatory Enforcement (2012), h p://hdl.handle .net/1765/31662, which “identifies three aspects of firms’ reputations that can motivate compliance. First, a reputation is a financial asset, because it enables firms to increase their market share, share value or business opportunities. Second, entrepreneurs do not only strive for a good reputation because it pays off financially, but also because they value being regarded as respectful, credible and reliable, and want to act in accordance with social norms. Third, a reputation defines duties and obligations and thus increases firms’ awareness about normative expectations of its stakeholders.”


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faced with the inconvenience of waiting and then fighting an administrative or a civil prosecution. For that ma er, an important prerequisite to reaching the agreement is the company’s corporate compliance program. To benefit from the DPA, the company must observe certain requirements. It has to take the initiative to show interest in cooperating, and it has to cease completely its involvement in the infracting or offending acts. Also, it is necessary that the company admit its participation in the wrongdoing and completely cooperate with investigations. This behavior can lead to a reduction of up to two-thirds of the amount fined and can also exempt companies from the aforementioned shaming sanctions. Still, the company will not be exempt from making good any damage caused. After the DPA’s conclusion, if the requirements are not fulfilled, the company will be prevented from striking another DPA for three years.

Authorities Entitled to Investigate The new Brazilian Anticorruption Law establishes that the liability of legal entities for acts of national and foreign bribery falls to each body and entity in the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) at every level of the federation (union, member-states, the Federal District, and municipalities). The OECD Working Group on Bribery, in analyzing the draft bill,35 observed that it provided “mechanisms to establish liability and a uniform system throughout the country, with a view to strengthening the fight against corruption in accordance with the unique features of the Brazilian federal system.” Although there are decentralization benefits, there is also a major challenge for coordinating and implementing the Anticorruption Law system throughout the huge number of federal legal entities. There are 5,561 municipalities in Brazil, 26 states, the Federal District, and the union itself, totaling 5,589 federal entities, each one empowered to act under the rules of the Anticorruption Law. The main authorities of each branch of all federal entities can investigate, conduct an administrative procedure (Article 8), propose DPAs (Article 16), and file lawsuits (Article 19). Brazil’s sca ered form of federalism can lead to conflicting decisions. Because there is no central administrative mechanism for implementing uniform procedures and interpreting such ma ers, imbroglios that arise from administrative procedures will increase or encourage the judicialization of administrative proceedings so that legitimate final decisions can be arrived at. Keeping in mind that the Brazilian judicial system operates less than efficiently, it will be some time before courts can start ruling on cases involving the Anticorruption Law.

35

OECD Working Group on Bribery, supra note 2, at 36.


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This environment of uncertainty could have a negative impact on international companies that do business in Brazil. Due to the way the judicial system works, and the fact that all federal entities enjoy a large degree of autonomy, the CGU, the federal government, and higher courts currently cannot impose a completely uniform procedure for the implementation and practice of the new law. Another issue related to the thousands of public authorities empowered to apply the Anticorruption Law is the possibility of the inadequate use of the DPA standard, especially in small municipalities. According to Article 16, the authorities that represent each branch within a federal entity are entitled to adopt a DPA with companies involved in wrongdoing that effectively collaborate with investigation and administrative procedures. For this to happen, the company has to identify other companies that took part in the corrupt act or acts and provide relevant information and documents quickly. So the DPA is a way to accelerate and improve investigations from the government’s perspective, and to mitigate penalties or legal consequences from the company’s perspective. There are many municipalities that have a deficient or incipient administrative structure, a lack of resources, or an insufficiently trained staff. Despite the formal and symmetrical federation autonomy (which the Anticorruption Law provides for), some municipalities have a very low Human Development Index (HDI) ranking and are likely to have difficulty in applying the Anticorruption Law, especially when complex cases arise. This difficulty may cause opacity on the details of a DPA’s terms and duration, and on how companies meet such agreement terms. Even worse, the lack of structure and expertise in small and poor municipalities can create a situation where the effect is contrary to that intended by the law. The empowerment of local authorities can be turned into a tool for corrupt agents to bribe businesspeople. In 2013, Transparency International classified36 Brazil as a country engaged in “Li le or No Enforcement” of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.37 Enforcement is not just a challenge related to the Anticorruption Law. Specifically, it is a problem in the Brazilian judicial system. Among the causes of difficulties in enforcement are the great number of judicial actions, the excessive opportunities to appeal, and the lack of modernization. These problems are frequently brought to the public’s a ention. But the main concern is not just the lack of judicial decisions; the small number of investigations opened into potentially corrupt activities is also troubling. In this light, nonjudicial ways of resolution become an interesting tool for dealing with corruption offenses. 36

F. Heinmann et al., Exporting Corruption Progress Report 2013: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Convention on Combating Foreign Bribery (Transparency Intl. 2013).

37

The lack of enforcement is not just a Brazilian issue. According to the Transparency International 2013 study, 30 of 38 countries that signed the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, which represents 38.2 percent of world exports, are barely investigating and prosecuting foreign bribery.


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Countries should make efforts to curb corruption among institutions and public officials to achieve social and economic development and to a ract international investments. But it is certain that there will be no good governance without consistent legal regulation, an engaged society, and accountable institutions. Meanwhile, Brazil has a large number of interconnected oversight bodies that constitute a national network with the institutional mission of fostering mechanisms for preventing, detecting, punishing, and eradicating corrupt acts. This network includes the CGU and state and municipalities comptroller systems, the federal and state courts of accountability, the Federal Police Department, the State Judiciary Police, the federal and state-level Ministério Públicos, the Supreme Court, the Superior Court of Justice, the state courts, the National Council of Justice, the National Council of the Federal Prosecutor, the AGU and state and municipalities a orneys’ offices, the Public Ethics Commission, and the Ministry of Justice.38 Facing the above concerns gives rise to institutional challenges that need to be resolved. According to the cooperative federalism model, all federal entities share responsibilities in achieving constitutional objectives and improving skills of governance; further, they must work in partnership (federal statehood) to put forward an integrative exercise of authority to curb corruption. The importance of the CGU and the Ministério Público in this ma er is highlighted next.

Federal Cases and Standards: The Crucial Role of the CGU The CGU39 is the agency of federal government created in 2003 to assist the president of the republic in eliminating corruption, having within its structure the Secretariat for Prevention of Corruption and Strategic Information. Assistance from the CGU is provided for ma ers that, within the executive branch, are related to defending public assets and enhancing management transparency through internal control activities, public audits, corrective and disciplinary measures, corruption prevention, and coordinating ombudsman’s activities.

38

The Ministry of Justice’s Secretariat of Judiciary Reform (Secretaria de Reforma do Judiciário do Ministério da Justiça) constitutes an innovative approach to enhance cooperative federalism. Although it is linked with the executive branch, it has the institutional goal of articulating stakeholders, directly and indirectly, to find solutions for the Brazilian judicial system. It was created to promote, coordinate, systematize, and receive proposals regarding judiciary reform. Its main role is to articulate the executive, judiciary, and legislative branches, Ministérios Públicos, state governments, and organized civil society and international organizations. All this aims at modernizing the judiciary’s management through constitutional reform and legislative changes currently underway in Congress.

39

The CGU portfolio is available at h p://www.cgu.gov.br/Publicacoes/balancas/arquivos/ _cgu.pdf.


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In other words, at the federal level, the CGU is in charge of initiatives to curb and prevent corruption, and also to educate individuals, the public, and companies on anticorruption issues. Recently, the CGU has faced new challenges, working with ma ers directly related to the Information Access Act and the Anticorruption Law. At the federal executive branch level, Article 9 of the Anticorruption Law is clear in indicating that the CGU is responsible for investigating, conducting administrative proceedings, and imposing sanctions for acts of corruption. And Article 8, Paragraph 2 reserves the right for the CGU to use any federal executive branch agency procedure that has been filed under the Anticorruption Law. The CGU, as a federal institution, can directly act when federal ma ers are involved. However, at the state and municipal levels of implementing laws, the CGU occupies a cornerstone position. Foreseeing the new challenges of the Anticorruption Law and the strengthening of the cooperative federation model, the CGU acts like a mirror that reflects good technical practices for state and municipal governments, so as to unburden conflicting decisions and inefficiency arising from DPAs. The CGU regularly issues publications,40 such as booklets, brochures, and instruction manuals, which are published in an easy-to-read format and written in a clear and objective way that dissects legal provisions, which at first blush may seem complicated to the legally untrained eye. This pedagogical work41 is especially relevant when dealing with the effectiveness of the law’s stipulations, because it serves as orientation for public officials and policy makers, and also for civil society. The empowerment of civil society through access to easy-to-use, highquality information has the potential to create a stakeholder commi ed to the observance of the law. Particularly at the local level, if citizens become engaged in promoting accountability and making their voices heard, law enforcement can be improved. Because the Information Access Act is enforced at the state and municipal levels, the CGU already has a consistent record of collaborative work, for example, publishing the Manual for Law of Access to Information in States and Municipalities42 and Technical Guidance for Municipalities’ Local Regulation of the Information Access Act and Checklist.43 Even though the manuals are not mandatory and do not have to be observed by states and municipalities, in con40

The CGU’s guidelines and booklets are available at h p://www.cgu.gov.br/Publicacoes/.

41

Two CGU initiatives on civil society education should be highlighted: (a) Portalzinho da CGU is an educational website designed for children (h p://www.portalzinho.cgu.gov.br), and (b) the “Say No to Pe y Corruption Campaign” (h p://www.cgu.gov.br/redes/diga-nao.

42

Available at h p://www.cgu.gov.br/Publicacoes/transparencia-publica/brasil-transparente /arquivos/manuall_lai_estadosmunicipios.pdf.

43

Available at h p://www.cgu.gov.br/Publicacoes/transparencia-publica/brasil-transparente /arquivos/guia_checklist.pdf.


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nection with federal principles of autonomy, they have had a positive impact on the implementation of transparency web portals, an online system that citizens can check to find the amount and destination of public money that has been spent by the Brazilian government, on the federal, state, and local levels. It is a known fact that corruption is not an isolated phenomenon. It is a global bane that affects all countries and institutions. In 2007, before the anticorruption draft bill was presented, the CGU, in compliance with Brazil’s ratification of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and with the support of the United Kingdom’s embassy in Brazil, launched a booklet about the convention’s terms, objectives, and legal implications that was addressed to judges, prosecutors, lawyers, policy makers, legal practitioners, and entrepreneurs. Aligned with the trend of international cooperation on anticorruption issues, Brazil’s internal federal cooperation must be fortified and must become more uniform in approach. The CGU can strongly contribute to the Anticorruption Law’s implementation, by defining standards on administrative procedures and the imposition of sanctions, as well as providing technical notes and developing capacity-building programs for the benefit of municipalities’ administrative staffs. CGU leadership should mitigate the omission or misuse of the new Anticorruption Law tools, which is a great concern among the companies subject to the law.

Toward Anticorruption Enforcement: The Ministério Público’s Role The 1988 Constitution is the historical milestone of a new era of the Brazilian republic, and, without a doubt, the Ministério Público44 occupies a prominent position in the constitutional order, having an institutional mission that is both noble and arduous. Aside from its role in criminal prosecution, the Ministério Público also plays a large part in representing collective rights of all kinds. Just as society struck back against the lack of a voice during the dictatorial regime,45 the Constituent Assembly wisely empowered the Ministério Público to be a legitimate representative of society’s voice in the public sector, in order to defend democracy and human rights. But instead of working as criminal investigators, the prosecutors became political agents of social transformation, standing at the

44

The Portuguese version of the institutional name is used—instead of using “Prosecutor’s Office,” “General A orney’s Office,” or a free translation (e.g., “Public Ministry”)—to emphasize the unique and broader institutional role in the Brazilian constitutional system in comparison with other countries. The Ministério Público’s autonomy and institutional independence led to arguments that it could have become a “fourth branch of government” in Brazil.

45

The authoritarian military government ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.


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forefront of the fight against corruption in Brazil. Hence there are innovative prerogatives46 for Brazilian public prosecutors. In terms of implementing the Anticorruption Law under the constitutional rules, the Ministério Público faces two challenges: to investigate and curb corporate corruption, and to articulate the clockwork of Anticorruption Law implementation in order to develop and disseminate policies and good practices among the different federal entities. According to Article 19 of the law, the Ministério Público, like the union, the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities, is entitled to file lawsuits against legal entities that have engaged in corrupt acts. Acting as a law enforcement authority on administrative, civil, and criminal law, the Ministério Público investigates and files civil and criminal actions. It is also one of the institutions entitled to file public civil actions, but recent studies have shown that it files a greater number of actions than other co-legitimates. This extensive experience with criminal and administrative improbity investigations demonstrates that the Ministério Público has a more robust and suitable background to deal with such ma ers47 compared with other colegitimates. Apart from this, the extensive reach and influence48 of the Ministério Público, being an institution that has a presence in all federation entities, is well posited to strategically and effectively carry out its mission, which is to improve effective cooperation among federal agencies, organizations, and entities that have a role in combating and minimizing corruption in Brazil. If, on the one hand, the federalist model leads to uncoordinated authorities, each applying the law as it sees fit, the Ministério Público on the other hand, works closely with municipalities’ ma ers to avoid dispersed efforts against corruption. It is clear that the work done by the Ministério Público on a domestic scale has a positive effect on coordinating anticorruption initiatives at the local, regional, and national levels. But what if the local authority does nothing about corporate bribery that takes place in a state or municipal public procurement? The Ministério Público can do something about it, because it is empowered by the constitution to make individuals and legal entities accountable for their actions.

46

The Ministério Público in Brazil upholds a prerogative based on administrative and political autonomy, an autonomous budgetary initiative, and functional independence (arts. 127 and 128 of the Brazilian Const.).

47

Among all institutions with legal standing, the Ministério Público filed about 95 percent of civil lawsuits to protect collective rights. See RT informa, 6(37) Editora Revista dos Tribunais 5 (May–June 2005).

48

According to a 2012 publication produced by the National Council of the Public Prosecutor (Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público; CNMP), there were 10,663 public prosecutors in Brazil and 34,954 Ministério Público clerks and interns spread throughout the Brazilian states and municipalities. See CNMP, Ministério Público: Um retrato—ano 2: Dados de 2012 45 (CNMP 2013).


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Besides the direct legal standing for bringing anticorruption cases into courts, when administrative omission is observed (e.g., if a mayor or a council makes no effort to hold a corrupt agent or company accountable for corrupt actions), the Ministério Público is entitled by Article 20 of the Anticorruption Law to act in place of absent local authorities, and may judicially propose even administrative sanctions against the corrupt actors. Apart from its investigative mission, the Ministério Público is a catalyst and an agent in strengthening state and municipal anticorruption investigative bodies. The Anticorruption Law reaffirms the duty to adequately structure the federal comptroller system. Some states already have a more advanced structure, following the path led by the CGU, but a great many entities, especially in the poorest municipalities, do not have agencies prepared to investigate corruption, conduct administrative procedures, create or establish DPAs, or impose adequate penalties. At the local level, the public prosecutor can propose agreements49 to local authorities to engage them in investigating and applying sanctions by implementing certain administrative structures. If a local government does not adequately develop its internal control systems under the new Anticorruption Law, the Ministério Público, on behalf of the people, can file actions against that municipality and oblige it to do so. Thus, the public prosecutor can work together with the local government to promote good governance practices and implement the requisite administrative structures to investigate and apply sanctions, as well as promote accountability under the Anticorruption Law. Besides seeking to strengthen good governance practices at the local governmental level, the Ministério Público works with civil society and the public at large to understand anticorruption issues.50 Brazilian citizens have already demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the effects of corruption, and the Ministério Público can enhance the opportunity for the people’s voices to be heard. In this sense, nonrepressive ways to implement the law, through education for instance, is an innovative tactic. 49

The Conduct Adjustment Commitment (Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta; TAC) is an alternative way to implement the effectiveness of an extrajudicial procedure. The TAC consists of a commitment meant to adjust the offender’s conduct to legal requirements through penalties or in a way to make up for the damage caused. It represents a possibility for building a nonjudiciary solution to a conflict of interests, for example. Although designed to be used by public entities, TACs are more commonly used by the Ministério Público in ma ers of environmental law, consumer law, administrative law, civil law, and the like. If the requirements of the commitment are not fulfilled, lawsuits can be filed based on the commitment alone. For further information about the TAC’s main features, see G. de A. Rodrigues, Ação Civil Pública e Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta. Teoria e Prática (Forense 2006).

50

The campaigns “What Do You Have to Do with Corruption?” (h p://www.oquevocetemav ercomacorrupcao.com/conteudo/home/index.asp?cod=0), “Conscious Vote” (h p://www .facebook.com/votoconscientempmg), and “Everybody against Impunity” (h p://www .facebook.com/Todos ContraAImpunidade?fref=nf) are examples of the Ministério Público’s work on developing social awareness related to corruption.


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People are close to the government in the municipalities, especially the smaller ones. Education can empower civil society to demand accountability and compel the government to undertake correct acts and actions to benefit the public. Civil society is thus an important stakeholder in ensuring the law’s enforcement, demanding accountability, and supervising government actions. Once the public is well informed through the effective establishment of transparency web portals, the Ministério Público will become an effective conduit for local citizens to be heard. Because the voice of citizens has become increasingly influential, and with the mega sporting projects continuing through the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, this popular engagement and public pressure may create a conducive environment for the Anticorruption Law to be enforced.

Compliance Mind-set: The Private Sector’s Role In countries where there is weak rule of law and where bribery is necessary to do business, there is a high risk of corruption. The lack of legal certainty, which ensures the functioning of the market and which companies need to make long-term investments, is not the only problem in such environments. Corrupt practices also diminish the quality of the services offered, harm free competition, reduce institutional morale, and affect company images, among other things. Globalization has strengthened the private sector’s role in the fight against corruption, a role increasingly recognized as internationally important. This movement is in line with the UN Global Compact’s 10th principle against corruption, on the private sector’s shared responsibility and willingness to play its part in eliminating corruption.51 In Brazil, the new Anticorruption Law addresses both repressive and preventive measures affecting the way companies do business. The repressive approach brings the feared high fines, strict liability impositions, and bad publicity. As prevention measures, Article 7 of the law introduces concepts such as internal mechanisms of integrity, auditing, whistle-blowing, and company observance of ethics codes as issues to be taken into account for sanction mitigation. All these dispositions a empt to change the Brazilian business mentality by raising the risks on taking some shortcuts often preferred by companies. The short-term benefits brought by corruption cannot be be er than the longterm ones of making a clean deal. The main idea is to stimulate the adoption of preventive measures by creating structures that are not just formal but also have a practical impact on identifying fraud and overcoming fragilities.

51

For further information, see h p://www.unglobalcompact.org/abou hegc/thetenprinciples /principle10.html.


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In the past, the employee who worked in accord with the Bribery Act was often the only one found guilty, because it was hard to prove whom that employee answered to inside the company. Nowadays, the greater implication of corruption placed on the company by strict liability can make being less susceptible to bribery a major advantage. Hence the importance of investments aimed at implementing preventive measures. In Brazil, the “Corporate Pact for Integrity against Corruption,” launched in 2006, included private institutions, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the UN Development Programme.52 The pact provides guidelines and procedures to be followed in the marketplace by signatory companies. Also, the work implemented by Transparency International, whose approach is focused on three pillars—business integrity, financial integrity, and research and reporting53—can serve as a guideline for conducting business properly and safely. Companies with anticorruption programs and ethical guidelines were found to have up to 50 percent fewer incidents of corruption, and be less likely to lose opportunities than companies without such programs. Companies with superior performances as corporate citizens were shown not only to match but often to outperform their peers. Be er corporate governance in companies located in emerging economies is associated with be er performance and market valuation.54 Apart from promoting an open and accountable business environment and building corporate social responsibility, companies should consider Brazilian federation challenges and be aware of local dynamics before doing business. This demands that companies invest money and time training employees and creating internal integrity mechanisms, but it is also important to identify peculiarities implemented by municipal decrees and to analyze previous procurement in the municipality. The Anticorruption Law’s harsh dispositions and the possibilities of mitigation are different ways to engage companies in the fight against corruption. Corporate governance is best achieved by routine and permanent functions that can be measured and improved, and therefore should be the focus of companies. The Anticorruption Law will be successful if companies are encouraged to internalize compliance benefits and abandon corruption as a profitable solution in fear of the consequences. The “clean companies” concept will certainly have a positive impact on business, not just in mitigating penalties, but most importantly in earning the confidence of all stakeholders, including civil society and the public sector.

52

Further information is available at h p://www.empresalimpa.org.br/.

53

Further information is available at h p://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/activity/engag ing_the_private_sector_in_the_fight_against_corruption.

54

Transparency Intl., Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector (Cambridge U. Press 2009), h p://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publications/doc/gcr/.


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Conclusion Brazil is experiencing a paradigm shift in combating corruption, moving from a domestic point of view to a more progressive, international one. Ensuring observance of the law on all federal levels is a ma er of investing in the enforcement capacities of agencies and the training of personnel, because a uniform judicial or administrative interpretation and implementation demands time and coordination. Cases will take time to get to the courts. And the administrative dispositions are more likely to be implemented than the judicial ones. In complying with international obligations and community wishes, the new Brazilian Anticorruption Law fills a loophole in the national legal framework against corruption by establishing the administrative and civil liability of corrupt acts commi ed by a legal entity, and not just an individual. Due to the Brazilian federation model, there are 5,589 federal entities empowered to enforce sanctions against corrupt acts. On the one hand, empowering local governments by raising municipalities to federal entity status can be considered a strategic advantage. But on the other hand, the abundant number of colegitimates empowered to apply the Anticorruption Law and its penalties could lead to inconveniently conflicting decisions, and could undermine deferred prosecution agreements. Or worse, the lack of proper institutional structures and expertise, especially in the smaller and poorer municipalities, could have the effect of not curbing corruption at the local level. Instead, ineffective institutions could create opportunities for further corruption. The challenge ahead is to build a comprehensive and unified agenda of cooperative anticorruption enforcement that orchestrates different contexts, needs, and policies. This would create an atmosphere of overarching unity, linking diverse actors within the Brazilian federal system in the enforcement of the anticorruption legal regime. Envisaged as a federal network that composes and, in a unified way, governs the wide array of political and administrative interests among the federal entities, and balances and coordinates the different developmental stages of each federal entity as it undertakes this journey of anticorruption enforcement. At the federal level, the CGU occupies a central position in implementing the Anticorruption Law. Through federal cases and standards to be followed by other federal entities, the CGU currently has an important pedagogical role to perform. It bears noting that, additionally, the CGU can further contribute by providing technical training to staff working at the state and local levels. The Ministério Público can continue its important work of developing awareness of the law and providing support for the appropriate implementation of it by coordinating its efforts with local authorities. Such a position is a consequence of its unique institutional situation and characteristics, its constitutional functions, and its rootedness in the Brazilian territory.


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As the ultimate target of corruption efforts, the private sector has a major role to play in the law’s effective implementation. That is why it is so important to change business mentality. By making repressive measures tougher than they used to be, the law encourages companies to adopt preventive practices against corruption. As Carlos Drummond de Andrade, one of Brazil’s most influential poets, put it, “Laws are not enough. Lilies do not arise from the laws.” In the same vein, although anticorruption laws are already on the books, a huge effort on several fronts is crucial if corruption, with its deep historical roots, is to be diminished and eventually eradicated. As the 2013 public demonstrations on anticorruption made apparent to all, Brazil as a country needs—and has through the public voice asked for—political mobilization at the highest levels for this new legal framework, based on widely shared ideals, to be implemented effectively, and consistently, thereby enabling Brazil’s anticorruption goals to be met.



18

Voice and Accountability Improving the Delivery of Anticorruption and Anti–Money Laundering Strategies in Brazil FAUSTO MARTIN DE SANCTIS In Brazil, public institutions historically have been used for and by a variety of private interests, permi ing numerous corrupt schemes to take place, in a constant exchange of favors and neglect of public resources. During the past few decades, Brazil has experienced moments of deep unease with the many scandals that have involved corruption in the political environment—and that have precipitated popular street protests. The most important of these protests were the demonstrations during the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in 19921 and demonstrations in June and July 2013. Certainly, the historical importance of an event is determined by what succeeds it. It is therefore too early to evaluate the complete results of the demonstrations that occurred in June and July 2013, which were fueled by discontent with inadequate public services and recurring corruption scandals.2 However, some conclusions can be drawn even just a year later. The demands from the demonstrators were many, and loudly expressed. They first demanded a halt to an increase of bus fares in the state capitals of Paraná, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Startled by the impressive number of people who went to the streets to protest, local and state governments quickly backed down from the proposed fare increase. 1

A popular campaign demanded the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello, who took office in 1990. Charged with corruption, influence peddling, and illegal schemes within his government, he was targeted by the “Get out Collor” (Fora Collor) campaign, which mobilized thousands of students to go to the streets with their faces painted in protest. On September 29, 1992, the National Congress impeached President Collor.

2

“In Brazil, there are many words for corruption: cervejinha, molhar a mão, lubrificar, lambileda, mata-bicho, jabaculê, jabá, capilê, conto-do-paco, conto-do-vigário, jeitinho, mamata, negociata, por fora, taxa de urgência, propina, rolo, esquema, peita, falcatrua, maracutaia, etc. There seems to be more words in Brazil and in other countries where corruption occurs daily. Originally, the word corruption (corrupção) comes from Latin corruptione and it means: disruption, decomposition, debauchery, depravity, bribery, perversion, subornation.” (“Existem no Brasil muitas palavras para caracterizar a corrupção: cervejinha, molhar a mão, lubrificar, lambileda, matabicho, jabaculê, jabá, capilê, conto-do-paco, conto-do-vigário, jeitinho, mamata, negociata, por fora, taxa de urgência, propina, rolo, esquema, peita, falcatrua, maracutaia, etc. A quantidade de palavras disponíveis parece ser maior no Brasil e em países onde a corrupção é visualizada cotidianamente. Originalmente, a palavra corrupção provém do latim Corruptione e significa corrompimento, decomposição, devassidão, depravação, suborno, perversão, peita.”) Antônio Inácio Andrioli, Causas estruturais da corrupção no Brasil [Structural causes for corruption in Brazil], 64 Revista Espaço Acadêmico (Sept. 2006), h p://www.espacoacademico.com.br/064/64andrioli.htm.

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Following these demonstrations, Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 37/2011 (Projeto de Emenda à Constituição; PEC no. 37/2011), also known as the “impunity proposal” (PEC da impunidade), was abandoned on June 25, 2013. The bill had been an a empt to add a paragraph to Article 144 of the federal constitution to remove the investigative powers of the federal and state public prosecutors and grant exclusive authority for criminal investigations to federal, federal district, and state police officers. In addition to the decrease in urban bus fares and the demise of Bill No. 37/2011, other demands included free public transportation passes for students; regulation of the “Clean Record Act” (ficha limpa), which prohibits convicted politicians from assuming public positions; the addition of corruption to a list of serious crimes with enhanced punishments; and the termination of salaries for administratively punished judges and prosecutors. After the initial popular groundswell, the demonstrations weakened because of the recurring acts of vandalism promoted by groups known as “black blocs” in the two main Brazilian cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.3 These groups relied on black masks for anonymity and used radical methods such as a acks on police officers, banks, stores, and car dealerships. This radicalization perverted the greater movement’s legitimacy and undermined the peaceful efforts of the majority of protestors. As a result, the initial agenda of popular demands evaporated, as did the possibility of using the movement’s propelling strength to spark greater discussion and provide new perspectives for political action in Brazil.4 3

As described by André Takahashi, the black bloc tactics were a response to police violence. The black bloc is composed of small affinity groups created during demonstrations that act independently within protests. But, unlike the Free Pass Movement (Movimento PasseLivre, or MPL) and its peers, the black bloc is not an organization or a collective group; it is an idea, a tactic of self-defense against police violence, as well as an aesthetic form of protest based in the depredation of symbols of the state and capitalism. The black bloc looks more like a decentralized network, such as the Anonymous, than an organic and cohesive movement. André Takahashi, O black bloc e a resposta à violência sócia [Black bloc and the response to social violence], h p://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade/o-black-bloc-e-a-resposta-a -violencia-policial-1690.html.

4

As highlighted in the article Os projetos da pauta prioritária ainda não votados, these are the bills presented or entered as part of the agenda at the National Congress as a response to the call of the streets; voting on these bills is likely to occur in 2015. These are the highlights: (1) Senate: (a) Bill 248/2013 institutes a national free pass for students in public transportation; (b) Bill of Constitutional Amendment 10/2013 ends privileged jurisdiction for common crimes commi ed by high authorities; (c) Bill of Constitutional Amendment 33/2013 ends social benefits for prisoners’ families. (2) House of Representatives: (a) Bill 6,953/2002 establishes rules for defending and protecting public service users; (b) Bill 204/2011 includes corruption in the legal hall of serious crimes; (c) Bill of Constitutional Amendment 6/2012 requires a clean slate for government employees; (d) Bill of Constitutional Amendment 11/2003 reduces from two to one the number of senator substitutes; (e) Bill 8,035/2010, National Education Plan; (f) Bill 8,039/2012 creates the Educational Responsibility Act; (g) Bill for Complimentary Act 202/89 implements taxes for great fortunes; (h) Bill for Complimentary Act 123/12 reserves 10 percent of the GDP for public health; (i) Bill for Complimentary Act 92/07 authorizes the government to institute nonprofitable state foundations; (j) Bill 5,141/2013 exempts public transportation companies from paying CIDE (Portuguese acronym for intervention in the economic domain contribution) taxes; (k) Bill 4,881/2012 creates the Urban Mobility Pact;


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In spite of their outcome, the popular demonstrations did raise questions about the need for political change. José Eduardo Cardozo, head of the Brazilian Department of Justice, observed the following: [I]n spite of the diversity of the agenda of demands, a very clear axis was pointed out by the demonstrations: the demand for quality public services in areas as diverse as health, education, and transportation. Thus, the corruption topic is deeply connected to the reasons that led people to a end these demonstrations. Every cent misused deteriorates the quality of public services.5

At the core of the Brazilian population’s dissatisfaction is the habitual misappropriation of public resources. Employment in public positions is routinely used as a means of private enrichment and influence peddling. This trend has fostered the perception that impunity is almost always the rule and that the welfare state is constantly being undermined by powerful private interests. The diversion of public funds weakens a series of measures, including the implementation of policies that reduce child mortality rates, provide quality public health and education services, ensure the supply of potable water, and improve access to sewer systems, urban sanitation, and other forms of infrastructure. Corruption not only directly affects public administration but also indirectly affects the entire population, preventing the needs of a vast number of people from being met. Corruption also creates unfair competition for companies that adopt fair practices in their transactions, undermines the possibility of foreign companies investing in the country, and consequently slows Brazilian economic growth, leaving a trail of misery and inequality. As highlighted by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon during a 2013 message regarding International Anticorruption Day,6 corruption is a hidden cost that raises prices and lowers quality without benefits for producers or consumers. Ban noted that crimes of corruption stifle economic growth and undermine sustainable management of countries’ natural resources, thus

(l) Bill 1,151/1995 regulates same-sex civil unions; (m) Bill 478/07 institutes the Unborn Child Statute; (n) Bill 5,139/2009 regulates public civil lawsuits for protecting diffuse, collective, or homogenous individual rights; (o) Bill 3,465/2012 grants priority for the adjudication of corruption crimes; (p) Bill of Constitutional Amendment 11/2011 prohibits ineligible people from being appointed as ministers or to similar commissioned positions. See Congresso em Foco, Os projetos da pauta prioritária ainda não votados [The still-unpassed bills of the priority agenda], h p://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/noticias/os-projetos-da-pauta-prioritaria-ainda -nao-votados. 5

Ministry of Justice (Ministério da Justiça), Reivindicações Sociais Pautam Metas Para a Enccla Combater a Corrupção (Nov. 29, 2013), h p://portal.mj.gov.br.

6

Ban Ki-Moon, Mensagem do Secretário-Geral da ONU, Ban Ki-Moon [Message from the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon], Centro de Informações das Nações Unidas—Rio de Janeiro (Dec. 2013), h p://www.unicrio.org.br/dia-internacional-contra-a-corrupcao-%E2%80%93 -9-de-dezembro-de-2010-2/. On December, 9, 2003, Brazil and 110 other countries gathered in Mérida, Mexico, to sign the UN Convention against Corruption. The date has since been celebrated as International Anticorruption Day.


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negatively affecting billions of people around the globe.7 The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that developing countries lose about US$40 billion to corruption every year.8 In the 1970s, Brazil saw the emergence of the so-called Gérson’s law (Lei de Gérson), which alluded to the behavior of pursuing advantages at any cost, assuming that people should gain as many benefits as possible without worrying about the means employed to obtain them.9 Eliana Calmon cautions that society should not lose its moral compass in the face of the behavior of the “Brazilian way of being” (jeitinho brasileiro) and Gérson’s law. Such behavior, Calmon explains, “helps people to survive, makes some even smarter and, li le by li le, creates marginal rules to circumvent obstacles, including legal ones.”10 This a itude is so ingrained in the collective unconscious of Brazil that one could say that Brazilian civil society’s inaction in the face of the innumerable acts of corruption that have occurred in the past decades is caused by the acceptance of this thesis: people keep silent because they believe that it is perfectly natural for politicians to be dishonest. Corruption has reached alarming levels in Brazil. Recent history is replete with acts of corruption in the federal government, municipalities, public hospitals, education boards, medicine distribution programs, agencies responsible for environmental supervision, and social security. Brazilians demand repressive as well as preventive state actions to promote integrity and deter improbity, misuse of funds, and corruption. The Brazilian government has been considered too weak to clearly establish the limits between what is public and what is private.11 But there are a 7

Mônica Villela Grayley, ONU diz que Corrupção Piora Situação de Pobreza e Desigualdade no Mundo [UN says that corruption worsens poverty and inequality situations in the world], Notícias e Mídia Rádio ONU (Dec. 2013), h p://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/portuguese /2013/12/onu-diz-que-corrupcao-piora-situacao-de-pobreza-e-desigualdade-no-mundo/.

8

United Nations in Brazil, Corrupção tira 40 bilhões de dólares de países em desenvolvimento, afirma ONU [Corruption takes away US$40 billion from developing countries, UN states], Nações Unidas no Brasil (July 2012), h p://www.onu.org.br/corrupcao-tira-40-bilhoes-de-dolares -de-paises-em-desenvolvimento-todo-ano-afirma-onu/.

9

It started out as a TV commercial in 1976, in which Brazilian midfielder Gérson, from the Brazilian national football (soccer) squad that won the 1970 World Cup, announced a brand of cigare es by saying: “Por que pagar mais caro se o Vila me dá tudo aquilo que eu quero de um bom cigarro? Gosto de levar vantagem em tudo, certo? Leve vantagem você também, leve Vila Rica” (“Why pay more if Vila gives me everything I want from a good cigare e? I like taking advantage of everything, right? Take advantage yourself too, take Vila Rica.”) This message was infused into Brazilian culture as a principle by which people should take advantage at any cost. Hélio Gurovi , Viva a Lei de Gérson! Superinteressante (Feb. 2004), h p://super.abril .com.br/superarquivo/2004/conteudo_313516.shtml.

10

Eliana Calmon, O jeitinho brasileiro [The Brazilian way of being], 10(20) Revista ETCO: Instituto Brasileiro de Ética Concorrencial 24–25 (Apr. 2013).

11

Leonardo Avri er clarifies recent measures taken by the Brazilian government and its effects on the community. See Leonardo Avri er, A Realidade Política Brasileira [The Brazilian political reality], Revista Carta Capital (June 1, 2011), h p://www.cartacapital.com.br/sociedade /a-realidade-politica-brasileira.


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number of ways in which this perception can be changed (and in the process reducing the level of bureaucracy in public services and improving the Brazilian economy’s competitiveness), including creating transparency with respect to public services, providing high-quality education, undertaking political reform (especially campaign finance reform), modifying the punitive system (particularly regarding punishment for crimes commi ed by politicians), and reforming the tax system. Because public resources designated for the electoral campaign system are insufficient, there is a need for reform to guarantee government sustainability at the federal, state, and local levels. A sense of impunity bred by a slow and inefficient judiciary and judicial system also hinders the reduction of corruption. The presumption of innocence and the legal possibility for an accused person to launch numerous appeals permits the perpetuation of corrupt acts, because criminal prosecution of corruption hardly ever obtains final results with final judgments, and very rarely leads to the imprisonment of those found guilty. Although they do not necessarily indicate the practice of corruption, the presence of some factors should invoke special a ention, such as those recorded by the Brazilian nongovernmental organization (NGO) Brazil Transparency (Transparência Brasil):12 lack of transparency in governmental administrative actions, absence of administrative and financial controls, subservience of the legislative and municipal councils to the executive branch, low levels of employees’ technical capabilities, absence of training for government employees, and alienation of the public regarding the budgeting process. Dedicated exclusively to fighting corruption, Brazil Transparency has been working for years on what demonstrators are now demanding in an a empt to make their voices heard. Following this introduction, the second section of this chapter describes the collaborative efforts, targeted recommendations, and results of the National Strategy for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering. The third section summarizes the robust anticorruption legislation in Brazil, including the new Anticorruption Act. The fourth section discusses how courts specializing in financial crimes and money laundering improve accountability in Brazil. The fifth section, the conclusion, offers recommendations on how to continue to improve the delivery of anticorruption and anti–money laundering strategies in Brazil.

12

Brazil Transparency develops a wide range of programs to improve prevention mechanisms, strengthen civil organizations’ supervision and control of state actions, and systematize knowledge on corruption in Brazil. See Antonio Chizzo i, José Chizzo i, João Alberto Ianhez, Antoninho Marmo Trevisan, & Josmar Verillo, O Combate à Corrupção nas Prefeituras do Brasil [Combating corruption in Brazilian municipalities], h p://www.transparencia.org .br/docs/Cartilha.html.


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The National Strategy for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering (ENCCLA) The Voice and Collaborative Involvement of Multiple Stakeholders In 2002, the Federal Justice Council’s Studies Commi ee, a Brazilian federal justice administrative office, elaborated concrete recommendations to improve investigation and prosecution of money laundering crimes through the cooperation of many sectors, from government and civil society, including representatives from federal courts, federal public prosecution offices, federal police, and the Brazilian Federation of Banks. This commi ee is considered the embryo of ENCLA, the Brazilian acronym for what in English would be National Strategy for Combating Money Laundering and Recovering Assets, which was later renamed Estratégia Nacional de Combate à Corrupção e à Lavagem de Dinheiro (ENCCLA), or National Strategy for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering. ENCCLA aims to be the central government’s voice in articulating and promoting joint actions among Brazilian public enforcement agencies to perfect the systematic prevention and repression of corruption and money laundering. ENCCLA is composed of 60 agencies and entities, including the following: public prosecution offices, police services, the judiciary, the Office of the Comptroller General (Controladoria-Geral da União), the Federal Court of Accountability (Tribunal de Contas da União), the Securities Commission of Brazil (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários), the intelligence unit of the Council for Financial Activities Control (Conselho de Controle de Atividades Financeiras), the National Superintendence for Pension Funds (Superintendência Nacional de Previdência Complementar), the Superintendence for Private Insurance (Superintendência de Seguros Privados; SUSEP), the Brazilian Federal Reserve (Banco Central do Brasil), the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Agência Brasileira de Inteligência), the Office of the Federal A orney General (Advocacia-Geral da União), and the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Federação Brasileira de Bancos). The topic of corruption was added to ENCCLA after the Federal Court of Accountability in its 2000 annual report suggested organizing a national strategy aimed at combating corruption modeled after the strategy against money laundering that had been created earlier. Brazil followed the international trend that a empts to halt this very deleterious practice. The European Commission, responsible for combating organized crime, human trafficking, and corruption, believes that “corruption is one of the particularly serious crimes with a cross-border dimension. It is often linked to other forms of serious crime, such as trafficking in drugs and human beings, and cannot be adequately addressed by EU States alone.”13 13

See Corruption: Boosting Anti-Corruption Policy at EU Level, at the European Commission, Home Affairs website, h p://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/organized -crime-and-human-trafficking/corruption/index-eu.


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Two topics are constantly covered by ENCCLA’s agenda: corrupt practices, defined as that which implies the obtainment of unjust advantages or the misuse of public funds by government employees or other third parties, and which are considered offenses in the Criminal Code and in other special legislation; and public policies capable of combating these crimes and others, including money laundering. The risks of corruption in public procurements and contracts involving services and construction related to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games have been the subject of particular a ention. Accurate examinations have been demanded, and many people are concerned by the risks that corrupt actions pose for the international community’s perception of Brazil. Thus, detecting areas, markets, and economic sectors that demand operational, regulatory, and legislative adjustments is among ENCCLA’s main actions. Other actions undertaken by ENCCLA members in recent years have shown that the collaboration of institutions from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches is very effective. Corruption and ethical deviations in the public sector—and in private corporations—are under constant vigilance. There is a serious commitment to perfecting Brazilian institutions amid a wider and inspiring social trend toward further development of public safety policies.

Delivering Recommendations and Results In its eleventh annual plenary meeting, held November 25–28, 2013, ENCCLA issued many recommendations and pronouncements, with a special emphasis on the following: 1. ENCCLA recommends that control, supervision, and criminal prosecution activities, especially those related to combating corruption and money laundering, should be considered priorities and should be preserved in their efficiency even in the face of needs of adjusting budgets; 2. ENCCLA recommends the creation of a data repository that allows the identification of companies supervised by SUSEP (Superintendence for Private Insurance), and which is modeled after the Registry of Financial System Clients (Cadastro de Clientes do Sistema Financeiro; CCS). Such a data repository should address the need to provide precise and quick information in order to identify policyholders, participants, and beneficiaries who are relevant for investigation and adjudication; 3. ENCCLA recommends the creation and strengthening—within federal, state, and local public a orney offices—of groups that specialize in combating corruption and administrative improbity, especially in connection with activities related to adjudicating and accompanying administrative improbity lawsuits, enforcement of Audit Courts decisions, civil cases involving the recovery of assets, the enforcement of civil and criminal decisions and civil cases ex delicto, as well as possible interventions as assistant prosecutor


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The World Bank Legal Review in criminal cases. It is also recommended that, whenever possible, the groups should act in partnership with other Public Administration agencies and Public Prosecution offices; 4. ENCCLA recommends immediate approval by the National Congress of legislation that criminalizes government employees’ unjust enrichment; 5. ENCCLA recommends that bills, approved by ENCCLA in 2011 and 2012, regarding (a) regulation of aspects related to apprehension, custody, transport, conversion, and destination of funds in cash withheld for noncompliance with legislation and (b) property extinction, should be sent to the National Congress; 6. ENCCLA salutes the efforts of the São Paulo Municipality’s Office of the Comptroller General as a good practice and a reference for combating corruption in large Brazilian cities; 7. ENCCLA demonstrates its support of National Goal 4, set forth by the National Justice Council (Conselho Nacional de Justiça), which gives priority to producing judgments that concern administrative improbity-related and corruption cases, in order that such judgments may consolidate into a clear pa ern that combats the problem of impunity; 8. ENCCLA emphasizes the necessity that Act No. 9,613/1998 (Money Laundering Act) should be enforced by those responsible for enforcement of regulation on new subjects.14

The 2003 creation of criminal courts that specialize in financial and money laundering crimes was a result of ENCCLA’s recommended actions. ENCCLA obtained other results in combating corruption and money laundering, including 1.

Deploying, up to 2012, approximately 11,000 agents in all regions of the country, due to the creation of the National Program for Capacitating and Training to Combat Corruption and Money Laundering (Programa Nacional de Capacitação e Treinamento para o Combate à Corrupção e à Lavagem de Dinheiro).

2.

Cementing its place as one of the most advanced countries for preventing money laundering with the implementation of the Registry of the Financial System Clients, managed by the Brazilian Federal Reserve.

3.

Enhancing speed and economy in investigations and criminal prosecution by implementing standardization for requesting and responding to bank secrecy breach requests and the respective tracking, as well as the development of the Bank Operations Investigation System (Sistema de Investigação de Movimentações Bancárias).

14

ENCCLA, Ações: ENCCLA 2014, Recomendações e Declarações, h p://www.cgu.gov.br/Imprensa /Arquivos/2013/Propostas%20de%20Acoes%20ENCCLA%202014%20Plenaria%20Final.pdf.


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4.

Optimizing investigation and criminal prosecution, simplifying the analysis of great volumes of data with the creation of the Laboratory for Technology against Money Laundering and the replication of this model in other parts of the country, creating an integrated technology network oriented toward combating corruption and money laundering.

5.

Gaining greater control over corruption with a draft for patrimonial inquiry to discipline filing assets that are part of government employees’ private property. This draft culminated in Decree No. 5,483/2005.

6.

Gaining greater transparency and control over corruption with the regulation of government agencies’ access to accounting documents on entities hired by the public administration, culminating in Interministerial Ordinance No. 127/2008.

7.

Enhancing modernization and greater border control with the registry of national territory entering/exiting activity.

8.

Enhancing effectiveness in cu ing criminal organizations’ financial fluxes with the creation of the National System for Seized Goods (Sistema Nacional de Bens Apreendidos), managed by the National Justice Council, and the promotion of “anticipated alienation” of these assets before final decisions, later modified by Act No. 12,683/2012 and Act No. 12,694/2012.

9.

Computerizing the judiciary’s access to the Internal Revenue Service branch thanks to the creation of the System for Supplying Information to the Judicial Branch (Sistema de Fornecimento de Informações ao Poder Judiciário; INFOJUD).

10. Enhancing publicity, transparency, and social control with the creation of the Registry of Nonreputable and Suspect Entities (Cadastro de Entidades Inidôneas e Suspeitas), maintained by the Office of the Federal Comptroller General. 11. Enhancing publicity, transparency, and control with the creation of the National Registry of Social Entities (Cadastro Nacional de Entidades Sociais), managed by the Department of Justice. 12. Enhancing effectiveness in investigating and prosecuting financial crimes with the creation of police departments that specialize in financial crimes, within the federal police service. 13. Increasing the specialization of Brazilian authorities in combating organized crime by assembling the National Group for Combating Criminal Organizations (Grupo Nacional de Combate às Organizações Criminosas), at the state public prosecution level. 14. Increasing effectiveness in controlling cross-border money operations with the computerization of documents regarding the inflow and outflow of assets in the country. 15. Providing greater transparency and control with the creation of an electronic list of people convicted by federal courts and a National Justice


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The World Bank Legal Review Council recommendation for the creation of a similar list at the state justice level.

16. Enhancing Brazil’s adherence to international standards for the prevention of money laundering with the definition of “politically exposed people” (Pessoas Politicamente Expostas) and the regulation of the financial system’s obligation regarding them. 17. Providing greater effectiveness of justice with the possibility of searching for evidence in other countries with the consolidation of a central authority for international legal cooperation. 18. Enabling greater control of a sector susceptible to criminality with the regulation of the acquisition and use of prepaid bankcards and similar tools, in order to prevent offenses and identify suspicious bank operations. 19. Diffusing knowledge with the creation of WICCLA, a Wiki encyclopedia for combating money laundering and corruption with information on such topics as action pa erns used by criminals when commi ing crimes, legislation regarding these topics, and databases available to government agencies. 20. Improving the legal system with the elaboration of many bills and proposals of changes in ongoing bills on such topics as criminal organizations, money laundering (Act No. 12,683/2012), loss of ownership of property acquired with illicit money, statutes of limitation, lobbying, bank and tax secrecy, administrative improbity, and legal persons’ liability.15

Delivering Anticorruption Legislation to Increase Accountability Because corruption has a cross-border reach, the international community has adopted many treatises and conventions related to it. Brazil is a signatory to the UN Convention against Corruption (Mérida Convention), enacted in 2006. The Mérida Convention was a legal milestone in the fight against corruption. Within the Organization of American States, Brazil is a signatory to the InterAmerican Convention against Corruption of 2002, and to the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (OECD Convention) of 2000. The Brazilian government’s efforts to combat corruption led to the extension of an invitation to join the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The OGP is an international initiative launched in 2010 by U.S. president Barack Obama that aims to secure concrete government commitments in the areas of promoting transparency, fighting corruption, and developing new technologies capable of making governments more open, effective, and responsible.16 15

Department of Justice, h p://portal.mj.gov.br/main.asp.

16

See Office of the Comptroller General (Controladoria-Geral da União), Prevenção da Corrupção [Preventing corruption], h p://www.cgu.gov.br/PrevencaodaCorrupcao/CompromissosIn ternacionais/index.asp.


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In the legislative field, the Anticorruption Act (No. 12,846) of August 1, 2013, was partly motivated by the popular demonstrations starting in June 2013 that evidenced society’s rejection of corrupt practices and its distrust of the country’s institutions. The act originated in the Chamber of Deputies in 2001; although it was analyzed by Congress for years, it was sent to the Senate in 2013 as a ma er of urgency because of these demonstrations. The act, which became effective in January 2014, intends to halt corruption and other practices that harm the public sector. The legislature heard the population’s voice regarding anticorruption. The Anticorruption Act is based on international instruments for combating corruption, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In effect since 1977, the FCPA is an innovative legislation that prohibits American companies from offering bribes to foreign government employees. The British equivalent is the 2011 UK Bribery Act. The Brazilian Anticorruption Act is aimed at complying with international commitments assumed by Brazil. Its main characteristic is the adoption of strict liability (civil and administrative) for legal entities involved in practices against national or international public administrations. This legislation does not exempt managers, directors, or any other individuals who act as accomplices in any unlawful action from their individual liability. It penalizes companies for acts against public administration commi ed by employees. Companies are now responsible for the payment of any bribes to government employees made by their employees, thus dissuading company agents from engaging in such actions. The statute has mechanisms for recovering public goods. It imposes sanctions that affect companies’ revenues and possibly allow for the loss of some goods, thus signaling a greater possibility of recovering public assets. There is the possibility of implementing a fine of 20 percent of a company’s annual gross revenue, which may never be less than the net profit. If the gross revenue criterion is somehow inapplicable, the fine may reach a limit of R$60 million (around US$30 million). Moreover, these sanctions do not exempt any obligation to compensate for any damage caused under the act. Another highlight of the legislation is the possibility for public entities (the Office of the Comptroller General, the Office of State Inspectors, Public Prosecutors, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense, and other state and local public agencies) to sign leniency agreements with companies responsible for harmful acts, as long as they effectively collaborate with investigations. Even though leniency agreements do not exempt transgressors from their obligation of completely compensating for damage, they offer such advantages as reducing fines by two-thirds, exempting impeached companies from publication of their conviction, and exempting such companies from the prohibition of incentives, subsidies, and loans from public institutions. Leniency agreements should be handled with confidentiality so no harm is generated against the presumed innocence of any persons involved. The


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confidentiality of companies’ contributions is a determining characteristic of these agreements, under penalty of causing them great damage. Leniency agreements are conditioned on the immediate cessation of an accused person’s participation in the violation, as well as the admission of the person’s guilt in being involved in the legal transgression. The agreements are also based on the assumption of effective cooperation with investigations and administrative procedures, identification of other transgressors, and timely delivery of information and documents that demonstrate criminal conduct. Some aspects of the Anticorruption Act, which went into effect in January 2014, deserve examination even at this early juncture. These include the severe sanctions contained in Article 19 that are supposed to be applied to offending legal entities (such as the loss of assets that constitute benefits obtained, directly or indirectly, from the offense); the compulsory dissolution of legal entities; prohibition on receiving any incentives, subsidies, subventions, donations, or government loans; the absence of technical and legal criteria for administrative decisions; the regulation of the statute; the parameters for evaluating such mechanisms and procedures; the harmonization of the act with guidelines adopted by other countries; and the ways in which small and medium-sized companies can adopt compliance measures. Sanctions are important measures used in halting the commission of offenses, but they should encompass a greater set of activities involved in the field of risk prevention. Effective compliance programs can mitigate sanctions imposed when the legal entity is able to demonstrate “the existence of mechanisms and internal procedures of integrity, audit and incentive for filing complaints about irregularities and the effective application of ethics and conduct codes within the legal entity.”17 This rule on internal audits, which is one of the act’s best reforms, stimulates the implementation or the strengthening of business compliance programs whose main goal is to act according to the law. It is a legal improvement that will use companies’ internal procedures and policies as mechanisms to minimize punishment. The Anticorruption Act creates, at the federal executive branch level, the National Registry of Punished Companies (Cadastro Nacional de Empresas Punidas), which publicizes convicted companies, making it easier for people to verify sanctions applied to those companies. The act also provides extraterritorial coverage as demonstrated in Article 28, which states that the act is applicable to “harmful actions commi ed by Brazilian legal entities against foreign public administrations, even when commi ed in foreign lands.” By creating instruments that make it easier for people to identify those responsible for infractions, organize information about the investigations, and promote whistle-blowing as well as mechanisms for companies to incorporate ethical practices, the act should be effective in the prevention and repression 17

Art. 7, ch. VIII, Act No. 12,846/2013.


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of criminal actions involving public administrators and private entities, which should have been eradicated long ago. Transparency and access to information—both guaranteed as rights of the citizen and duties of the state in the Brazilian constitution—aim at repelling corrupt practices and are inserted in many laws, including the Tax Responsibility Complimentary Act (Lei Complementar de Responsabilidade Fiscal; Act No. 101, of May 4, 2000), which regulates how public expenses should be used primarily on social programs and in the maintenance and development of health, security, and education services; the Transparency Complimentary Act (Lei Complementar da Transparência; Act No. 131, of May 27, 2009); and the Information Access Act (Lei de Acesso à Informação; Act No. 12,527, of November 18, 2011). Brazil also has Act No. 8,429, of June 2, 1992, which concerns acts of administrative improbity and emphasizes sanctions that should be applied to government employees in cases that involve their unjust enrichment while performing a mandate, post, job, or a function within the public administration (directly or indirectly). The act can, by extension, punish legal entities involved in such situations. It directly reaches all agents that have contact with public funds—even though their activity may be strictly private—as well as holders of elected office. The act does not remove other responsibilities within the criminal, administrative, and political spheres, allowing judges with civil jurisdiction to apply the requisite sanctions against transgressors. The Public Procurement Act (No. 8,666, of June 21, 1993) defines crimes against the public administration by public managers and employees in cases of government procurements and contracts. The Clean Record Complimentary Act (Lei Complementar da Ficha Limpa; Act No. 135, of June 4, 2010) can also be considered a landmark for democracy and the fight against corruption and impunity. It renders ineligible for eight years any candidate with a revoked mandate or a conviction by a collegiate organ (even when there is still the possibility of an appeal), or who has resigned in order to avoid revocation. The Brazilian Criminal Procedure Code, amended by Act No. 12,403, of May 4, 2011, established that government employees may be removed from their duties as an alternative to preventive arrest. However, this modification, combined with an appeals system that allows a multiplicity of judicial reviews, in addition to the possibility of filing habeas corpus petitions against any decision—even when the defendant is not imprisoned—deserves new reflection in the face of the need for a quick, effective system against corruption. Brazil has also advanced in combating money laundering. Among the many measures undertaken to repress this kind of crime is the mapping and identification of the mechanisms that transform criminally acquired funds from criminal organizations into “lawful” funds.


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Act No. 12,683/2012, of July 9, 2012, which amended Act No. 9,613, of March 3, 1998 (criminalizing money laundering), removed its list of predicate crimes and categorized the acts of money laundering and concealment of the illicit origin of funds derived from any criminal activity as separate and apart from the acts constituting other offenses. The new rules, inserted by the legislative change that occurred in July 2012, aimed at increasing state efficiency as an important tool against organized crime. Act No. 12,850, of August 2, 2013, which defines criminal organization and regulates criminal investigation, the means for obtaining evidence, related infractions, and criminal procedure, also constitutes a great advancement in Brazilian legislation. In addition to these legal statutes, principles and programs concerned with institutional and legal reform have been the subject of discussions in many countries that are signatories of international agreements. These agreements seek to obtain a set of institutional arrangements, management roles, controls, and regulations that may create opportunities to develop integrity and transparency, and reduce the risk of behaviors that violate ethical principles. The Office of the Federal Comptroller General (CGU) created the program Transparent Brazil (Brasil Transparente) to aid states and municipalities in the implementation of government transparency policies required by the Information Access Act. The Federal Government Transparency Portal, launched in November 2004, is a CGU initiative created to secure the correct use of public resources. Its goal is to increase public management transparency, allowing citizens to monitor the use of public funds and help with supervision.18 This initiative considers transparency to be the best antidote to corruption; it is a mechanism that induces public managers to act responsibly and allows citizens to collaborate in controlling government officials’ actions by enabling them to check whether public resources are being employed as they should. Transparency’s strength is greatly relevant for the improvement of state policies, as highlighted by the considerations of Jorge Hage, chief minister of the Office of the Federal Comptroller General, who listed the following advances experienced in Brazil: The emphasis in opening public actions and expenses to broad public scrutiny, by means of concrete and even radical measures (considering our centuries-old secrecy tradition and obscurity within Public Administration), such as the Transparency Portal; the construction of a System of Internal Affairs Services in all sectors of the federal government, which is entombing the sense of impunity that had always prevailed, and now accounts for more than four thousand government employees expelled from the Administration for unacceptable behavior; and the articulation among organs responsible for the internal control of the Executive Branch, police authorities

18

See h p://www.portaltransparencia.gov.br/sobre.


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and Public Prosecution, which has resulted in thousands of lawsuits for improbity or other criminal behaviors.19

Improving Accountability: Specialized Courts for Financial Crimes and Money Laundering In considering current legal statutes and governmental initiatives aimed at combating corruption, the specialization of trial courts in financial crimes and money laundering—created in 2003 by Resolution No. 314/2003 of the Federal Justice Council (Conselho da Justiça Federal)—brought great contributions that positively enhanced the agility and flexibility of criminal prosecution. Resolution No. 517/2006 broadened this jurisdiction, allowing the inclusion of crimes commi ed by criminal organizations. Such specialization represented an improvement in the quality of decisions, information exchange among many investigative agencies, and greater interaction in the use of control mechanisms in financial and bank activities. Crimes within these specialized jurisdictions are usually transnational and demand a greater specialization of the authorities involved. Legal cooperation among law enforcement agencies is frequently undertaken and involves the recovery of public assets, the breach the bank and tax privacies, and the seizure and forfeiture of goods and assets involved. Furthermore, anticipatory alienation of assets determined by federal courts before the issuing of final decisions occurs with greater frequency. This is because it is usually impracticable to preserve seized assets for years, because significant deterioration occurs due to the slowness or inefficiency of the judicial proceedings. Moreover, funds budgeted for preserving seized assets are usually lacking. In the case of an acqui al, the defendant receives a compensatory amount (which results from the former anticipatory alienation of goods) instead of an asset that has deteriorated in quality or value. Criminal investigations and procedures involving these crimes generate an enormous amount of paper (or electronic files) that require increased a ention and demand correct and careful classification. Yet there is also a need for flexibility and agility—arguably a true answer to the anxiety of the wider community—as well as a need for rapid productivity that corresponds to the volume of cases that have commenced (“mass magistracy”), despite the need for a step-by-step verification during the process. The maxim that “anything goes in order to reach production rates” can be true only if it is accompanied by effective work, seriousness, honesty, and supportive conditions. The anxiety level of judges immersed in this scenario is heightened because they are torn between the demands for fast and speedy decision making and their consideration of well-established values. Clearly, judges currently work 19

Jorge Hage, A força da Transparência, 10(20) Revista ETCO: Instituto Brasileiro de Ética Concorrencial 22–23 (April 2013).


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under high expectations that there will be greater efficiency in obtaining evidence and adjudicating cases under more stringent time constraints. One should not forget the concept of legal interests, intended, according to Claus Roxin, as an unalienable requirement “for a peaceful conviviality among men, founded on liberty and equality.” Meanwhile, another requirement, the subsidiarity of criminal law, is defined by the same German professor as “a preference for less restrictive socio-political measures.”20 What comes into question here is not a mere symbolic criminal norm— presumably ineffective—but the real recognition of the indispensability of state intervention, expressed in and through the protection of an authentic legal interest. When considered in this light, it becomes apparent that one can thus avoid any primary legal damage from being perpetuated in the public perception that authorities are vested with the power to repress and prevent certain unlawful acts, and that this power is further legitimized and bulwarked by evident social support and, further, is resonant and in alignment with commonly and widely held social values. In this light, therefore, the claim of intangible abstraction does not properly fit into the analysis, since a rejection of such corrupt or unlawful practices is clearly found within the conscience of the common citizen, on both an individual and a societal level. The line of reasoning here weakens and invalidates the notion that civil and administrative compensatory claims would suffice in combating the crime. Specialized financial courts improve accountability—in terms of both upholding criminal financial accountability and holding the judiciary also accountable for effectively adjudicating financial crimes. Without specialized financial courts, it would be difficult to have any form of accurate familiarity with financial operations that must inform judicial outcomes and decisions. Financial transactions and operations are barely taught during the undergraduate years of law school, which reveals a significant need to constantly update legal education and the court system in order to legally address the kind of financial transactional creativity that surrounds the practice of money laundering, crime, and corruption. It is indispensable that the various authorities charged with the suppression of these crimes come together, thereby making possible the exchange and acquisition of know-how that enables all of them (chiefs of police, prosecutors, and federal judges) to encounter, combat, and address this kind of criminality in a proper and unified way. One of the political impacts of the implementation of such courts is the motivation of formal institutions of power (e.g., the police, federal prosecutors, and the Council for Financial Intelligence Unit) to combat such crimes, making them take up sound and adequate measures to effect this end, includ20

Cf. Luiz Greco, Que comportamentos pode o Estado proibir sob ameaça de pena? Sobre a legitimação das proibições penais [Which behaviors can the state prohibit with criminal sanctions? A study about the legitimacy of criminal punishments] 2 (Luiz Greco trans., Financial Criminal Law Seminar March 2004).


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ing the relocation of members interested in the suppression of these crimes, as well as greater focus and cooperation of everyone. It is important to keep in mind that the coordination of the above-mentioned institutions contributes to a growing number of government employees with knowledge in the field of anticorruption and money laundering, which helps enable solutions to even the greatest difficulties or problems associated with money laundering crimes—particularly, the difficulties that arise in tracing and uncovering the linkages between illegal assets and the crime that gave rise to them. Developing such a coordinated specialization in the difficult task of tracing linkages between assets and criminal activity enables the avoidance of parallel, and often conflicting, investigations by different authorities. Coordination also lends clarity to the process by allowing everyone to know to whom and where a request should be made. This stands in contrast to a situation without coordination and specialization in linking assets to criminal activity, where all processes would surely be extremely different, and inefficiently diffuse. The social panorama has changed as well; there is now a common societal consciousness of the need to repress money laundering and financial crimes. Recent federal police operations demonstrate that some crimes, especially money laundering, have enabled criminal organizations to commit such serious offenses as capital flight, corruption, and fraud, and the general public is aware of this. To combat criminality, there is some need for the invasion of privacy. However, so as not to surrender to the parallel power represented by organized crime, the state should be armed with appropriate means for investigation.21 There is no shortage of difficulties for judges adjudicating the voluminous cases for which the judiciary is responsible. There are voluminous amounts of paper, files, and documents that must be organized and numbered for subsequent judicial decisions to be made in a reasonable amount of time. Personal meetings with lawyers, prosecutors, and police chiefs have increased greatly in recent years, demanding a greater amount of judges’ time in carrying out these activities. To demonstrate all of the different phases of money laundering schemes, most legal proceedings are necessarily confidential. This situation generates considerable discussion associated with frequent requests made by lawyers who want access to investigation-related documents. Judges are also constantly being asked to issue decisions with urgency despite having to preside over complex court hearings. Regarding the economic environment, specialization aims at allowing illegally acquired assets to be recovered by the judiciary so that the assets will not be tradable in the market. For the protection of investors, this should always be effected through transparent processes. The efforts of the Brazilian 21

See Mário de Magalhães Papaterra Limongi, Mudança de postura [Change of a itude], O Estado de S. Paulo, Jan. 14, 2013.


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Department of Justice’s Office for Recovering Assets and International Legal Cooperation (Departamento de Recuperação de Ativos e Cooperação Jurídica Internacional) are instrumental in tracking down, freezing, and recovering assets acquired through criminal acts. All things considered, there is a clear demand for assembling adequate structures to properly equip specialized courts to deal with specialized criminal activities. Without these courts, society would continue to feel unequally treated in white-collar crimes and money laundering, generating more skepticism toward the work and effectiveness of enforcement agencies. The idea of discrimination in criminal courts, however, assumes an unjustifiably unequal treatment for similar situations. The peculiarities inherent to money laundering and financial crimes themselves demonstrate how difficult it is to reveal, investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate (in a reasonable amount of time) these cases. Nevertheless, the feeling that criminal decisions are arbitrary and subjective—a sentiment already widely expressed in Brazil—would hardly abate if the state was not capable of effectively addressing such difficulties. Failure to do so would, in the eyes of society, delegitimize criminal prosecution, which in turn would enhance risks to institutional security, especially if society develops a paramount sense of skepticism toward the legitimacy of criminal prosecution in the courts and by authorities. Criminal justice faces serious risks if it is not able to mitigate or eradicate historical inequalities that exist within its system. As an example, those who possess a degree, are financially well-off, and do not have a criminal record would receive privileged treatment during criminal prosecution, especially in its initial phases of prosecution.22 Such political, social, and economic landscapes demand the assembling of a structure compatible with public expectations generated by the creation of specialized courts. Such courts are under pressure to evaluate a great number of secrecy breaches (tax and bank secrecy), communication intercepts, and seizure and forfeiture procedures—all of which demand constant and immediate action by the judge in extremely delicate cases that cannot be solved with hurried readings. It should be noted that, because these procedures are mostly confidential, lawyers must justify their requests to verify and access all documents and files associated with such cases. Such requests, together with lawyers’ legal

22

In spite of the enormous exposition reached by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, which read “les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits,” the first legal document to prescribe them was the Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776, affirming that “all men by nature are equally free and independent and have certain rights.” Such formulations were conceived in an abstract manner. Even during the medieval period, there were reflections about the importance of equality, namely, in the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas and, in general, in the whole Aristotelian thought, in which one could equate justice with equality (i.e., they were synonyms). To be just, or to be fair, is to be equal, and to be unjust is to be unequal.


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rights and prerogatives, have caused frequent debates and discussions that have halted or delayed judicial proceedings. Legal proceedings undertaken by court employees have become voluminous and complex, and require detailed analyses of procedures to rectify irregularities and allow removal of ma ers unrelated to the courts’ jurisdiction. The number of court staff assigned to common criminal courts is inadequate and needs to be increased. Also needed is adequate physical space to store the volumes of confidential documents generated by these cases and proceedings. Thus, specialized courts, despite their benefits, are hindered by obstacles that inhibit quick adjudication. This situation would greatly improve, and normalcy be established, if future specialized courts were created based on statistically verified needs, a detailed consideration of the jurisdiction, and the number of judges and employees needed. Recommendation No. 31 of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) clearly states that all FATF member-states must provide authorities involved in combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism with adequate financial, technical, and human resources to guarantee the functionality of the crime prevention and repression system.23 This applies to the federal police, federal prosecutors, and superior courts, so they can avoid the application of statutes of limitation. To keep specialization from constituting a frustrated a empt to suppress and prevent financial/economic criminality, specialized courts’ needs must be addressed. Otherwise, the initiative could be delegitimized, despite the solid and valid arguments in its favor. Specialized courts give hope for improvement in public safety by making it more difficult to carry out organized crime and, consequently, discouraging criminal practice. Further, by running efficiently and fighting crime adequately, specialized courts would create the sense that the law applies to everyone and that the 23

“When conducting investigations of money laundering, associated predicate offences and terrorist financing, competent authorities should be able to obtain access to all necessary documents and information for use in those investigations, and in prosecutions and related actions. This should include powers to use compulsory measures for the production of records held by financial institutions, DNFBPs and other natural or legal persons, for the search of persons and premises, for taking witness statements, and for the seizure and obtaining of evidence. Countries should ensure that competent authorities conducting investigations are able to use a wide range of investigative techniques suitable for the investigation of money laundering, associated predicate offences and terrorist financing. These investigative techniques include: undercover operations, intercepting communications, accessing computer systems and controlled delivery. In addition, countries should have effective mechanisms in place to identify, in a timely manner, whether natural or legal persons hold or control accounts. They should also have mechanisms to ensure that competent authorities have a process to identify assets without prior notification to the owner. When conducting investigations of money laundering, associated predicate offences and terrorist financing, competent authorities should be able to ask for all relevant information held by the FIU.” See FATF Recommendations, No. 31, h p://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/recom mendations/pdfs/FATF_Recommendations.pdf.


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utility and legitimacy of legal statutes exist. Specialized courts allow nations to recover their credibility, strengthening the democratic institutions that support and generate the rule of law. If specialized courts function effectively, the well-being of society improves and social and economic benefits are generated, thanks to the strengthened sense that national issues are being efficiently resolved. The Brazilian experience in implementing specialized courts has proved successful, generating hope that criminal law can be an effective instrument that finds workable solutions to social conflicts. A 2010 report by the FATF demonstrates that Brazil significantly improved its ability to prosecute money laundering and financial crimes (including crimes of corruption) by implementing a system of federal specialized courts. Currently, according to the Brazilian Department of Justice’s Recovering Assets and International Legal Cooperation Office, Brazil has had US$3 billion seized in other countries, of which US$40 million has already been brought back to Brazil.24 Even if Brazil has not advanced enough in adjudicating legal proceedings—as evidenced by the low number of final decisions—foreign states should still authorize the liberation of blocked assets, for it should be noted that ENCCLA issued its “Recommendation 3”25 endorsing such specialized courts as indispensable and recommending their continuance. Currently, Brazil has 25 criminal courts in 15 states that are dedicated to adjudicating financial crimes and money laundering. In 2012, the Brazilian judiciary commenced 1,763 new cases involving corruption and money laundering, and 3,742 new cases related to the practice of administrative improbity.26 There were 1,637 verdicts handed down in 2012, resulting in 205 unappealable convictions. The total number of active corruption, money laundering, and improbity cases in the Brazilian courts reached 25,799 by the end of 2012.27 Actions undertaken by the National Justice Council that established “Goal 18”—which resolved that 76,793 cases related to corruption, administrative improbity, and crimes against public administration should be adjudicated by 24

Rafania Almeida, O mais luxuoso dos crimes: Legislação avança no combate à lavagem de dinheiro, mas criminosos inovam nas formas de omitir os ganhos e de explicar o enriquecimento ilícito [The most luxurious crime: Law improves the fight against money laundering, but criminals create new ways of concealing ill-go en resources and justifying unjust enrichment], 3(8) A República: Associação Nacional dos Procuradores da República 10–13 (Dec. 2013).

25

See Department of Justice, h p://portal.mj.gov.br/main.asp.

26

Jorge Vasconcellos & Gilson Luiz Euzébio, Justiça condena 205 por corrupção, lavagem e improbidade em 2012 [Judiciary convicts 205 for corruption, laundering, and improbity in 2012], h p://www.cnj.jus.br/noticias/cnj/24270:justica-condena-205-por-corrupcao-lavagem-e-im probidade-em-2012.

27

At the time of writing this chapter, the National Council of Justice still had not consolidated statistical data for 2013 regarding crimes of corruption and money laundering, even though they were sent by the courts of the country.


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the end of 2013 (as indeed, they were)28—signify that the trials related to those crimes are now a high priority. Celerity in investigating and judging processes will bring positive results; the quicker the actions of authorities, the greater the effect on stifling crime.

Conclusions Reducing corruption in Brazil is an issue of necessity and practical significance. Productivity and national development are intrinsically connected to the country’s ability to demonstrate that it can overcome its limitations. In the words of Marilza M. Benevides: Let us remember, once again, that organizations are made of people and that there are no rules of conduct that can take head-on the human condition that enables moral and other more complex weaknesses to surface. The need for legislators and regulators to intervene and for organized society to mobilize is a means to mitigate the risks posed by such moral and complex weaknesses that surface through human creativity. From legislators, we should expect clear regulations, in addition to adequate monitoring, supervision, and a consistent system of punishment. From market players, we should expect mobilization and activism. When all these parts come together, the light at the end of the tunnel starts to shine.29

Encouraging ethical behavior is essential: “In a world where almost everything is public, ethics is an often overlooked or hidden asset, which allows crises to be overcome like no other. It is as if there was magic: even where there is only a slight presence of ethical sensibilities, much can be achieved. Ethical sensibility and behavior should be managed with the same dedication used to manage our best assets, because it is capital.”30 Brazil’s sustainable development must be linked to the consolidation of society, where ethics and transparency set the tone and where civil society— here taken to mean the actions of each and every citizen—and state agencies are united in a common desire to build a society commi ed to collective welfare. There is no doubt that Brazil has enough legislative tools and public policies to tackle corruption, money laundering, and financial crimes. Many

28

Márcio Pacelli, Maior Cooperação Internacional Ajuda Brasil a “Combater Crimes de Corrupção, Afirma Conselheiro [Greater international cooperation helps Brazil face corruption crimes, counselor states], CNJ July 9, 2013, h p://cnj.jus.br/noticias/cnj/25375-maior-cooperacao-in ternacional-ajuda-brasil-a.

29

Marilza M. Benevides, É a ética do mercado! Que ética? Há enormes desafios a serem enfrentados até que o Brasil avance no combate à corrupção” [It is the ethic of the market! What ethic? There are huge challenges facing Brazil in the fight against corruption], (h p://www.jornalda paulista.com.br/site/page.

30

Ricardo Young, A mágica oculta [The occult magic] 10(20) ETCO: Instituto Brasileiro de Ética Concorrencial 29–29 (Apr. 2013).


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governmental agencies have joined forces in the a empt to create measures to confront bold criminality. The actions of the task force created in the state of São Paulo to reduce organized crime serve as an example that should be recognized and emulated. A 2013 pronouncement by ENCCLA stated that it gave its “unconditional support for the actions of the Task Force [which was] created in order to identify, track down, block, and seize assets of illegal origin that have been financing violent criminal organizations in the State of São Paulo.”31 The judgment of Criminal Case No. 470 (the Mensalão case) in 2012 by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court was a landmark case in Brazil’s investigation and adjudication of corruption and money laundering cases. The Supreme Federal Court found that there was a scheme of illegal funding that was intended to distribute money to congressmen of the governing coalition during the government of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This money was supposedly used to generate a slush fund used in electoral campaigns and for bribes to congressmen for their support of the federal government’s agenda. The recent imprisonment of those convicted demonstrated publicly that actions were being taken by the federal police, public prosecution, and judiciary, suggesting that the country is acting to correct its course. The revelation that public funds had been diverted to supply the “Mensalão” scheme, with spurious payments made to many congressmen, left no one in any doubt that the public interest had been brazenly neglected.32 The Brazilian judicial criminal system’s sluggishness and inefficiency is recognized by its citizens and the international community. These problems need to be reviewed in order to be er enforce penalties for crimes, including corruption, practiced against public administration. There is a need for new reflections on the multiple tiers of judicial review that exist before decisions against corrupt acts and crimes can be made final. It is important to strengthen the work of federal criminal specialized courts in financial crimes and money laundering, given that those courts have secured good results in combating corruption. Brazilian legislation needs to be reviewed—specifically the areas of criminal law and criminal procedure, and especially with respect to criminal penalties, requirements for provisional release, and the appeals system. In this light, civil society, the judiciary, prosecutors, and government agencies should collectively and cooperatively be engaged in addressing these legislative ma ers so as to diminish the country’s high levels of corruption. 31

Department of Justice, ENCCLA, h p://portal.mj.gov.br/main.asp?View={7AE041E8-8FD4 -472C-9C08-68DD0FB0A795}&BrowserType=IE&params=itemID%3D%7B70EFA623%2D3C EA%2D4B8D%2DAA9C%2D160F6EB41BA9%7D%3B&UIPartUID=%7B2868BA3C%2D1C7 2%2D4347%2DBE11%2DA26F70F4CB26%7D.

32

These events occurred between 2003 and 2005, during the government of former president Lula.


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One area of legislation that is currently being improved is the criminalization of government employees’ unjust enrichment from corruption. As discussed earlier, Brazil has undertaken international commitments (with the United Nations and the Organization of the American States) to combat unjust enrichment, but the lack of clear legal definitions makes it difficult for the country to comply with these treaties. Bill No. 236, of 2012, which will amend the Criminal Code,33 intends to criminalize the unjust enrichment of government employees, enabling punishment of those who acquire, sell, lend, rent, receive, give, utilize, or benefit from goods and assets—movable or immovable—and which value is proportionately incompatible with the employee’s earnings as is generated by his or her job and any other lawful means (Article 277). Thus, the popular demonstrations experienced in recent decades in Brazil, most notably the demonstrations in June and July 2013, reflect Brazilian society’s rejection and intolerance of corruption. The institutionalization of ENCCLA also reflects this popular feeling, as does the recent enactment of important laws to prevent and combat corruption and money laundering, including the creation of specialized courts in financial and money laundering crimes. These actions are indicative of significant improvements in the capacity and political will to diminish and eradicate corruption that has long existed in Brazil. Yet systemic deficiencies and vulnerabilities mentioned throughout this chapter must be corrected to ensure that corruption and money laundering are effectively fought and that the fight is conducted in full harmony with the specific strategies undertaken by, first, ENCCLA’s proposals and, second, the wider concerns of the Brazilian population.

33

The Criminal Code is undergoing legislative procedures and waiting for amendments to be presented.



19

Development-Oriented Alternatives to Debarment as an Anticorruption Accountability Tool FRANK A. FARIELLO JR.

AND

GIOVANNI BO

The sanctions system is one of the World Bank’s primary tools for imposing accountability for fraud and corruption by private sector actors in connection with its operations.1 The system originated in 1996 in response to World Bank President James Wolfensohn’s determination to proceed forcefully against corruption in Bank-supported operations.2 The system was operationalized in 1998 as an internal administrative process, designed to assist the World Bank in upholding its fiduciary duty under the Articles of Agreement to ensure that the funds entrusted to it are used for the purposes intended, by providing a way for the Bank to exclude corrupt actors from Bank-financed procurement—a step commonly referred to as “debarment.” More precisely, debarment is a declaration that a firm or individual is ineligible for the award of Bank-financed contracts or further participation in the implementation of Bank-financed operations.

The authors wish to thank Christopher R. Yukins, professor of government contract law and codirector of the Government Procurement Law Program, The George Washington University Law School; Yasutomo Morigiwa, professor of jurisprudence, Nagoya University Graduate School of Law; Tina Søreide, economist at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen and Chr. Michelsen Institute; M. Rohil Hafeez, manager in the Integrity and AML/CTF unit of IFC’s Risk Management and Portfolio Vice Presidency; and Roman Majtan, procurement analyst in the World Bank’s General Services Department, who acted as peer reviewers for this chapter and provided us with invaluable insights. The views expressed in this chapter are, nevertheless, solely those of the authors, as are any remaining defects or inaccuracies. 1

An analysis of the broader World Bank Group sanctions system as it works at the Bank’s sister institutions, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), is beyond the scope of this chapter; as of this writing, only the Bank has seen actual sanctions cases. Nevertheless, many of the same considerations apply to those institutions.

2

At the beginning of the Wolfensohn presidency, corruption was rarely mentioned in international development circles as a major obstacle to development. One year into his tenure, Wolfensohn gave a groundbreaking “cancer of corruption” speech to the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meeting, citing corruption as a “major barrier to sound and equitable development.” See James D. Wolfensohn, Annual Meetings Address (Oct. 1, 1996), h p://go.worldbank.org/PUC5BB8060. Since then, corruption has become widely recognized as a major obstacle to development that the Bank has tackled aggressively by supporting hundreds of anticorruption programs in its client countries and sanctioning more than 650 companies and individuals on grounds of fraud or corrupt activity. See World Bank Off. Suspension & Debarment, Report on Functions, Data, and Lessons Learned, 2007–2013 4 (World Bank 2014), h p://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTOFFEVASUS/Resources/OSD Report.pdf.

415


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Since 1998, the system has evolved toward a quasi-judicial model, with increasing transparency and due process protections, while retaining its administrative nature. As a result of reforms approved by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors in 2004 and 2006,3 the sanctions system now consists of a two-tier adjudicative process, with a first level of review carried out by a Bank officer and, in contested cases, a second level of review by the World Bank Group Sanctions Board, an independent body composed of three Bank staff and four non-Bank staff members who consider the case de novo and make a final, nonappealable decision. The reforms in 2006 added a range of additional possible sanctions: debarment with conditional release, conditional non-debarment,4 le ers of reprimand,5 and restitution.6 In 2010, the “baseline,” or default, sanction was changed to debarment with conditional release. Yet a recent review of the sanctions system found that debarment (with or without conditions for release) remains far and away the most commonly imposed sanction, accounting for 93 percent of all sanctions imposed by the system.7

3

The Bank’s sanctions procedures are based on recommendations made by Dick Thornburgh in his Report concerning the Debarment Processes of the World Bank (hereinafter Thornburgh Report). See Dick Thornburgh et al., Report concerning the Debarment Processes of the World Bank 5–6 (World Bank 2002), h p://siteresources.worldbank.org/PROCUREMENT /Resources/thornburghreport.pdf.

4

A party that is sanctioned with conditional non-debarment remains eligible to be awarded Bank-financed contracts provided that compliance with certain defined conditions within a set time frame is met. However, failure to comply with the conditions for release results in the party’s debarment for a defined period of time. Compliance is determined by the World Bank integrity compliance officer (ICO) and is subject to the same procedure as for conditions for release from debarment. Conditional non-debarment is normally applied in cases where the respondent has already taken comprehensive voluntary corrective measures, and the circumstances otherwise indicate that the respondent need not be debarred. Conditional non-debarment may also be applied to parents and other affiliates of respondents in cases where they were not engaged in misconduct but when a systemic failure to supervise made the misconduct possible. See World Bank, Sanctioning Guidelines (Jan. 1, 2011), h p:// go.worldbank.org/CVUUIS7HZ0 (hereinafter, Sanctioning Guidelines).

5

Le ers of reprimand are generally imposed when debarment and conditional non-debarment are disproportionate to the offense. In such cases, the Bank issues a le er of reprimand to the sanctioned party. Examples include cases where an affiliate of the respondent has been found to share responsibility for the misconduct because of an isolated lapse in supervision, but the affiliate was not in any way complicit in the misconduct. See id.

6

Restitution, as well as financial and other remedies, may be used in exceptional circumstances, including those involving fraud in contract execution where there is a quantifiable amount to be restored to the client country or project. See Sanctioning Guidelines, supra note 4.

7

Of the 177 sanctions imposed through fiscal year (FY) 2012, only 5 deviated from the baseline sanction of either fixed-term or debarment with conditional release: three conditional non-debarments (one of which was accompanied by a le er of reprimand) and two le ers of reprimand; all of these were imposed in the context of a negotiated resolution of the case (also referred to as a se lement). Similarly, restitution has been imposed only five times; four times in the context of se lements and by the Sanctions Board in one case. See infra note 41 and Review of the World Bank Group Sanctions Regime, 2011–2014, Phase I Review: Stock-Taking, Initiating Discussion Brief, h p://consultations.worldbank.org/consultation/sanctions-reviews.


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Recently, the Bank has begun to reflect on the underlying objectives that it has set for the sanctions system. Although the traditional legal basis for sanctions lies in the fiduciary duty to protect the proper use of Bank financing, one can argue that the fiduciary duty is itself merely a means to an end—and that end is the Bank’s development mandate as set out in its Articles of Agreement. Indeed, the articles provide that “the Bank shall be guided in all its decisions” by its mandate8—and, although it is rarely pointed out, those decisions include sanctions decisions. As this chapter discusses, a sanctions system that is expressly aimed at supporting the Bank’s development mandate could look quite different than the system that exists today.9

Debarment: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly For the World Bank, debarment has served a vital function in upholding the Bank’s fiduciary duty by excluding corrupt actors from Bank financing. Other international financial institutions, including the other major multilateral development banks, have analogous sanctions systems aimed at tackling fraud and corruption in the operations they finance.10 National administrative systems, including the United States11 and the European Union12 and a growing 8

See International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) Articles of Agreement, art. I, and International Development Association (IDA) Articles of Agreement, art. I.

9

Sanctions also serve a de facto purpose, not expressly stated in sanctions policy, of protecting the Bank’s reputation from harm by association with corrupt actors. Although some commentators consider avoidance of reputational risk to be an illegitimate objective for a public institution, we disagree. See Hans-Joachim Priess, Questionable Assumptions: The Case for Updating the Suspension and Debarment Regimes at the Multilateral Development Banks, 45 Geo. Wash. Intl. L. Rev. 271, 278 (2013) (arguing that reputation “cannot be regarded as a valid aim for a sanctions and debarment regime because it is in conflict with the application of the strict rule of law”). An international organization like the World Bank depends on the goodwill and consequent financial support of its membership, without which it could not pursue its development mandate.

10

In addition to the World Bank, all other major multilateral development banks (MDBs), namely, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the African Development Bank (AfDB), have adopted internal mechanisms for addressing and sanctioning violations of their respective anticorruption policies. In September 2006, the MDBs, together with the European Investment Bank Group and the IMF, established a Joint International Institution Anti-Corruption Task Force and agreed on four prohibited practices: corruption, fraud, coercion, and collusion. See International Financial Institutions: Anti-Corruption Task Force, Uniform Framework for Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption 1 (2006), h p://sitere sources.worldbank.org/INTDOII/Resources/FinallFITaskForceFramework&Gdlines.pdf. See also Stephen S. Zimmermann & Frank A. Fariello, Jr., Coordinating the Fight against Corruption: Agreement on Cross Debarment among Multilateral Development Banks, in The World Bank Legal Review, vol. 3, 189 (World Bank 2012).

11

See Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 48 C.F.R. subpart 9.4 (2005) (containing the regulations that control how federal agencies can administratively suspend or debar).

12

The EU procurement regime is primarily governed by Directive 2004/17/EC (the “Utilities Directive”) and Directive 2004/18/EC (the “Public Sector Directive”), which institute mandatory obligations to exclude possible contracting parties for past convictions of specified corruption offenses and the option of states excluding parties not meeting certain other criteria that involve the trustworthiness and reliability of the economic operators. See Directive


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number of developing countries, including India,13 Colombia,14 Nigeria,15 and Tanzania,16 to name a few, have adopted debarment as an anticorruption tool in public procurement. The original vision for the Bank’s sanction system was ambitious indeed. Thornburgh sets out his vision for the system thusly: “With regard to effectiveness, we believe that the goal should be to employ procedures that would have the promise of ensuring detection and debarment of virtually all firms that in fact have engaged in fraudulent or corrupt activities.”17 It has become clear over time that the system has not been able to achieve Thornburgh’s vision as a comprehensive mechanism for excluding bad actors from Bank-financed operations. The Bank imposes roughly 40 to 50 sanctions per year; it finances about 20,000 to 30,000 contracts per year. Although, one hopes, only a small percentage of those contracts are tainted by corruption,18 the system would need to take a quantum leap in reach to fulfill its original exclusionary ambitions. In addition to the direct protective impact of excluding corrupt actors from Bank-financed operations, the sanctions system is intended to serve as 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Official Journal of the European Union: Legislation (O.J. L) 134, 30.4.2004, p. 1, and Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, O.J. L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 114, art. 45(1). In December 2011, the European Commission proposed a revision as well as the adoption of a directive on concession contracts. Under the new rules, the grounds for exclusion are extended to include undue influence in the decision-making process leading to the award of a contract, false statements in connection with the procedure for the award of a public contract, and agreements to distort competition. See Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of Feb. 26, 2014, on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC, O.J. L 94, 28.03.2014, p. 65; Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of Feb. 26, 2014, on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport, and postal services sectors and repealing Directive 2004/17/EC, O.J. L 94, 28.03.2014, p. 450; and Directive 2014/23/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of Feb. 26, 2014, on the award of concession contracts, O.J. L 94, 28.03.2014, p. 1. 13

Sandeep Verma, Debarment and Suspension in Public Procurement: A Quick Survey of Associated Government Regulations and Practice in India (Dec. 5, 2012), h p://ssrn.com/abstract=2185219.

14

Estatuto anticorrupción por la cual se dictan normas orientadas a fortalecer los mecanismos de prevención, investigación y sanción de actos de corrupción y la efectividad del control de la gestión pública, h p://www.contraloriagen.gov.co/documents/10136/49245504/cartilla-estatuto-anti corrupcion.pdf/.

15

See Nigeria Pub. Procurement Act of 2007, part II, sec. 6.

16

See Tanzania Pub. Procurement Act No. 21 of 2004, sec. 57, which mandates the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority to debar a supplier, contractor, or consultant who has been declared ineligible by a foreign country, international organization, or other foreign institutions from participating in public procurement.

17

Thornburgh Report, supra note 3, at 8.

18

However, a 2007 report of the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative estimates that corrupt money associated with bribes received by public officials from developing and transition countries is US$20 billion to $40 billion per year—a figure equivalent to 20 to 40 percent of flows of official development assistance. United Nations Office on Drug and Crime and the World Bank, Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative: Challenges, Opportunities, and Action Plan 1 (World Bank 2007).


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a disincentive against corrupt behavior, that is, in legal terms, to act as both a specific deterrent for the sanctioned party and a general deterrent for others who participate in Bank-supported operations.19 More broadly, the system aspires to contribute, however modestly, to the global fight against corruption through direct means but also through cross-debarment and referral of the Bank’s investigative findings with national authorities.20 The notion that debarment provides a deterrent is widely accepted in the legal literature.21 In theory, a rational actor who is prone to corrupt behavior will refrain from that behavior if its “cost” in likely penalties exceeds its likely benefits.22 Of course, this seemingly commonsense calculation hinges on an unknowable—the likelihood of ge ing caught or, more to the point, the actor’s perception of that likelihood. Moreover, the “cost” of engaging in corruption includes subjective factors such as the moral cost in the mind of the actor, which in turns depends on a complex set of social, cultural, and psychological factors.

19

See Thornburgh Report, supra note 3, at 60 (stating that “[c]ompliance is achieved, in broad terms, through incapacitation in the form of debarment, and through deterrence in the form of publicizing the risk of future debarment”). Compare Priess, supra note 9, at 280 (arguing that these aspects of the current sanctions and debarment systems, which Priess views as punitive, should be eliminated).

20

In April 2010, the heads of five leading MDBs—the AfDB, the ADB, the EBRD, the IDB, and the World Bank Group—signed the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions. See Intl. Fin. Institutions Anti-Corruption Task Force, Uniform Framework for Preventing and Combating Fraud and Corruption (Sept. 2006). See, generally, Stephen S. Zimmermann & Frank A. Fariello, Jr., Coordinating the Fight against Fraud and Corruption: Agreement on CrossDebarment among Multilateral Development Banks, in International Financial Institutions and Global Legal Governance (World Bank 2011).

21

Debarment in national systems is generally not meant to be a punishment for misconduct. Rather, debarment is the consequence that the law a aches to the government’s lack of trust in a given player. In the US context, see FAR, Section 9.402 (b). See also Jessica Tillipman, A House of Cards Falls: Why “Too Big to Debar” Is All Slogan and Li le Substance, Res Gestae Paper 7 (2012) (arguing that debarment as a “nuclear sanction” should not be utilized simply because it is politically popular), h p://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/res_gestae/7. In economic terms, however, debarment is a cost in a firm’s cost-benefit analysis. See James C. Nobles, Jr., & Christina Maistrellis, The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: A Systematic Solution for the U.S. Multinational, L. & Bus. Rev. Am. 5, 11 (Spring 1995) (submi ing that “[f]or large defense contractors, disbarment from U.S. government contracts could well be the most significant deterrent to engaging in conduct proscribed under the FCPA”); Drury D. Stevenson & Nicholas J. Wagoner, FCPA Sanctions: Too Big to Debar?, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 775, 803 (2011) (arguing that FCPA fines have li le if any deterrent effect when the benefits derived from the sanctionable conduct largely outweigh the cost of ge ing caught). See also J. Kelly Strader, White Collar Crime and Punishment: Reflections on Michael, Martha, and Milberg Weiss, 15 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 45, 102 (2007) (“There is substantial evidence that white collar defendants are strongly deterred by civil/administrative sanctions, including debarment). For a discussion of the various objectives of procurement systems, see, generally, Steven Schooner, Desiderata: Objectives for a System of Government Contract Law, 11 Pub. Proc. L. Rev. 103 (2002).

22

See, for example, John Coffee, No Soul to Damn, No Body to Kick: An Unscandalized Inquiry into the Problem of Corporate Punishment, 79 Mich. L. Rev. 386, 389 (1981) (quoting Gary S. Becker, Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach, 76 J. Pol. Econ. 169 [1968] and R. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law 165–67 [Aspen 1977]).


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Another problem with the debarment-deterrence equation is that debarments have an unpredictable economic impact on the debarred party. Debarment periods are calculated against a baseline that is common to all sanctionable practices, adjusted for aggravating and mitigating factors relating to the respondent’s culpability or responsibility, not on the debarment’s impact on the respondent or others. So if a debarred party does a great deal of Bank Group or multilateral development bank (MDB)–financed business, it may suffer severe loss of business or even corporate death as a consequence of debarment. On the other hand, a debarred party that does li le Bank Group business may suffer very li le direct loss of business from the debarment.23 So the same debarment may impose wildly different economic costs on the debarred party, and therefore create different degrees of specific deterrence; such disparate impact also raises questions of fairness and proportionality. To the authors’ knowledge, there have been no empirical studies that prove or disprove the widely held belief that debarments and other such penalties have a strong deterrent effect.24 Some research suggests that the severity of the penalty is less important to deterrence than the mere fact that there is a credible reaction, coupled with the legal costs of defending oneself against the charge and the reputational cost of the penalty.25 In the Bank context, this la er view suggests that all Bank sanctions, not just debarment, could provide a degree of deterrence. Indeed, private sector stakeholders often say that they fear the cost in reputation and goodwill occasioned by the public nature of sanctions more than the sanction itself.26 Moreover, because Bank sanctions are part of a larger enforcement architecture, including the sanctions systems of other MDBs and national enforcement measures, Bank sanctions need not, in and of themselves, provide perfect deterrence. Although the deterrent effect of debarment remains unclear, we do know that debarment can come at a significant cost to the Bank and its borrowers 23

Indirect loss of business may ensue from loss of reputation and the fact that Bank sanctions are being used, by an increasing number of external parties, for due diligence purposes.

24

On the issue of corporate punishment, research has primarily focused on the doctrine of corporate criminal liability, with some scholars submi ing that harsh corporate penalties provide deterrence on a massive scale. See, for example, Brent Fisse, Reconstructing Corporate Criminal Law: Deterrence, Retribution, Fault, and Sanctions, 56 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1141 (1982–83) (arguing that the nature of deterrence and retribution as applied to corporations implies the need for criminal as well as civil liability); and Christopher A. Wray & Robert K. Hur, Corporate Criminal Prosecution in a Post-Enron World: The Thompson Memo in Theory and Practice, 43 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1095, 1097 (2006). In contrast, other commentators believe that harsh penalties might distort firms’ incentives to monitor for misconduct and undermine the deterrence of professional firms’ members. See, for example, Assaf Hamdani & Alon Klement, Corporate Crime and Deterrence, 61 Stan. L. Rev. 271–310 (2008) (also calling for greater reliance on purely financial corporate penalties).

25

See, for example, Erling Eide, Paul H. Rubin, & Joanna M. Shepard, Economics of Crime, in Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics 205–79 (Now Publg. 2006); and Alon Harel, Economic Analysis of Criminal Law: A Survey, in Research Handbook on the Economics of Criminal Law (Edward Elgar 2012).

26

Anne-Marie Leroy & Frank Fariello, The World Bank Group Sanctions Process and Its Recent Reforms, 74–75 (World Bank 2012).


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in the delivery of development results. A debarred company is excluded from Bank-financed public procurement, which, in markets where willing qualified bidders are few and far between, can have an anticompetitive effect and impede the delivery of development results, at least in the immediate term.27 In such cases, debarments may (or may not) fulfill the system’s fiduciary objective, but they arguably come into conflict with the broader objective of promoting the Bank’s development mandate. The problem is particularly acute because debarments are applied in a way that is arguably overbroad in cases where the system’s putative fiduciary objectives may not be served. The sanctions system operates on a respondeat superior basis,28 which is to say that a corrupt act by any agent or employee is a ributed to the principal, whether or not it can be shown that the legal entity as a whole poses a fiduciary risk to Bank operations. Debarment may have other possible negative side effects, although these remain to be studied empirically. By reducing the number of market actors, for example, depending on the conditions of a given market, including the number of competing actors, debarment may have the effect of facilitating collusive practices among the remaining market actors, at least in smaller markets. One problem with the system’s wider aspiration to reduce overall levels of corruption through deterrence is that corruption, broadly defined, is not subject to consistent legal standards; enforcement is similarly uneven. Similar to what has been recently argued in regard to enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA),29 because of this uneven playing field, debarments 27

See, for example, Danielle Brian, Contractor Debarment and Suspension: A Broken System, 13 Pub. Procurement L. Rev. 235, 236–38 (2004) (calling for contract unbundling as a way to favor competition); John S. Pachter, The New Era of Corporate Governance and Ethics: The Extreme Sport of Government Contracting, 13 Pub. Proc. L. Rev. 247 (2004) (suggesting that “the suspension and debarment arena has become a virtual bid protest forum for companies seeking to eliminate competition”); and Johann Graf Lambsdorff, Deterrence and Constrained Enforcement: Alternative Regimes to Deal with Bribery, Passauer Diskussionspapiere: Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe, No. V-60-10 (2010), h p://hdl.handle.net/10419/55014 (stating that debarment is a less effective sanction than fines because the costs of debarment, like those of imprisonment, are higher than those of fines, in that debarment hurts both the company and the public by limiting competition). See Stevenson & Wagoner, supra note 21, at 816 (arguing that debarment reduces competition for future bidding on new projects). The Thornburgh Report recognized the importance of protecting respondents against inaccurate or unjust determinations because of the Bank’s “special economic interest and responsibility” and because of the adverse significant impact of debarments on both contractors and the Bank. In fact, debarment not only cuts contractors off from a major source of funding that is available in the country but can adversely affect future competitions and the Bank’s ability to obtain needed goods or services because the number of qualified contractors may be limited. Hence, in excluding a firm from future business, the Bank “may be eliminating from future contention one of the very few firms with the characteristics required by the Bank for important projects.” Thornburgh Report, supra note 3, at 7.

28

See, for example, Sanctions Board Decisions, nos. 36, 37, 39, and 44, as cited in the World Bank Group Sanctions Board Law Digest (Dec. 2011), at 37 et seq. The Sanctions Board has recognized a possible “‘rogue employee”’ defense but, to the authors’ knowledge, that defense has never been successfully asserted. See Sanctions Board Decision no. 39.

29

Andrew B. Spalding, Restorative Justice for Multinational Corporations (2014), h p://papers .ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2403930; see also Andrew B. Spalding, Unwit-


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and other deterrence-based enforcement approaches may simply drive some of the Bank’s client countries (and the private sector) toward projects financed by donors with fewer legal constraints (so-called black knights). With less scrupulous actors on both the demand and the supply sides of the equation, this uneven enforcement picture could paradoxically result in an increase in corruption levels in certain countries. This dilemma should be addressed through be er and more harmonized enforcement, but that is a long-term goal. Beyond the issue of whether debarments provide deterrence, or more deterrence than other sanctions, the authors would argue that Bank sanctions need not always be designed to deter. Given how few sanctions the Bank imposes relative to the volume of the operations it finances, sanctions need to have a demonstration effect with general impact beyond the particular case or respondent. But that demonstration effect need not always come in the form of a negative incentive like debarment; it could provide a positive incentive, for example, for self-cleaning or other comprehensive corrective actions, including—as this chapter discusses—remedial actions that mitigate the harm occasioned by the corrupt act. This approach to sanctions might not only avoid the negative consequences for development effectiveness that debarment can sometimes inflict but could also be designed in a way that actively contributes to the Bank’s development mandate. Notwithstanding the collateral consequences and other drawbacks of debarment, the authors do not intend to argue that debarment should be done away with. For one thing, its immediate purpose—the exclusion of bad actors—remains vital. Even if the system cannot hope to catch and exclude all bad actors from Bank financing operations, that is not a reason not to exclude those that it does manage to catch. Debarment also plays an indispensable role as a “backup” sanction; given that the Bank is a non sovereign, debarment remains the only effective tool for the enforcement of alternative forms of sanction such as restitution. And although robust empirical evidence for the deterrence value of debarment appears to be lacking, one may reasonably infer that debarment does deter corrupt behavior; it should do so in principle, and, as the aphorism goes, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The collateral consequences of debarment vary widely, depending on the markets impacted, the nature of the debarred party, and the length of the debarment period. If a debarred firm as an enterprise (rather than a few individuals within a firm) constitutes a corrupt actor, it can be persuasively argued that its presence distorts the market and, on balance, it is be er to remove that actor even if its removal reduces competition. While debarments may have short-term negative consequences, they may well, in the longer term,

ting Sanctions: Understanding Anti-bribery Legislation as Economic Sanctions against Emerging Markets, 62 Fla. L. Rev. 351, 355–56 (2010) (arguing that companies subject to antibribery legislation are investing less in countries where bribery is perceived to be more prevalent).


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help clean markets dominated by corrupt actors (who may, through collusive behavior, freeze out other actors) and improve competitive conditions.30 The authors would posit, however, that the ambiguities surrounding debarment suggest that a more proportionate and nuanced approach to sanctions is not only possible but desirable, and the sanctions system’s current, almost exclusive, reliance on debarment as the sanction of choice deserves reconsideration.

Alternatives to Debarment Against this background, the time may be ripe for study and reflection on possible alternative approaches to debarment. Debarment, whether for a defined or indefinite period, with or without conditional release, is not the exclusive reaction available to the Bank when faced with corrupt behavior by a private sector actor. The Bank may also impose conditional non-debarment (usually involving an integrity compliance program), restitution or financial remedy, and le ers of reprimand, with the last being a “slap on the wrist” reserved for responsibility cases and very minor forms of misconduct (principally in the se lement context). Outside the sanctions system stricto sensu, the Bank maintains a Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) that allows participants to avoid debarment or other sanctions entirely; it also refers most cases of corruption to appropriate national authorities.31 Unfortunately, up to now, none of these alternatives has lived up to its full potential, leaving debarment in a dominant position in the system.

Integrity Compliance Programs Integrity compliance was introduced into the Bank sanctions system as part of the 2009–10 round of reforms; these reforms were definitively incorporated into the sanctions process through the issuance of new sanctions procedures and related internal guidance in January 2011.32 The reform was intended, first and foremost, to address the risk of recidivism by debarred parties by imposing integrity compliance as a condition for release. Integrity compliance is

30

But see Tina Søreide, Drivers of Corruption: A Brief Review (World Bank forthcoming), where she argues that selective leniency is a be er strategy for disrupting cartel behavior.

31

Although the sanctions system targets the so-called supply side of corruption, the Bank has the discretion to exercise contractual remedies to address the demand side of corruption. See IBRD General Conditions for Loans, secs. 7.02(c) and 7.03(c) (2012) (providing that the Bank may suspend and terminate in whole or in part the right of the borrower to make withdrawals from the loan account if it determines that any representative of the borrower has engaged in a sanctionable practice in connection with the use of loan proceeds, without the borrower having taken timely and appropriate action satisfactory to the Bank to address such practices when they occur). Additionally, the World Bank regularly refers its investigative findings to national governments and law enforcement agencies in member countries. See Integrity Vice Presidency (INT), Annual Reports [hereinafter INT Annual Reports], h p://go.worldbank.org/T40HHT3RF0.

32

See Leroy & Fariello, supra note 26.


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also a feature of conditional non-debarment, under which a sanctioned party may avoid debarment altogether if it adopts and implements a robust integrity compliance program. This secondary function, which could be an alternative to the current heavy reliance on debarment, has been used in only five reported cases, all but one in the context of se lements.33 So far, the Bank’s Integrity Compliance Officer (ICO), a position that was established to determine whether a debarred party has met the conditions for release from debarment or non-debarment, has seen limited engagement by respondents, in particular small and medium-size entities (SMEs), raising the prospect that, contrary to intentions, debarment with conditional release will become, de facto, a road to indefinite debarment.34 The reasons for this lack of engagement are various, but one possible explanation is the potentially heavy cost that integrity compliance places on sanctioned parties. For some firms, this cost may outweigh the benefits of Bank-related business. Walmart, for example, has spent US$109 million in the past two years to enhance its global compliance program.35 Walmart, of course, is a giant multinational corporate group, but even for moderately sized multinational firms, the average cost of a compliance program has been estimated at US$3.5 million.36 Although compliance programs are widely believed to bring important benefits to firms in preventing future corruption, like debarment, robust empirical evidence for this belief is largely lacking.37 By contrast, it is 33

As of FY 2013, the only case of conditional non-debarment outside the se lement context was sanctions case no. 112, decided by the Sanctions Board in decision no. 53. See supra note 7.

34

For a discussion of the pa ern of nonengagement of small and medium-size enterprises in the sanctions system, see Giovanni Bo & Frank Fariello, The World Bank Group Sanctions System and Access to Justice for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises; and Bart Stevens & Robert Delonis, Leveling the Playing Field: A Race to the Top, in Fostering Development through Opportunity, Inclusion, and Equity, both in The World Bank Legal Review vol. 5 (World Bank 2014), which also describes the steps that the Bank is taking to ameliorate these issues.

35

Walmart, 2014 Annual Report, 56, h p://cdn.corporate.walmart.com/66/e5/9ff9a87445949173f de56316ac5f/2014-annual-report.pdf.

36

In this study, the average cost of a compliance program includes the full cost of an organization’s compliance efforts, including the cost of noncompliance with laws, regulations, and policies. See The True Cost of Compliance: A Benchmark Study of Multinational Organizations (Ponemon Inst. 2011), h p://www.tripwire.com/tripwire/assets/File/ponemon/True _Cost_of_Compliance_Report.pdf (estimating that the average cost of compliance among the organizations in the study was US$3.5 million compared with the nearly US$9.4 million for organizations that experience noncompliance-related problems).

37

See, for example, Nicole Sandford & Donna Epps, Compliance Program: On Everyone’s Agenda, 29(6) Financial Executive 59 (July 2013); Katharina Wulf, Ethics and Compliance Programs in Multinational Organizations 403 (Springer Gabler 2012); and Dove Izraeli & Mark Schwar , What Can We Learn from the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizational Ethics?, 17 J. Bus. Ethics 1045 (1998) (referring to a 1994 survey of the Ethics Resource Center, indicating that ethics programs appear to improve ethical behavior, and to a study by the Council of Ethical Organizations finding that “[e]mployees of companies that had implemented or fortified comprehensive ethics compliance programs in response to the guidelines . . . reported that they were less likely to violate laws and policies”). This notwithstanding, one of the major challenges with measuring compliance program effectiveness lies in the interpretation of the data obtained from the multiplicity of indicators and metrics that may be used (e.g., compli-


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not uncommon for large multinational corporations that have robust compliance programs in place to face corruption scandals by corporate officers.38

Financial Restitution and Other Remedies The Bank’s sanctions system also embraces restitution and other financial remedies as a possible sanction. The term “restitution” is an ambiguous one, with legal sources and scholars often using the word in ways that conflate at least three distinguishable concepts: •

True restitution, or what is known in U.S. law as the disgorgement of illicit profits. True restitution is based on the idea that a person(s) who engages in misconduct such as corruption to make a profit (the “wrongdoer”) has been unjustly enriched. Justice demands that a wrongdoer not be allowed to gain from his or her misconduct and therefore must give up those illicit profits.

Damages or compensation. This can be seen as the flip side of the true restitution coin, with a focus on the person(s) who were harmed by the misconduct (i.e., the “victim”) rather than the wrongdoer.39 The victim is made whole by the wrongdoer with payment or action adequate to undo harm he or she has suffered. “Damages” is the term used in national tort and contract law; “compensation” is the term generally used in international law.

Fines. Although often lumped together as part of restitution, fines in most legal systems are not considered restitution at all, but rather a form of punish-

ance audit results, incidents, training data, risk assessment results, hotline data, and employee disclosures). See Jaclyn Jaeger, Measuring Compliance Program Effectiveness, Compliance Week (July 19, 2011), h p://www.complianceweek.com/news/news-bulletin/measuring-compliance -program-effectiveness (also arguing that the answers as to whether compliance programs are effective “are still elusive”); Jaclyn Jaeger, The Metrics System: Measuring Compliance Effectiveness, Compliance Week (June 12, 2012), h p://www.complianceweek.com/news/news-bulletin/the -metrics-system-measuring-compliance-effectiveness; Steve Koslow, Why Measuring Compliance Effectiveness Is So Difficult, Compliance Week (May 1, 2012), h p://www.complianceweek.com /news/news-bulletin/why-measuring-compliance-effectiveness-is-so-difficult. 38

See Roberta Holland, Bribery Probe Ends with Charges against Former GSK China Top Executive, Compliance Week (May 21, 2014), h p://www.complianceweek.com/bribery-probe-ends -with-charges-against-former-gsk-china-top-executive/article/347876/ (reporting that the investigation into pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline’s operations in China resulted in bribery charges against the former head of GSK China and prompted GSK to conduct a “rigorous review” of its compliance procedures in China); Michael Scher, Walmart: It’s Not the Company, It’s the Compliance System, The FCPA Blog (May 13, 2014), h p://www .fcpablog.com/blog/2014/5/13/walmart-its-not-the-company-its-the-compliance-system.html #sthash.sCu4NPTj.dpuf (reporting that the compliance program that Walmart had in place at the time of the alleged misconduct of certain executives was “good for its time”).

39

See Directive 2014/24/EU, supra note 12, art. 57 (listing payment of compensation in respect of any damage caused by the criminal offense or misconduct as one of the elements evidencing the firm’s reliability); and U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Guidelines Manual, ch. 8, sec. B1.1, Restitution—Organizations (Nov. 1, 2013) (stating the general principle requiring an organization to take all appropriate steps to provide compensation to victims and otherwise remedy the harm caused or threatened).


426

The World Bank Legal Review ment that is unrelated to restoring the status quo ante of the parties involved in the wrongdoing, but related rather to the harm to the public good.40

The legislative history of the Bank’s sanctions process indicates support, at one time or another, for all three forms of restitution, particularly the first two. However, restitution has been used sparingly—in only five reported cases.41 The reasons for this relative nonuse of restitution, whether under a true restitution or damages concept, has to do with the inherent difficulties of calculating the quantum to be restituted and identification of the appropriate beneficiary. In cases of true restitution under national law, the amount to be paid in restitution equals the amount that the court (or other decision maker) determines to be the value of the illicit gain to the wrongdoer, as measured, for example, by the amount of a tainted contract (plus any ancillary quantifiable benefits to the respondent arising from the misconduct) less the contractor’s costs. In practice, calculating these amounts with precision can be extremely challenging, in particular, outside the se lements context. In cases involving damages under national law, the amount to be paid is equal to the damage done to those harmed by the misconduct. The main issue in determining the quantum of damages tends to be the extent to which “indirect” harm can be a ributed to the wrongdoing, with the usual test being articulated as “proximate cause”—that is, whether it was reasonably foreseeable that the wrongful act would cause the harm. In a typical case involving a tainted contract in the Bank context, a minimum measure of damages could be calculated as the contract value less the reasonable value of any goods, works, or services received by the victim.42 In many cases, the secondary effects of the poor or subpar performance of the contract would clearly be a legitimate factor—but calculating and proving these secondary effects is very challenging.43 In theory, fines could provide a way out of these difficulties of calculation. Typically, no a empt is made to peg the amount to a restoration of the status quo ante, with respect to the respondent or the victim. Instead, the quantum of a fine is a notional amount determined by what is needed to act as an effective deterrence against future wrongdoing and is usually graduated according to the seriousness of the wrongdoing. The idea of imposing fines for sanctionable practices has, from time to time, been floated within the

40

See, generally, Graham Virgo, The Principles of the Law of Restitution (Oxford U. Press 2006).

41

See Integrity Vice Presidency, Press Release 2011/279/INT (re C. Lo i & Associati Societa’ di Ingegneria S.p.A.); Press Release 2013/003/INT (re Oxford U. Press East Africa Ltd. and Oxford U. Press Tanzania Ltd.); Press Release 2009/168/EXC (re Limited Liability Company Siemens); Press Release 2012/282/INT (re Alstom Hydro France and Alstom Network Schweiz AG) and Sanctions Board Decision no. 53.

42

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Hansen thus provided additional guidance on the computation of damages (although, confusingly, it referred in this case to “restitution” instead of “damages”).

43

Various ways have been devised under national and international systems to get around these difficulties.


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Bank—indeed, the idea goes back to Thornburgh44—but the Bank has never formally embraced fines.45 Among other things, doubts have been expressed about the Bank’s legal authority to levy fines, given that it is not a sovereign power, although, arguably, payment of a notional amount as a condition for release from debarment or non-debarment could circumvent this objection. More fundamental are the objections that fines would create the perception, if not the reality, that corrupt actors could view fines as simply another cost of doing business, allowing them to pay their way out of trouble.46 Fines would tend to favor larger firms with deep pockets over SMEs. Fines also would tend to contradict the Bank’s traditional assertion that its sanctions system is not meant to be punitive but protective in nature.47 Besides difficulties of calculation, restitution has posed challenges for the Bank in identifying the suitable beneficiary of restituted funds. Traditionally, at least under a damages concept of restitution, funds are returned to the party harmed. In cases where the victims of the wrongdoing are clearly identifiable, there is a strong argument that financial penalties should be passed on or otherwise used for the benefit of those persons. But in the context of Bank sanctions, the harm done to development effectiveness through corruption in connection with a Bank-financed operation may be widespread, and identification of a specific victim or victims practically impossible. More recently, the Bank has taken the view that the proceeds of restitution belong to the government concerned, as the most direct victim of corruption. This was the Bank’s commitment in its 2010 se lement with Lo i Ingenieria S.p.A., where the Bank imposed the restitution of US$350,000 to the government of Indonesia for unjustified payments received by Lo i and its partners as a result of fraudulent invoicing.48 But this approach raises its own concerns. In some cases, government officials have been complicit in the sanctionable practice at some level, so returning money to the implicated government agency may not always seem to be the most prudent course of action. The current guidance in the Sanctioning Guidelines recognizes these difficulties when it provides that financial remedies should be used only in

44

See Thornburgh Report, supra note 3, at 59–60.

45

One exception was the US$100 million Siemens Integrity Initiative (SII), which was created as part of the 2009 se lement agreement between the Bank and the Siemens Group. The US$100 million figure was deemed a kind of restitution, but the payment was not calculated based on an estimate of illicit profits or damage done, nor was there any requirement that the SII be directed to the “victims” of Siemens’ wrongdoing. See World Bank, Press Release 2009/001/EXT.

46

See Stevenson & Wagoner, supra note 21, at 795–96.

47

Notwithstanding this assertion, even without fines, some stakeholders see the sanctions system as punitive in nature.

48

In one case, notwithstanding the respondent’s intent to comply with its obligation, restitution has not been paid yet because of the inability to determine which government agency is entitled to receive the funds.


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“exceptional circumstances.”49 Nor is it surprising that four out of the five reported cases where restitution has been imposed as a sanction came in the context of a negotiated resolution of the case. Se lement negotiations allow for an exchange between the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) and the respondent to sort out the relevant facts and, in appropriate cases, identify and agree on reasonable proxies where precise facts are lacking. By contrast, in the absence of clear criteria by which to assess the funds to be restituted or, in most cases, clear evidence on which to base such an assessment, the Suspension and Debarment Officer (SDO) and the Sanctions Board have been quite understandably reluctant (or perhaps simply unable) to move into this delicate area. However, there has been one case to date where restitution was imposed by the Sanctions Board as a condition for non-debarment of the respondent based on the sufficiency of the evidence produced by INT on charges of overbilling.50

Letters of Reprimand The Sanctions Commi ee, which predated the Sanctions Board, imposed le ers of reprimand on a fairly regular basis. It did so when a sanctionable practice was deemed minor enough for this proverbial slap on the wrist or, interestingly, in cases where the commi ee did not find that the respondent’s conduct amounted to a sanctionable practice but evidenced an ethical failure that merited some censure.51 Under the current system, le ers of reprimand have been used only occasionally in the context of se lements.52 Le ers of reprimand could be used more frequently, and their customary use as censure for unethical but nonsanctionable conduct could also be revived. It does not seem likely, however, that le ers of reprimand could function as a mainstream alternative to debarments; the principle of proportionality demands that the use of such a light sanction should be limited to minor forms of misconduct.

Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP) The VDP provides another possible alternative to debarment. Under the VDP, firms not already under investigation may be spared sanction if they meet certain conditions, including self-investigation, implementation of integrity compliance, and a firm commitment to avoid sanctionable practices in the future.53 In the course of public consultations, private sector actors expressed dissatisfaction with what they perceived to be onerous terms and conditions, in particular the 10-year mandatory debarment for breach of VDP terms.54 As a result, firms’ participation in the VDP has so far not met initial expectations 49

See Sanctioning Guidelines, supra note 4, at sec. II.F.

50

See supra note 41.

51

See Leroy & Fariello, supra note 26, at 10.

52

As of FY 2013, three le ers of reprimand have been issued, all of them in the context of se lement.

53

See World Bank, Voluntary Disclosure Program Guidelines for Participants (2011), h p:// go.worldbank.org/T3PD4EE550. See also Stevens & Delonis, supra note 34, at 406–7, which allows that “[t]he VDP is not an appropriate fit for everyone.”

54

See supra note 7.


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and—for the moment at least—cannot be seen as a viable mainstream alternative to debarment.55

Referral to National Authorities Although the Bank’s sanctions system aims at preventing bad actors from participating in future projects through its sanctions, criminal investigations remain within the jurisdiction of member-states. The Bank has had a longstanding practice of referring investigative findings to national authorities when an investigation leads INT to believe that the laws of a member country have been broken. Following a 2009 recommendation by a panel led by Paul Volcker,56 the Bank undertook to make these referrals on a routine basis. In theory, the deterrent component of sanctions could be served by this kind of referral. Indeed, the prospect of action (typically of a criminal nature) by national law enforcement could be a far more potent deterrent than the economic and reputational price exacted by a Bank sanction. However, this assumes that a referral is likely to lead to real consequences; the track record so far in terms of follow-up by national authorities is not very encouraging. In FY 2012, the World Bank made 46 referrals of findings to agencies and authorities in more than 30 countries. In FY 2013, only 10 referrals prompted national authorities to launch their own investigations.57

Community Service as Restitution Despite its drawbacks, debarment continues to dominate the Bank’s sanctions system, partly because the Bank’s Sanctioning Guidelines enshrine it as the baseline sanction, partly because the potential alternatives to debarment have faced their own sets of issues. One promising and innovative idea for an alternative (or complement) to debarment is the adoption of various forms of community service. For the purposes of this chapter, the term “community service” is used broadly, with a meaning that captures the provision of goods, works, or services to a community of stakeholders, preferably those who were affected by the corrupt behavior that gave rise to the sanction.

Community Service in National Law Community service as a form of penalty for individuals has a long history in penal law. In its earliest days, it took the form of penal servitude and, later,

55

In fairness, it should be noted that these kinds of results appear to plague leniency programs generally, including in the FCPA context. See, generally, Søreide, supra note 30.

56

Paul A. Volcker et al., Independent Panel Review of the World Bank Group Department of Institutional Integrity, paras. 81 et seq. (Sept. 13, 2007), h p://go.worldbank.org/VVY6KYS720.

57

See 2012 and 2013 INT Annual Reports, supra note 31.


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as a formal sentencing option in lieu of incarceration.58 Discussions about the adaptation of this form of sentence for use against corporate offenders have occurred only recently. The assumption is that imposing community service orders on corporate respondents would be superior to imposing fines in regards to the five major aims of corporate criminal law: deterrence, direction, instruction, retribution, and redress.59 In the United States, sentencing guidelines provide that community service may be ordered as a condition of probation where the service is reasonably designed to repair the harm caused by the offense, provided that the organization performs the service only by employing its resources or paying its employees or others to do so. An order that an organization perform community service is viewed as “an indirect monetary sanction [. . .] generally less desirable than a direct monetary sanction” and is warranted where “the convicted organization possesses knowledge, facilities, or skills that uniquely qualify it to repair damage caused by the offense.”60

Community Service in the World Bank Sanctions Context Although community service comes out of penal law traditions, the authors would argue that it can find a place in the World Bank’s administrative system and—perhaps paradoxically—help shift the system away from its current focus on negative incentives toward more positive ones. A firm found to have engaged in corrupt acts could undertake to “give back” to the community affected by its misconduct, either by undoing the harm caused by the misconduct or, if that is impractical, engaging more generally in the provision of goods, works, or services to benefit that community. To take a straightforward case, a firm that “cut corners” on a road it built by 58

Malcolm M. Feeley, Richard Berk, & Alec Campbell, Between Two Extremes: An Examination of the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Community Service Orders and Their Implications for the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, 66 S. Cal. L. Rev. 155, 156 (1992) (examining community service as a form of sentencing in light of the relative severity of the sanctions, the issues surrounding implementation, and the question of deterrence). See also Gordon Bazemore & Dennis Maloney, Rehabilitating Community Service toward Restorative Service Sanctions in a Balanced Justice System, 58 Fed. Probation 24 (1994); and David C. Anderson, Sensible Justice: Alternatives to Prison (New Press 1998). For a comparative analysis and use of community service in Europe, see Gill McIvor, Kristel Beyens, Ester Blay, & Miranda Boone, Community Service in Belgium, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Spain: A Comparative Perspective, 2 Eur. J. Probation 82, 83 (2010) (submi ing that community service should be regarded as “one of the most successful late modern punishments” that evolved from a purely rehabilitative “measure” to a punishing community “penalty”).

59

Brent Fisse, Community Service as a Sanction against Corporations, 1981 Wis. L. Rev. 970, 1004 (1981) (also submi ing that community services orders on corporate offenders should be formal sanctions, rather than conditions of probation, mitigation of sentence, or nonprosecution). See also Peter J. Henning, Corporate Criminal Liability and the Potential for Rehabilitation, 46 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1417 (2009); and Marti Flacks, Combining Retribution and Reconciliation: The Role of Community Service Sentencing in Transitional Justice, 1 Interdisc. J. Hum. Rights L. 1 (2006) (arguing that community service sentencing could complement or replace prosecution in that “it falls in the unique position of being a mechanism of both retributive and restorative justice”).

60

U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Guidelines Manual, ch. 8, sec. B1.3., “Community Service: Organizations (Policy Statement)” (Nov. 1, 2013).


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building the road to only 75 percent of its intended width would repair or reconstruct the road to the original specifications, even in the absence of contractual remedies available to the borrower to demand full performance. In the alternative, if the road was built to specifications but its price was inflated, community service could return to the intended beneficiaries the value of that excess cost. In less straightforward cases, where the nexus between the corrupt act and harm is more a enuated due to the lapse of time or the widespread nature of the corruption, the community service could be aimed more broadly at the project beneficiaries where the corruption took place or to the broader community, region, or country(ies) affected. Within the existing set of Bank sanctions, satisfactory performance of this sort of community service could be deemed either a form of in-kind restitution or simply a condition for non-debarment.61 Farther upstream, an offer of community service could be considered as cooperation in mitigation or avoidance of debarment.

Advantages of Community Service The concept of community service is particularly a ractive to a development institution such as the World Bank because the concept holds a sanctioned party to account in a way that directly addresses the harm that corruption does to development effectiveness, thus contributing directly to the Bank’s mandate. And it avoids collateral consequences for Bank procurement and for the markets in which the sanctioned party operates. Direct engagement with the affected communities could potentially give communities greater voice on the governance challenges affecting them and enhance accountability for the corrupt actor. The communities could, for example, be consulted on the extent of the harm suffered and on how that harm could be put right, as a key input into designing an appropriate community service action plan. The sanctioned party, for its part, could be called on to explain and apologize for its actions, thus holding it to account more powerfully than any mere financial penalty could. This, in turn, may open up a broader dialogue on the conditions that made the corruption possible—and what could be done about them.62

61

While well within the spirit of the language, to be used as a form of restitution, the Bank’s Sanctioning Guidelines should probably be adjusted to allow explicitly for nonmonetary forms of restitution. The current language, which talks about “financial remedies” and “amounts to be restituted,” appears to assume that restitution will come in the form of a payment.

62

In an effort to promote a culture of compliance, a proposal by external stakeholders as part of the sanctions review was made to include as a sanction the obligation to finance collective actions to prevent corruption (e.g., conferences, forums, business associations, school programs) in the country where the corrupt act took place and with the active participation of the administration that was involved in the corrupt act. See Review of the World Bank Group Sanctions System, Submission of the French Council of Investors in Africa, Paris (Oct. 28, 2013), h p://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLAWJUSTICE/Resources/SanctionsReview_CIAN.pdf.


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Community service may also be a way to overcome a number of the challenges posed by financial forms of restitution discussed in this chapter. Community service does not require a precise calculation of illicit profit or damages or the precise identification of a victim or victims, which can be slippery concepts. And it avoids the need to return funds to a government agency that may have been complicit in the original wrongdoing. More broadly, the introduction of community service into the system could help shift the system away from its current focus on negative incentives toward a system that rewards good behavior while promoting the delivery of development results. The need to revisit the balance between the negative and positive incentives in the system was raised during recent external consultations, where a number of stakeholders advocated a shift to encouraging or rewarding integrity; rehabilitation, including self-cleaning; and other corrective measures. More broadly, many external stakeholders maintained that the system is too punitive, too focused on negative incentives like debarment, and too li le focused on positive incentives like rewarding integrity, rehabilitation, and self-cleaning.63

Challenges of Community Service Community service as a form of restitution comes with its own set of challenges. As a threshold issue, the Bank would need to consider what forms of service would be appropriate, presumably with corrective actions that restore the status quo ante as the preferred option. The Bank would agree with the sanctioned party on an action plan, including activities and a timetable, which would then need to be monitored and assessed. Triggers and consequences would need to be articulated for late, poor, or nonperformance, with the ultimate consequence presumably being debarment, with some flexibility for force majeure and other justifying circumstances. Indeed, this form of sanction would, in essence, require a new contract, albeit one that provides goods, works, or services free of charge, with all the usual complexities a endant to contracts, beginning with the threshold issue of who the parties to the contract should be: the Bank, the relevant borrower, the aected line agency, or the community(ies) impacted—or a combination of these. The legalities of the arrangement under local law would have to be confirmed. For example, nonpayment notwithstanding, the arrangement could be seen as a form of public procurement, with all the concomitant constraints. 63

World Bank, Review of the World Bank Group Sanctions System, Global Multi-Stakeholder Consultations, Phase I: July–October 2013, Feedback Summary, h p://siteresources.worldbank.org /INTLAWJUSTICE/Resources/FeedbackSummaryPhaseI.pdf. For a discussion on the selfcleaning concept, see Sue Arrowsmith et al., Self-Cleaning: An Emerging Concept in EC Public Procurement Law?, in Self-Cleaning in Public Procurement Law (Carl Heymanns 2009) (arguing that contractors adopting certain self-cleaning measures should be allowed to participate in public procurement and avoid debarment); and Roman Majtan, The Self-Cleaning Dilemma: Reconciling Competing Objectives of Procurement Processes, 45 Geo. Wash. Intl. L. Rev. 291 (2013) (arguing that it is possible to improve integrity while increasing competition through a more flexible approach toward debarment that uses restitution and other means).


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Short of legal constraints, the willingness and ownership of the initiative by local authorities would be a sine qua non. The idea also carries some risks. Like any other contract, there is a possibility that the community service itself might become the subject of corrupt practice, which would not only defeat the putative purpose of the sanction but also create significant reputational risks for the Bank. And the arrangement might create reputational risks if the Bank were seen as merely providing a public relations opportunity for a corrupt actor, making communication of the Bank’s intentions and objectives—and those of the sanctioned party—of paramount importance. Any public airing of the underlying corruption would need to be carefully managed to ensure a candid and constructive dialogue with the affected communities, not an opportunity for the sanctioned party to engage in self-justification. In terms of sanctions policy, the Bank would need to grapple with a number of additional issues. Perhaps most important, the Bank would need to consider whether community service could or should replace debarment entirely, or serve merely as a form of corrective action in mitigation or as a condition for a reduced debarment period. The Bank would also need to consider in what circumstances this form of sanction would be appropriate, in particular, if it is to be limited to less serious sanctionable practices or to a certain class of sanctioned parties. This chapter does not argue for limiting the use of community service to less serious sanctionable practices—rather, the cost of the service could be scaled to the seriousness of the underlying misconduct or, be er still, the damage done by that misconduct. (If the service were aimed directly at undoing that damage, the scaling would occur automatically.) We would argue that the possibility of community service should be limited to a particular class of eligible respondents. Potential eligibility criteria include the following: •

Respondents must be willing and able to perform the community service. Willingness could be demonstrated by requiring the respondent to offer to engage in community service as an alternative to debarment. The respondent should be required to demonstrate that it possesses the knowledge, facilities, and skills to undertake the services proposed. Cases where the respondent misrepresented its qualifications or experience (a not uncommon scenario), or any other case where the sanctioned party’s ability to perform is in doubt, would not be ripe for community service.

If a respondent continues to pose a fiduciary risk, then the exclusionary rationale for its debarment remains strong, and alternatives like community service should not be entertained, except perhaps as a mitigating factor. Whether or not current management was implicated in the underlying wrongdoing would be a key indicator of a persisting fiduciary risk for the Bank.


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The World Bank Legal Review The respondent must manifest sincere intent to reform—and not just those who wish to take advantage of community service, either as another opportunity for corrupt behavior or simply as a public relations exercise. Although an otherwise subjective quality like sincerity would be problematic given the system’s current setup, reasonable proxies could be found in the mitigating factors that are currently listed in the Sanctioning Guidelines, namely, whether the firm has begun to take voluntary, convincing corrective actions to remedy the situation, has launched an internal investigation, and/or is cooperating with the Bank in its investigation of the misconduct. (Indeed, one can argue that community service itself is a kind of further corrective action.)

To put the community service idea into practice, the Bank would need to determine how this form of sanction would work procedurally. Like monetary forms of restitution, community service seems more adaptable to the se lement context, where direct negotiations between the Bank and the respondent allow for the ironing out of the fairly complex a ending issues. The bodies that conduct sanctions proceedings—the SDO and the Sanctions Board—were set up to determine the facts of a case and to make a fairly straightforward assessment of an appropriate sanction based on those facts. Under their current configuration, they are not well positioned to negotiate the terms and conditions of community service, either with the respondent or with governments or local populations. One way around this would be to allow decision makers to make debarment decisions either reducible or convertible to conditional non-debarment, by which the respondent, within some reasonable time after a debarment is imposed, could approach the Bank (either the ICO or some other appropriate Bank official) with a proposal to reduce the debarment period or to convert the debarment into a conditional non-debarment on terms and conditions to be proposed by the respondent and acceptable to the Bank, with the principal condition being the satisfactory performance of appropriate community service in accordance with an action plan agreed to with the Bank. To limit transaction costs, it may be preferable that community service be undertaken as a supplemental activity under an existing Bank Group operation—presumably the one that was affected by the corruption. If that is not feasible—because corruption often comes to light long after the fact, when the relevant operation is already complete—then some other project may serve as host. As a last option, the community service might be undertaken as a standalone miniproject. Although the full panoply of Bank project preparation cycle should be avoided, the Bank’s operational policies, including appropriate consultation with prospective beneficiaries and country ownership principles, as well the Bank’s safeguards and anticorruption policies, could be applied, mutatis mutandis.


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Conclusion Community service is an a ractive alternative to the Bank’s almost exclusive current reliance on debarment as the sanction of choice for corrupt behavior by private sector actors in the projects that it finances. Although the Bank would need to address a number of practical, policy, and procedural issues to make the idea work, the effort would be worthwhile. Community service, as a sanction or as a complementary mitigation measure in appropriate cases, would avoid or mitigate the potential anticompetitive impacts of debarment while providing a way to compensate for, if not eliminate, the direct harms done by the sanctionable practice to development effectiveness. Perhaps most significant, by engaging with the affected project beneficiaries, community service has the potential to provide a teaching moment on the causes and consequences of corruption while giving voice and compensation to those who, all too often, are left “out of the bargain” in sanctions cases: the populations that the Bank is ostensibly striving to help.64

64

Jacinta Anyango et al., Left out of the Bargain: Se lements in Foreign Bribery Cases and Implications for Asset Recovery (World Bank 2014).



20

Making Delivery a Priority A Philosophical Perspective on Corruption and a Strategy for Remedy MORIGIWA YASUTOMO That corruption is a major obstacle to delivery in development is now widely accepted. However, the concept of corruption is not as clear as one might suppose. Corruption must be the corruption of something, but of what? We speak of a “corrupt person” and of a “corrupt society.” Transparency International and others have developed the standard definition of corruption: the abuse of public office for personal gain. However, this definition raises some crucial questions: Who is the corrupt actor? Is the object of the corruption a person (or persons), a society, a public office, or, perhaps, all of them? Are there more candidates? A corrupt person is typically a public official who takes bribes. But is it the person who is corrupt, or is it the office that the person holds that is corrupted? In a corrupt society, no one seriously expects people to refrain from giving or taking bribes, even if everyone knows there are norms that prohibit bribery and that it is wrong to engage in such acts. In this case, is the society corrupt? Or, are the public offices of such societies corrupt? The term “corrupt” is ambiguous. It can be modified to characterize a person or a society, but the crux of corruption is in the violation of the norm addressed to those in whom public power is entrusted. The norm dictates that the competence and discretion of the official be used for the sake of public interest, but if these powers are used for the benefit of the official’s personal interest at the cost of the public, then corruption exists. It may exist in the persons who hold public office, or in the society in which actions that may be called “corrupt” are prevalent, but ultimately, it is the function of the public office that is compromised. The standard definition is thus quite accurate on this point. The abuse of public office constitutes corruption in the precise sense. What is “abuse” in this context? It is the use of discretion given to the official based not on impersonal and universal, or public, reasons but on personal and particular, or private, reasons. The public character of the office is

The text is a much-revised version, if not a different paper, of the author’s presentation on February 2, 2014, at the International Conference on Institutional Design for Conflict Resolution and Negotiation, held at Nagoya University. The author wishes to express his appreciation to Hassane Cissé and Elise Wei Tan for encouragement and excellent review of earlier drafts and to Satoru Kobayashi for help in conducting research.

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compromised when corruption occurs. Why is the compromise of the public character of the office detrimental? What does it destroy? These are the important questions. The short answer to these questions is this: Corruption destroys the expectation that justice will be done, and if the extent of destruction crosses a threshold, the sense of justice of the members of the society will in turn be destroyed. The practical basis of justice—the public trust in the powers that execute justice—is destroyed. What is justice in this context? It is justice in the sense given in Corpus Juris Civilis, the summa of Roman law: Justitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuique tribuendi. Justice is the constant and perpetual will to distribute to each, one’s own. Put into modern parlance, justice is the sustainable effort to give each person his or her rights. A longer response is in order.

Why Justice Is Good and Corruption Is Bad A real-life anecdote serves to illustrate these points more clearly. On a field trip with my seminar students, I visited the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute in 2013. We observed a colony of chimpanzees led by the alpha male, Akira. Akira was ge ing on in years and was no longer very confident of his authority to rule. He would cry out almost every 20 minutes, demanding a response from all the members of his clan. Failure to respond meant defiance. Thus, the chimpanzees had no choice but to respond and cry out every 20 minutes all day. I interpreted Akira’s behavior as his compensation strategy for the decrease in his authority, geared also to alleviate his uncertainty and to discover any sign of revolt at an early stage. Akira’s actions demonstrated the essence of spontaneous political power, where “might is right” and the “law of the jungle” prevails. In order for a chimpanzee to survive and, to thrive, he or she must lead a life that pleases and appeases the alpha male. Akira had no obligation to protect the others, much less to protect every individual equally. He would protect those he found it in his interest to protect, namely, those who obeyed and served him, and he would give special favors and privileges to those he found to be of good use to him or very pleasing. The same norms of governance, in principle, ruled humans in all quarters of life until a few centuries ago; where rule of law is not a reality, it is still the norm today. In 18th-century Western Europe, a new way of governance arose that would develop into the liberal democratic polity, where the law of the jungle and the evolutionary law of “the survival of the fi est” need not apply. In this new society, people have human rights; they are not subject to the whims of the ruler. Citizens are free to choose a life of their own, with their own values and the freedom to live according to their own principles. The sovereign must respect and protect the freedom of the citizens, who live under the “rule of law” and are treated as equals, having the equal right to be free. The li le guy can stand up to the big guy. In the event the big guy does not, for example, pay what he owes, the li le guy himself cannot do much about it, but the gov-


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ernment can, and the li le guy will be paid. Political power is used to enforce this system of equality, where everyone is equal under the law. The liberal democratic state has the duty of “the sustainable effort to give each person his or her rights.” The state has the obligation to provide justice, although it may not always be able to live up to its promise. The equal right to be free is what is a ained in this universal, impersonal state. Of the polities known so far, liberal democracy has been the best bet for safeguarding the equal right to be free. It is important to ensure that those in power rule for the sake of the public interest, that is, the common interest of the people, those citizens who make up the polity, the individuals who are free and have the equal right to live a life of their choice. In this type of polity, those in power are public servants, or the servants of the people, rather than their masters. They serve the public interest, not their personal interests. Although their personal interest is not unimportant—civil servants are citizens, too—the personal interest of the civil servant should never get in the way of performing the duty to seek and enhance the public interest. Public institutions, therefore, should be designed so that the legitimate personal interests of the civil servant do not get in the way and the common interest of the public and private interests of the civil servant coincide. For example, a higher salary should be paid to those who be er serve the public interest. This leads to the question: What is the critical difference between a liberal democratic state and the types of governance prevalent before this system? The difference resides in the answer to the question: Who is the master? In other words, in whose interest is the state run? A liberal democratic state is run for the benefit of its citizens, while the older type of rule is essentially the same as the colony of the chimpanzees cited earlier; the primary beneficiary is the alpha male. In a liberal democracy, the citizen does not have to cater to the wishes of the alpha male in order to survive or placate the alpha in order to enjoy freedom. Instead, the state has the obligation to protect the equal right to be free of all its citizens. No ma er how much the public official may dislike you, she or he cannot act against you for personal reasons. The public official, who is bound to enforce justice, must honor your rights of citizenship, your equal right to be free. How does one bring about justice? Is it not a daydream to posit that those in power willingly use their competence for the public good as a ma er of duty? Can such a psychological state be imagined? If imagined, is it rational? These and other questions naturally arise. What does it take to ensure that public officials will use their power not for personal gain but for justice? It cannot be accomplished simply through moral reflection and the conviction that it is good to have justice. Justice needs not only morality but also real-life advantage on the part of those with political power. For justice and other public goods to become a reality, they should exist not simply for normative reasons; they should also be compatible with the personal interests of those in power.


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At this point, another difficult question must be asked: Which justice, which conception of justice, should be implemented? Justice cannot be a personal conviction, let alone a whim, of an official. In many cases, it should be in tune with the sense of justice of the populace, although there may be situations when this does not apply (e.g., when the people are entrenched in a tradition of class, gender, or racial bias). How do those entrusted with power free themselves from jaundiced views? The short answer is: reason and procedure. The public conception of justice should be developed through public discussion and due process. Such a conception must be a product of public reason as well as an act of will on the part of representatives of the sovereign following procedural or natural justice. What form does such an amalgam of reason and will take? It takes the form of law. To be accurate, law should be a product of such reasoned, public, and procedurally correct will. The laws under discussion here are the laws of a liberal democratic state. Whereas the laws of, say, the Mongol Empire are essentially the same as those of the chimp Akira’s reign, the laws of a constitutional democracy are geared to meeting the public interest of the sovereign people. They protect the rights of the citizen. Therefore, such law constrains the power of the sovereign; it doesn’t just render it legitimate. Justice is “good” because it provides equal freedom to all. Corruption is “bad” because it destroys the system that can provide equal freedom for all. Corruption replaces a system of equal freedom with the only alternative available, the rule of the alpha male, where the law of the jungle prevails.

The Public/Private Distinction, or the Parable of Village X and the Big River Thus far, political power has been seen as something that can bring about justice if it remains free from abuse. However, there is an even greater positive and extraordinary aspect of political power. It gives a unique and legitimate solution to problems of collective decision making that cannot be solved in the absence of public authority.1 An illustration of this concept is the story of Village X and the Big River. Village X was located next to a wide, deep, and fast-running river. Village X was an impoverished but peaceful and egalitarian village. There were no bullies and everyone was equal. The villagers cooperated to overcome hardship and barely managed to survive harsh winters. Village X produced a product, x, which, when combined with y, a product found only in Village Y, located on the other side of the river, created xyyx, a commodity sought by everyone in the world. To carry x from Village X to Village Y, one had to walk upstream for six hours to cross the river, where it was shallow enough to do so, and 1

This section of the chapter is based on Yasutomo Morigiwa, Die philosophischen Grundlagen der Richterethik, C6117E Schleswig-Holsteinische Anzeigen 110–15 (2009).


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then walk back downstream on the other bank, which took another six hours, to Village Y. If a bridge were built between Villages X and Y, crossing the Big River would take only 10 minutes. One day, the people of Village X got together to discuss their future. They concluded that building a bridge between Villages X and Y would not only make everyone’s lives easier but would hold great potential for the future. The people of Village X unanimously agreed to build a bridge between Villages X and Y. For the very same reason, the people of village Y also agreed unanimously. Life in Village X and Village Y was harmonious until the Big Question arose: Where should we build the bridge? Every head of household in Village X, rational beings that they were, wanted the bridge to be built at a site that brought the highest utility to his household. The upshot was that there were as many site proposals as there were households in Village X. Their proposals were equal in value because everyone was equal, and to the Big Question, each gave essentially the same answer: Wherever it is to my greatest benefit. There was no rational way of choosing one site over another. One might have proposed the democratic way: take a vote. But because everyone had an equal say, there was no way of choosing on which site to vote. How did the village solve this problem? The residents became political. They chose someone to be responsible for the enforcement of the demands of the public interest and endowed him with the necessary political authority. His duties included forcing people to do things against their will as long as this political authority did not infringe on the basic rights of each citizen. This authority also had the obligation to justify an authoritative decision with reasons that any rational being could not but admit as being fair and reasonable, that is, public reasons that are by definition universally valid. For example, citizen A and citizen B of Village X both wanted the bridge to connect directly to the road in front of their houses, which were located in different parts of Village X. Before the age of political authority, there was no just way of choosing between the two sites; this was an egalitarian village, so the one could not be favored over the other without being unfair. However, once political authority existed, with the obligation to choose in favor of the public interest, something magical happened. New reasons, called “public reasons,” were presented: •

Public Reason 1 (from a civil engineering standpoint): The bridge should be built on a solid foundation. As it happened, the site that B wanted had a sandy bank, whereas the site that A wanted had solid footing.

Public Reason 2 (from a socioeconomic standpoint): The bridge should be built at the point closest to the locale where product x is produced. As it happened, the site proposed by A was closer than the site proposed by B.

Public Reason 3 (from a geopolitical standpoint): The bridge should be close to the most densely populated areas. As it happened, more people lived closer to the site that A wanted than to the site that B wanted.


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Based on these public reasons, the political authority decided to build the bridge at a point near where citizen A wanted it. The political authority enforced the decision, something citizen B did not like. However, because the decision was in the interest of the public, citizen B could not complain. Compare this solution with the situation before political authority existed, where there was no solution, only solutions. A consensus might have been reached after a rational discussion among the citizens of the egalitarian Village X. However, such a discussion of public reasons would have gone against the personal interest of any villager not living near A’s property, which was the majority of the villagers. Hence, it is unlikely that such a conclusion would have been reached voluntarily. Even if that were the case, it is even more unlikely that the villagers would voluntarily abide by their decision. Therefore, the establishment of a political authority that could force the villagers to decide in terms of public reasons and then enforce the implementation of the public decision would be in the interest of all those who wanted the bridge, which is everyone. Finding himself in a “you’ll thank me later” circumstance, the political authority found it in his interest, as well as duty, to force citizens into considering public reasons and to abide by the outcome whether they liked it or not. How could the political authority justify its decision to build the bridge near A’s house, over other equal private claims? Because the decision was now a public decision, justified not by a particular private reason but by public reasons, and public reasons override private reasons. This type of decision did not exist before the distinction between the public and the private became a reality. Public reasons apply to all, and hence are valid for all, whereas private reasons can be good reasons for only a certain person or group of persons. Public reasons are reasons that private entities cannot reject without being selfish. The democratic authority justified its decision by means of public reasons that demonstrated that building the bridge at the site chosen was in the public interest, thus rendering this a public decision, or a collective decision supplying the community with a public or common good. It was natural that the public authority came up with public reasons against which both A and B found it difficult to argue (although in this particular case, A had li le reason to disagree). The search for public reasons is essential for the survival of public authorities. Reasons given in terms of civil engineering, economics, and geopolitics are examples of public reasons. Ideally, they are valid for all, anytime, anywhere. They help identify our common interest, not my personal interest. It brings into existence things that are ours and never mine: res publica. The search for such reasons is not only ethically and politically correct but also necessary for the political survival of those who are responsible for the running and development of the republic. There is a happy coincidence, or to be exact, an orchestrated harmonization, between the private interests of those who run the public system and the


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interests of the public at large. A unique solution is found for an insurmountable problem, thanks to a rational and public political authority with power such that no one can say no, if the contention against the public decision is a raw assertion of private interest. By definition, a political power deprives citizens of the freedom to say no (on ma ers over which they have a mandate). However, or because of this power to coerce, public authorities provide the citizenry with new possibilities. Intuitively, coercive power keeps at bay the bad guy. It gives legitimacy and security to the good guy, publicly acknowledging that the good guy is doing the right thing and ensuring it will do what it can to make sure that the rights of good citizens are protected. It gives the citizenry a new reality, where they can avail themselves of a newly entitled, secured freedom and other public goods (derived from the public decision, via the economic benefit brought about by the bridge in the case of Village X), which, without political authority, would have been virtually impossible. In sum, there are two kinds of political power: that which does not distinguish between private and public reasons for action, and the more developed political power that does. The more primitive form may provide for the interest of the public if the authority in power happens to be good-natured and benevolent or decides playing the good guy would be to his benefit. The advanced form of power, however, has no choice but to serve the public interest: the only way it can validate its existence is to use its power for the benefit of the public, enforcing its public decisions (justified by public reasons). Only the la er form of political power may be called “public” in its proper sense. This is a political power that is not inimical to the people. Instead, its raison d’être is in protecting the rights of the people. Therefore, it is in the interest of the citizens to establish and maintain such a form of power, just as it is in the interest of the political authority in power to serve such a public. This democratic power came into being in modern Europe and has since been theoretically purified into the political model of liberal democracy.

The Rationality of Corruption Justice is good because it provides equal freedom for all. Corruption is bad because it destroys the system that can provide justice, in other words, equal freedom for all. Corruption replaces justice with the rule of the alpha male, where might is right, and the law of the jungle prevails. Corruption erodes and destroys the public system of a constitutional democracy, which enables justice, or equal freedom for all. Corruption destroys justice by replacing public action geared to enhancing the public interest with public action benefiting the personal interest of a public official. It unbu ons all that the public/ private distinction is designed to keep intact. This is comparable to slowly burning the bridge in the parable of Village X and the Big River. This section illuminates the rational and irrational aspects of corruption by connecting arguments from social choice theory to the political philosophy of liberalism. This in turn provides a framework for understanding and justifying anticorruption policies generally.


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From the macro, objective, collective view, corrupt behavior is irrational: it destroys the institutional mechanism that makes a just, free, and sustainable society possible. However, sadly, there may be rationality if one takes a micro, subjective, personal view, namely, the viewpoint of the public official with a personal agenda. This is what might be called situational rationality. One situation where corrupt behavior becomes rational is when the public official is severely underpaid and has a family to support. If the amount of the bribe is such that it is worth taking the risk of being detected, or even if the price of the bribe is not quite right but the risk of detection is negligible, then it is possible to argue for situational rationality in favor of corruption. These are situations where corruption is morally reprehensible but rationally understandable. An important element is missing in the description of the typical drivers of corruption mentioned in the above paragraph. There is no hint of whether there is a practice of corruption or whether this is a unique act of corruption within a context of impeccable moral standards pervading the society in question. The strength of the drivers is relative to what is mistakenly called the culture or tradition of corruption. The degree of systemic or endemic corruption is the important context in which the rationality of corruption must be described and understood. To be er understand the significance of this environmental condition, compare it with a society that in essence is no different from a colony of chimpanzees. Here, there can be no corruption. Not because there is no bribery or horse-trading, but because the public/private distinction does not make sense in this context. The alpha male is the state. The public interest of the state and the personal interest of the alpha male cannot be distinguished. It is the same coffer. Corruption exists only in the context of a polity that distinguishes the public from the private, and corruption that is illegal exists only where the nature and limits of power is specified by the law. Bo Rothstein, in his inspiring paper, cites Alina Mungiu-Pippidi: Mungiu-Pippidi argues that the root of systemic corruption is a particularistic political culture, which is defined as a system in which the government’s treatment of citizens “depends on their status or position in society, and people do not even expect to be treated fairly by the state; what they expect is similar treatment to everybody with the same status.”2 Both North et al. and Mungiu-Pippidi argue convincingly that corruption and similar practices are rooted in deeply held beliefs about the proper order of exchange in a society—personal-particularistic versus impersonal-universalistic. The implication is that to effectively curb corruption and establish ”good governance,” the whole political culture has to move from the ”limited access” or “particu2

Bo Rothstein, Corruption and Risks. Anti-corruption: The Indirect “Big Bang” Approach 18(2) Rev. Intl. Pol. Eco. 228, 237–38 (2011) quoting Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Corruption: Diagnosis and Treatment 17(3) J. of Democracy 88 (July 2006).


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laristic” equilibrium to the very different equilibrium characterized by “impersonal” and/or “universal” forms of exchange.3

The personal-particularistic society mentioned is in essence the chimpanzee colony, and the impersonal-universalistic society is constitutional democracy. To be more accurate, the personal-particularistic society does not know of the distinction between the personal and the public. An individual chimpanzee would not distinguish personal interest from public interest because, even if chimpanzees had the intellectual capacity to conceptualize the public as distinct from the private, there is no institution to protect the public interest. The political machine exists for the benefit of the alpha male. The machine protects the life and interest of others only insofar as doing so benefits the personal interest of the alpha male. Great minds such as Thomas Hobbes,4 Jean-Jacques Rousseau,5 John Locke,6 and Immanuel Kant7 developed the idea that such a machine can be reinterpreted and tweaked into a mechanism to protect the public interest, especially the protection of the right to be free and equal. The principles governing such a free and egalitarian society and the mechanism for providing such a just and stable society have since been developed by political philosophers of liberalism, notably John Rawls.8 The gist of the argument is to distinguish the public role of the ruler from her private life. The public duty of those charged with governance is to provide public goods that only political power can provide (as symbolized by the free and equal character of Village X and the wealth brought about by the building of the bridge). The grasping and implementation of the concept of the public (i.e., the universe of public reasons for action), distinguished from the private, is the key to understanding the environmental conditions that make equal liberty possible. To render public discourse based on public reasons effective, by giving it the status of an overriding or exclusive reason for action, political authority is needed, an authority that declares and enforces the superiority of a public reason for action on ma ers mandated to the authority. Although such implementation is the collective responsibility of the citizens of the society, in reality it is primarily up to the representatives of the 3

Rothstein, supra note 2, at 238.

4

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Richard Tuck ed., Cambridge U. Press 1996).

5

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social in Œuvres complètes, vol. 3 (Bernard Gagnebin & Marcel Raymond eds., Gallimard 1964).

6

John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, in Two Treatises of Government (Peter Lasle ed., Cambridge U. Press 1988).

7

Immanuel Kant, Die Metaphysik der SiĴen, in Werkausgabe, vol. 8 (Wilhelm Weischedel ed., Suhrkamp 1997).

8

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Harvard U. Press 1971); Rawls, Political Liberalism (Columbia U. Press 1993); Rawls, Law of Peoples: With “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited” (Harvard U. Press 1999); Rawls, Collected Papers (Samuel Freeman ed., Harvard U. Press 2001).


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people—and the persons running the government—to develop, run, and improve the system. Hence, when discussing the environmental conditions needed for liberty, special a ention needs to be given to government personnel. The personal obligation and the rights of those in charge of governance are the same as those of any other citizen: security, freedom, and welfare of oneself and one’s family. These personal interests are not to be neglected, but they should never take precedence over the enhancement of the public interest with which the official is charged. When the priority of interests changes, the doors to corruption open. Corruption destroys a just and stable society through the corrosion of the society’s foundational institutions. The situational rationality of corruption and, hence, the measures necessary for combating corruption should be apparent. Society must make corruption irrational to combat it. To make corruption irrational, society must structure and restructure the political institutions so that there is li le room for the situational rationality of corruption. What defines such a structure? A constitution. What is the means by which to bring this about? The rule of law. More specifically, the implementation of a type of rule of law fit for constitutional democracy. Law in a constitutional democracy is the means by which people are treated as equals, that is, they are equally free. A society where such law is in action is a just society, where everyone is equal under the law: citizens are abstracted from their personal traits and treated as right holders, as citizens who are equally free. Only in the context of such an impersonal-universalistic society can corruption be suppressed. Otherwise, rational beings will continue the strategy ingrained in them through natural selection, of surviving in the world of the chimpanzee: befriend the alpha male or get out of his way and keep a low profile. Given that the typical method of demonstrating friendship and trust in this milieu is mutual grooming, or “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine,” this strategy translates into corrupt behavior. Again, there is nothing wrong with this behavior in a world where the public/private distinction does not exist. In that world, equal freedom cannot exist. Corruption can happen only when there is an entity that can be corrupted: a public office, an institution constituted by laws to ensure equal freedom. Corruption happens only in a legal system where the public and private are distinguished and a rational agent in office is charged with protecting the public interest but institutional safeguards and professional ethics are faulty or missing. In such social conditions, the official may perceive prioritizing personal interests as rational. If the conditions necessary for civic virtue to pay off are nonexistent, it would be irrational for the public servant to muster his esprit de corps and refrain from corruptive behavior. Public institutions are designed and trusted on the assumption that the officials are using their power or competence to enhance the public interest, not their personal interest. Thus, drivers of corruption can be identified as the conditions that enable the official to believe that it makes more sense to prioritize personal interest rather than the public interest. When making the


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enhancement of personal interest the main driver for official action becomes rational, then corruption is almost inevitable. Effective anticorruption policies must make such drivers for action among public officials irrational. To a ain this goal, an economic, political, and ethical milieu embodied in the basic institutions of a just society must be built, such that engaging in corrupt acts would be irrational. To curb the motivational drive, anticorruption policies should recognize the need for establishing the environmental conditions discussed above, as well as the immediate objectives of the particular policy in question. The values the society stands for must be made abundantly clear through its laws and other measures.

The Goal of Strategies for Meeting the Delivery Challenge The “delivery challenge” is the challenge of delivering intended results and outcomes that derive from anticorruption policies. In other words, it is the challenge of identifying, clarifying, and making operational the set of reasons on which the players in society—especially the public officials—are rationally induced or impelled to base their actions and decisions, which ideally are consistently in full alignment with, and conducive to prioritizing the a ainment of, the public interest, not their own private benefit. Solutions to this delivery challenge comprise measures that render acting on legitimate private reasons, such as looking after one’s family, consonant with or indistinguishable from acting in the public interest. This means the measures will affect public officials in such a way that their behavior would seem as if they were acting on public reasons that justify or lead to the a ainment of the public interest, in other words, greater social utility in terms of wealth, justice, or any other public good. The usual method for such alignment of the public and the private is suppressing reasons for corrupt acts and decisions under the threat of certain and severe sanction. This seems to be the straightforward remedy. However, when the ethos and nature of corruption are seen in the light of the argument of this chapter, the very limited focus and command of such threat of sanction, if operating alone, should be apparent. As long as the matrix that makes corruption rational continues to exist, there will be a empts at rentseeking, or to bypass such sanctions, from many quarters. When there is enough apathy, if not antipathy, a sanction becomes ineffective. This fact has long been recognized as the reason why corruption endures and is endemic in societies. Besides the strategy of making the pursuit of personal interest irrational, the possibility of making the pursuit of the civil servant’s personal interest compatible with her duty to pursue the public interest should be considered. The goal is to make the a ainment of public interest not irrational. Instead of making the pursuit of personal interest irrational the primary goal, society


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should seek ways of making the pursuit of the public interest compatible with the official’s private concerns. The implementation of this strategy will be difficult as long as one thinks of public and private interests as being in a zero-sum game relationship. Societies must reconsider the situation and look for ways to understand the situation such that win-win and other types of games are possible. If they are successful, then the strategy will translate itself into a ma er of designing and tweaking the rules so that the public interest and the personal concerns of officials become compatible. Ideally, the architecture of the system allows the two types of interest to coexist in a win-win relationship with each other. This is the optimal solution to the delivery challenge. However, if such an arrangement is not practically a ainable, as is often the case, the policy maker can strive for the second-best solution: designing and running the system so that reasons that motivate action to increase one’s personal utility or benefit overlap with reasons for serving the public interest. For example, a highly probable and gratifying reward—tangible or intangible—might be given to an agent or public official when he or she complies with measures satisfying the public interest. Conventionally, this tactic could take the raw form of higher pay and bonuses. However, from the viewpoint of institutional stability, a more subtle form of comparative advantage to corruptive behavior should be devised. This second solution may well be up to the delivery challenge. Recall that there are only three methods that will make rational persons choose to cooperate in a public scheme:9 •

Making a severe sanction highly probable in the event of noncooperation

Making a gratifying reward highly probable in the event of cooperation

Making the acts involved into a repeated game, that is, make the players play the same game over and over again ad infinitum.

To illustrate the third method, assume a rational actor in a prisoner’s dilemma. He would calculate, under condition of uncertainty, the payoff of his move to either confess or not, in relation to the move that his counterpart makes. It is well known that confessing will always be the rational move to make, because the least-severe sanction will be handed down in case the other party betrays as well, which he or she will, because it is rational to do so. However, if the same game is repeated many times, and the actors become aware of this, the matrix changes.10 Further, if the actors are not only rational but also 9

Acts of self-sacrifice, with complete disregard for one’s personal interest (and the welfare of the family), are possible, and sometimes even laudable, but are hardly sustainable.

10

Whereas Friedrich Nie sche’s interpretation of eternal recurrence results in humanity’s going beyond good and evil, the outlook here is constructive. If the realm of the public remains undiscovered, what Nie sche says in Gay Science and Will to Power is comprehensible. However, if the potential of a just institution is understood and recognized, then rationality should demand another view, a turn for the ethical. See Friedrich Nie sche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, in Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe, vol. 3 (2nd ed., Giorgio Colli & Mazzino


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creative and reasonable, they would opt for institutional safeguards that warrant one’s trust in the other actor to live up to his promise. In other words, he would opt for an institution that would allow the highest payoff if both kept their mouths shut. We now have a new ball game. The second strategy, making the private overlap with the public, tries to make the most of the third method, repetition. What would an institution fi ing the bill look like? Don’t all institutions assume repetition? Isn’t that what we are assuming when we say, you know the drill? For such a repeated game to become possible, the sanction involved cannot be years of incarceration. It cannot be long, or the idea of the game being repeated over a lifetime becomes nonsensical. Further, the actors’ actions are to be open to the public and remembered by the other player. Otherwise, the fact of repetition, the acknowledgment that this is a repeated game, is not possible. Now consider the issue not as a two-person prisoner’s dilemma but as that of an institution involving many people. Take the residents of Village X before the bridge is built. There was no system of governance enforced by a legitimate democratic power. Each villager was busy making xyyxs as efficiently as possible. For a time, everyone produced xyyxs the same way, making the sixhour walk up the river and then back down to Village Y, with a backpack full of xs to exchange for ys. They would then make another 12-hour walk back to their Village X and combine the ys with the xs to make xyyxs. They repeat the work involved in the production of xyyxs day after day. This means that the matrix involved in deciding how to produce xyyzs does not change. If an initiative to innovate had been implemented, to make more xyyxs with less labor, the situation would have changed and the matrix would have fluctuated. For instance, to shorten the time needed to fetch ys from Village Y, each person might have tried to find the closest point possible for crossing the river and kept it a secret to gain comparative advantage. Some people might have drowned in the process, being too daring or greedy. Others might have formed a group to build a small bridge upstream that allowed them to reach Village Y in, say, nine hours instead of twelve. Although initially the group might have monopolized the use of the bridge, eventually, its members would decide to allow others to use it for a toll. The members of the group, if successful, would gain more wealth than others and establish a new class, with power over others. Village X is no longer a community of equals. Through this process, the improved system of production—using the bridge—would become the normal mode of production; it would become the system. The matrix involved in production would se le down. This is what the repeated game sequence would bring about. It is no longer a utility-maximizing game among equals. Although the players are still in a Montinari eds., Walter de Gruyter 1988); Nie sche, The Gay Science: With a Prelude of Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs (Walter Kaufmann trans., Random House 1974); Nie sche, Der Wille zur Macht: Versuch einer Umwertung aller Werte (13th ed., Kröner 1996); Nie sche, The Will to Power (W. Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdale trans., Vintage 1968).


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utility-maximizing game with others, they no longer play under the same rules, with the same roles. The games would be repeated almost every day. However, it is no longer the original game alluded to as a ball game. It is becoming a new kind of game: the production of xyyxs. After a while, a slightly more efficient system of production might develop, with the accompanying fluctuation in the matrix. Then, again, things would se le down into a system of repeated games. This time, it is a new version of the same kind of game. New versions of this game would continually arise, with accompanying fluctuation in the matrix resulting in a complex system of division of labor. Throughout this process, there would be a concentration of wealth and power into a group and within the group. Thus a spontaneous system of political power is established. It is the rule of the alpha male of the group. Justice is what the alpha male determines. The rational actors that wished to become friends or agents of the alpha male would take on managerial tasks instead of doing the hours-long round-trip hike, with a loaded backpack of x or ys. Those who could not join the clique are left working to produce xyyxs. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of one of these players. What choice would I have to enhance utility in this game? If there were no real options, it would be a repeated game, a life of eternal recurrence. Let’s assume there are no new bridges, no other changes that bring about a new set of repeated games. Then, is there no room to innovate on an individual basis? Or would there be a empts to do something about the situation? Someone might have tried to improvise, perhaps a villager who presented the toll taker at the bridge with a gift in exchange for a discount. This looks like the primordial form of a bribe. However, it isn’t. The toll taker is not taking a bribe; he is merely embezzling or cheating the alpha male out of what belongs to him. The public/private distinction does not yet exist, hence a bribe, an incentive to induce abuse of public office for private gain, cannot exist. The monitoring that the toll taker does is for securing the alpha male’s gain, not the public interest. The alpha male now has a principal-agent problem on his hands. However, since there is no such thing as we, the people, we do not have a corruption problem. This example is a humane and developed form of the rule of the alpha male; although the bridge is used to provide benefits to the alpha male and his group, the fact that there is demand, that many wish to use the bridge, demonstrates that the use of the bridge is indeed in the public interest, even if, like much in the marketplace, it was not meant to be.11 Accordingly, rent seeking by users brings about phenomena that resemble corruption. What is missing here is the

11

However, the bridge is not a public good in the economic sense, because there is no problem in keeping free riders out. Public goods in economics are defined by nonexcludability and nonexclusivity. Because there is effective monitoring at the tollbooth, free riding is not a problem. Hence the first condition of nonexcludability is not satisfied.


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distinction between the public and the private. There is no abuse of public office for private gain. What we see is the abuse of a job in a business for private gain. Why is the public/private distinction important? Without the distinction, there is li le room for justice as we in the modern world understand it: equal freedom for all. The alpha male, the toll taker, and the worker are not equals. Those days are gone. This has become a class society, where class is defined in terms of wealth and power. The villagers are now divided by rank. There is no such thing as common cause or civic duty. Unless a class consciousness can be brewed only personal gain and personal motives exist. Although this is a system that may appear to the modern eye to be unfairly advantageous to the alpha male, the worker has no reason to cooperate with the toll taker to oust the alpha male, unless he is involved in a coup d’état plot, to replace the present alpha male. This is life in the “particularistic political culture” referred to by Rothstein. Remember, in this world, where equality is lost, living a life without justice is not morally reprehensible, it is merely rational. The modern mind might cry out for a revolution, changing the system into one where everyone is equally free in the public sphere. For there to be a revolution, the missing link must be reintroduced. The worker and the toll taker must see each other as equals in the public sphere, or as citizens. For people who see each other as one of “we, the people,” bringing about such a classless, egalitarian society is a common cause worth fighting for. For the cause to become a spring for action, the individual must be able to see himself or herself as a public being, as a citizen, as well as a private being with personal relationships. Such vision must become reality, not falseconsciousness. In other words, the possibility of the constitution of a liberal democratic state must become a reality. Thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant were needed for the conceptual awakening. A French and an American revolution and the constitutions they brought about were needed to make it into a political reality. Once the conceptual and political reality is in place, the building of a real bridge, a bridge that allows a 10-minute crossing connecting Villages X and Y instead of the makeshift ones upstream, is no longer a daydream. Political power dedicated to serving the public interest, supported by citizens, will give the impetus for the building of the bridge, as well as developing other public goods. For such dynamic development of consciousness, the mind of the villager must be able to contemplate the possibility of a lifelong repetition of the work he does daily. He must also be able to see that some of his fellow men can end the routine and make a be er living for themselves with much less work required. The rational villager will then recognize that the matrix for the repeated game changes as he realizes that there are alternatives and will act accordingly, trying to make life easier for himself. If independence of the self is not an issue, the villager will try to gain the favor of the person in power, the counterpart of the alpha male in the chim-


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panzee world. He will not a empt to change, and probably not even be aware of the changes in, the institution in which he labors to raise his quality of life. Only when his endeavor fails and only when the probability of establishing a democracy is realistic will he risk working for a world of equal freedom. When he does act, and perhaps fight, for the common cause of equal liberty, he is not only rational but also reasonable and perhaps ethical. Whether he realizes it or not, he has become a public being, a citizen, as well as a private person vying for personal gain. He is a game changer. This is the mind-set we want to develop, especially in the civil servants of the developing world. Hence, the goal of all strategy is to maintain, and if possible, enhance the conditions that make it rational for one to have hope for a humane world of equals. Anticorruption laws, regulations, and policies should seek to align individual personal interests with overarching public interests, not neglect the personal. In other words, laws, regulations, and policies should enhance conditions whereby individuals can envisage—and ideally, experience—themselves as being part of a world of equals in which such individuals perceive the desirability (and the feasibility) of realizing public goods, the benefit of which is enjoyed by all, and further, that such public benefit is distributed as equally as possible. Relative to a simple system of sanctions for corruptive behavior and rewards for the opposite, this is a more complex and holistic approach, and a more practical conduit of understanding that may inform the design and formulation of effective anticorruption policies. This should give us the big picture, a framework within which we can understand corruption as situationally rational and gauge the circumstances in ways that can provide effective policy making.

The Significance of the Rule of Law At this juncture, it is crucial to ask if it is realistic to expect most, if not all, civil servants to voluntarily enlighten themselves and to reach a stage where they can perpetually act for the public interest. If the answer is not an immediate, unequivocal yes, a strategy must be devised that will bring about civicminded action without the need for genuine and complete recognition of the public/private distinction, without full awareness of the public sphere and sense of civic duty. Is such a feat possible? Yes, through the rule of law. Instead of an idealistic condition where each person must come to realize the reality of the public sphere, imagine there is a set of rules that mandates public officials to act in a certain way. These rules should, in the real world, be embodied in a constitution and the laws or bylaws that implement and enforce the constitution. There can be different sets of public reasons justifying the norms. Further, and perhaps more importantly, there may be differences in the reasons that drive public officials to observe these rules. The reason for observance can be very personal. The point is that public officials


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behave as if they understand the significance of the public interest and work for the public good. How can it be rational for a public official to abide by these laws without requiring an understanding of the reasoning behind them? That is the beauty of law. Existence of a statute provides an exclusionary reason for leaving behind responsibility to provide one’s personal interpretation of the norm, culminating in a set of practical reasons for the official action in question.12 Law mediates between the two elements of moral reasoning, considered reasons for action and the act itself, by providing a reason that preempts the set of reasons that usually support consummating the act. This is what the authority of law means. In other words, the authority of law provides the public reason that mandates an official to no longer consider the merits of a case, once it is determined that the legal norm applies to the case. Law makes personal moral reasoning redundant and renders local, short-term calculation of subjective utility based on first-order reasons useless. The existence of law creates a whole new game, or be er, mode of existence. Once such law is in place and functioning, it is in the best interest of the public official to do what the law mandates. Why? Because in the standard case, there are two reasons that together make possible a matrix that makes it both rational and reasonable for the official to forgo personal accounting of the merits of the case. These reasons depend on the factual condition that there exist on the whole a just and stable institution of norms backed up by a supreme public official with sufficient power of sanction to keep myopic and selfish behavior at bay. What are the two reasons? First, the law can be substantiated by the right reasons for the action. Second, the law is backed up by sanctions that are effective and just in its application. These reasons together function as assurance for the trust that the official places in the law. As long as these standard conditions for the functioning of law exist, and public officials behave accordingly, law provides the same assurance for all other members of society, thus creating a situation where the prisoner’s dilemma on a societal scale is averted. Of course, when there is corruption, the standard conditions for the efficacy of law usually do not fully apply. When corruption is endemic, much of the conditions necessary are not in place. Note that the inapplicability of the conditions is not an inherent weakness of the law itself, but rather the problem of the politics behind the law. To further discuss this issue, investigation of the relationship between the politics of a constitutional democracy and the rule of law is in order. However, this goes beyond the scope of this chapter. Recall the mediating function of law. Law provides a practical reason for officials to act in the public interest, to perform their duty to the people, not 12

On the concept of an exclusionary reason, see Joseph Raz, Practical Reason and Norms (3rd ed., Oxford U. Press 1999).


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necessarily through internalization of the standards of public morality and accurate comprehension of the public interest but through fidelity to law and a minimal understanding that fidelity to law pays.13 This notion highlights the importance of the rule of law as the method of choice for bypassing the arduous task of a complete education of each public official necessary for a constitutional democracy, which depends on the official’s pu ing public interest before her personal gain. A constitutional democracy can be destroyed by losing a war; it can also be destroyed by losing the war against corruption. Corruption a acks democracy internally, whereas war destroys democracy externally. There is good reason to hate corruption as much as we do war. Anticorruption policies should be designed and implemented with the goal of keeping a constitutional democracy from disintegrating.

Conclusion Focusing on the philosophy behind the delivery challenge—as a general approach to the problem of corruption, present in a plethora of societies—has hopefully brought to light, in the minds of policy makers seeking to solve the problem, familiar but vexing situations from a perspective not fully considered before, illuminating the same situations in a new light. What has been presented is a generalized outlook and methodology for finding a solution to an old problem. Whereas the first two methods of sanction and reward treat the players as merely rational and not necessarily reasonable or ethical, the third method brings out the presupposition behind the two approaches, treating the actions the two methods prescribe as rounds in repeating games. The third method appeals to longer-term interests and sophisticated rationality, and ultimately to the morality of the players. Note that being moral does not mean self-sacrifice: in the third method, the personal interest of the players is never neglected; we took the strategy of aligning it with the public interest. As the first two methods took the strategy of appealing to personal interest with no mention of the public, the difference in the methods can also be understood as a change in methodology: the third introduces the public/private distinction. All three methods can provide ways of designing systems and institutions to persuade or impel players toward noncorrupt acts and decisions. If this outcome is achieved, then anticorruption policies will have delivered the intended outcome. The designing of a general “method of choice” should make good use of the third method, which appropriately incorporates the first two.

13

The same reasoning applies to the citizen when law functions as a norm for behavior, that is, when law addresses the subjects of government. This chapter focuses on the function of legal norms when they address governing leaders and their agents, namely, as norms for adjudication when addressing officials of the judiciary and as norms for execution of official duty when addressing officials of the executive.


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The existence of the rule of law, with its mandate over the players and control of their social functions, is essential if such a comprehensive policy is to work effectively. Through the rule of law, moral deliberation, as well as local and short-term calculation of subjective utility, based on first-order reasons, is rendered senseless for the public official. Contrary to intuition, this is not to be abhorred. Admi ing the fact that the benefits of establishing, safeguarding, and developing the public sphere are not universally acknowledged by the very officials in whom we entrust the governance of the public sphere has allowed us to focus on the salutary effect of the dynamic and preemptive function of law in practical reasoning. Put straightforwardly, an efficient constitutional legal system provides a matrix for the public official, such that abiding by the law brings about greater personal utility in the long run. Hence, even if the public official does not see the big picture, which makes clear that serving the public interest provides greater social utility and will result in personal returns unimaginable without the procurement of the public good in which the public official takes part (visualize the copious gains from the sale of mass-produced xyyx, which would have been impossible without the bridge directly connecting Villages X and Y), the action taken by the public official, acting as the law mandates, will be the same as if she understood the big picture. The task of the designer of the legal system, of administrative officials, and of those who serve in the judiciary, is to endeavor to legislate, apply, and adjust the components of the legal system so that this important functional equivalence is maintained (although in the case of the a orney, this would be a constraint to his activity rather than the goal). Each of the three branches of government must deal with law in its own way to make all laws and regulations—that is, the public and private means of creating legal norms—understandable and operable. Doing so would induce a change in the rational decision making and planning of both citizens and public officials, impelling them to abide by the law for their own interests, thus acting as if they had changed their priorities and decided to serve the public interest. This chapter has clarified what it is that corruption destroys by explaining the rule of law in a way in which law is seen as an instrument by which public reason is unified and maintains its functionality in a constitutional democracy. It is crucial that constitutional democracy, when regarded from a functional point of view, be a system of repetitive games for gaining legitimacy played by actors in democratic politics who demonstrate their competence and accountability through their fidelity to law. This system works in tandem with the actors’ legitimate concerns for their own personal interests. It is hoped that the outlook provided herein enables policy builders to be er understand and organize their mission as it relates to the delivery challenge. This chapter, hopefully, has demonstrated what philosophical critique of realworld problems can do.



21

Measures for Asset Recovery A Multiactor Global Fund for Recovered Stolen Assets STEPHEN KINGAH For citizens living in developing countries where democratic culture is still nascent, finding a voice to shape the future can be harrowing. Citizens who struggle to educate their children and ensure their good health are often taken aback by the opulence exhibited by some of their political leaders. Embezzlement through corrupt practices is a serious problem in the developing world, and the transfer of illicit proceeds siphoned or directed away from serving the public interest is a vexing problem. The starting point in any durable and fruitful debate on financing development must be a frank discussion at the national, regional, and global levels on how to arrest the slippage of public money and assets stolen from poor countries by powerful elites and saved in bank accounts in rich countries and tax havens. A discussion of the tracing, recovery, and return of stolen assets from poor countries cannot be separated from discussions on development finance. Since 2000, and especially after 2007, the World Bank and the United Nations have made an effort to ensure that stolen assets are traced, recovered, and returned to the countries they were stolen from. Identifying how and where stolen financial and physical assets are concealed can be a Herculean task because the assets are often layered via money laundering and the use of trusts, foundations, and shell companies. Recovery entails domestic and international legal cooperation to retrieve the stolen assets, which may imply a protracted effort in locating, confiscating, freezing, and releasing assets. This chapter focuses on stolen assets as defined by the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Its remit pertains to the funds misappropriated by powerful economic and political elites who take assets intended for public use and misdirect them toward private ends. Poor countries lose close to US$40 billion annually from such actions.1 The issue is global, as evidenced by examples found in Haiti,2 Iraq,3 The author is grateful to reviewers and for insights from Elise Wei Tan. All opinions and arguments expressed in the chapter are the author’s. 1

UNODC & World Bank, Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative: Challenges, Opportunities, and Action Plan (World Bank June 2007).

2

Siri Schubert, Haiti: The Long Road to Recovery, Frontline World PBS (May 22, 2009).

3

Missy Ryan & Khalid Al Ansary, Iraqi Official Calls for More Action against Corruption, Reuters (Sept. 6, 2009); Jomana Karadsheh & Phil Black, Corruption Sting Nabs Iraqi Deputy Minister, Cable News Network (Sept. 7, 2009).

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Kenya,4 Nigeria,5 Peru,6 and the Philippines.7 In most cases, political leaders simply instructed their central bankers to credit specific foreign bank accounts directly (Mobutu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Marcos in the Philippines) or gained illicit kickbacks from overpriced procurement contracts (Abacha in Nigeria, Fujimori in Peru, Boigny in Côte d’Ivoire).8 A motive for these leaders and other political elites to misappropriate assets and store them abroad is to hide illegally accumulated wealth.9 UNCAC is the international legal cornerstone of anticorruption and plays an important role in tracing the recovery and return of stolen assets. This chapter presents the international, regional, and national normative and institutional architecture in place to address corruption and secure the recovery and return of stolen assets. It proposes a multilevel approach to asset recovery. To ensure that recovery and return actions are effective, legitimate, and sustainable, a confluence of actors must be engaged in the process. The chapter considers the importance of efforts to trace, recover, and return stolen assets to developing countries. It elucidates the existing international, regional, and national normative and institutional architectures that address the issue. It then pulls together insights on problems faced by those involved in asset tracing, recovery, and return, suggesting ways to mitigate these problems through a stronger partnership among states, companies, civil society groups, and the World Bank through an international financial institution with experience monitoring how returned assets are used.

Why Tracing the Recovery and Return of Stolen Assets Is Important Stealing public assets is not only perverse; it is an action that is bereft of any sense of equity, justice, and fairness. The depravity and perversity of looting state assets is aligned to the amoral character of diverting public assets for private gain or personal use. Besides this lack of moral compunction, stealing such assets is illegal in many jurisdictions—public officials cannot lawfully engage in the blatant theft of public assets. In addition, stealing public funds through corrupt acts locks developing countries in a cycle of poverty that breeds further poverty.10 There are many arguments to support the state-

4

Daniel Howden, Kenya’s Decline and Fall, The Independent (July 1, 2009).

5

A. Abubakar & Y. Hassan, Nigeria: Rule of Law Frustrates Anti-corruption War, Daily Trust (June 3, 2009), at h p://allafrica.com/stories/200906030377.html.

6

UNODC & World Bank, supra note 1.

7

Id.

8

Raymond Baker, The Biggest Loophole in the Free-Market System, 22(4) Wash. Q. 29, 33 (Autumn 1999); UNODC & World Bank, supra note 1.

9

Dev Kar & Devon Cartwright-Smith, Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries, 2002– 2006 (Global Financial Integrity Dec. 2008).

10

Mark Robinson, Corruption and Development: An Introduction, in Corruption and Development 2 (Mark Robinson ed., Frank Cass 1998).


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ment that the recovery and return of stolen assets is important for the health of developing countries. The first argument is contingent on justice. Public assets belong to the people. Public funds and physical assets are intended to satisfy public needs and serve the common good of the people. Taxpayers’ money or funds gained through aid and grants are meant to provide for public services and basic infrastructure, including education, health care, sanitation, nutrition, and public housing. In many countries where the majority of the people live under the poverty line, political elites enjoy opulent lifestyles. In Nigeria, for instance, where more than 100 million people live on less than US$2 a day,11 more than US$400 billion is estimated to have been stolen from state coffers by corrupt officials since independence in 1960.12 The World Bank and the United Nations estimate that for every US$100 million of stolen assets, the world loses the chance to immunize 4 million children from diseases or the opportunity to connect 250,000 people to potable drinking water.13 Tracing, recovering, and returning stolen assets to the people are just actions because the loot is often the result of unjust enrichment at the expense of the public. Closely linked to this argument of justice is one of fairness. It is unfair that for every dollar lent to Africa, 60 cents flows back to the rich world.14 Such debts incurred by leaders on behalf of their states are imputed to the public, which is expected to pay for what the political leaders diverted from the intended targets of the resources. In certain cases, loans contracted with foreign institutions are negotiated by individuals who eventually misdirect the resources for private purposes. However, because the loans are taken on behalf of countries, the cost of both the principal and the interest is eventually imputed to the public. This situation is even more egregious when funds and equity companies procure the debt at prices inferior to the initial principal and then sue the debtor nations for the full amount. Another argument is one of accountability, and it relates to official development assistance (ODA). This argument is directly linked to the element of transparency. For example, it is estimated that about 85 percent of the aid that has gone to Africa ends up not being used for the originally intended goal.15 One explanation is the looting of such funds by political and economic elites. Tracing, recovery, and return are often the tripod of an arduous and protracted process whereby officials or elites accused of stealing funds are

11

Raymond Baker & Eva Joly, Illicit Money: Can It Be Stopped? N. Y. Rev. of Books (Dec. 3, 2009).

12

Alan Bacarese, Advancing International Understanding and Cooperation in Combating Fraud and Corruption: Recovering Stolen Assets—a New Issue? 10 Acad. Eur. L. Forum 421, 422 (2009).

13

UNODC & World Bank, supra note 1, at 2.

14

Leonce Ndikumana, Capital Flight from Sub-Saharan Africa: Linkages with External Borrowing and Policy Options, 25(2) Intl. Rev. Applied Eco. 149 (Mar. 2011).

15

Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is Another Way for Africa 39 (Allen Lane 2009); Johannes Dieterich, Ban Development Aid? A Zambian Economist’s HardHi ing Book Polarizes Opinion, German Times 7 (Sept. 2009).


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exposed and publicly grilled. In countries where democracy is tenuous and the rule of law weak, such processes may be used for political vende as. Closely linked to accountability is the deterrence argument. Deterrence is also a basis that can be used to justify the importance of tracing, recovery, and return of stolen assets.16 Shaming potential culprits is so powerful that it signals to them that the price of looting public funds and stealing public assets is high. The process of tracing, recovery, and return of stolen assets highlights the dangers of engaging in illicit enrichment at the expense of taxpayers. Efforts to recover assets show that bad deeds do not pay and that they will be forcefully prosecuted.17 When foreign constituencies or external actors such as international development partners understand that states and corporate and social actors in poor countries are serious about tracing, recovering, and returning stolen assets, they will be encouraged to assist these countries in checking slippage. This is the effectiveness argument, which is particularly important when international development partners need to justify to skeptical taxpayers in the global North that aid serves a purpose. If leaders in developed countries and other willing external partners are aware that local officials have the commitment and capacity to prevent embezzlement and to recover stolen assets, they will be encouraged to maintain engagement. Given that most of the funds that came from development partners have been stolen in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Philippines,18 there is a strong sense that such crimes need to be prevented in the future.

International Rules and Institutions Focused on Asset Recovery Global Rules and Institutions At the international level, UNCAC plays a major role in asset recovery and return.19 A number of important resolutions preceded the adoption of the convention, including UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 55/61 (Dec. 20, 2000), in which the UNGA authorized the secretary-general to convene an ad 16

Chair’s Statement by the Kingdom of Morocco and the United Kingdom on the Second Meeting of the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery (Oct. 28, 2013), at h ps://star.worldbank.org/star/sites/star /files/chairs_statement_uk_morocco_at_afar_ii_conculsion.pdf

17

Gerard Byam, Opening Statement by Director of Strategy and Operations, MENA Region, World Bank, Arab Forum on Asset Recovery (AFAR II) (Oct. 2013), available at h ps://star .worldbank.org/star/sites/star/files/opening_statement_from_the_the_director_of_strategy _operations_mena_region_the_world_bank.pdf.

18

Raymond Baker & Jennifer Nordin, How Dirty Money Binds the Poor, Financial Times (Oct. 13, 2004).

19

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) proscribes corruption in Art. 9 but does not go into details on aspects of asset recovery. For an insightful history of the international efforts before and after the Cold War that led up to the UNCAC, see Alejandro Posadas, Combating Corruption under International Law, 10 Duke J. Comp. & Intl. L. 345–414 (2000).


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hoc group of experts to deal with the question of returning illicit money. UNGA Resolution 56/181 (Dec. 20, 2002) directed that stolen money be returned to countries of origin. UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Resolution 2001/13 (July 24, 2001) strengthened international cooperation on the issue. In the Monterrey Consensus of March 2002, corruption was regarded as an impediment to development; it was also held as such in the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 2002. UNCAC was signed in 2003 and entered into force in December 2005. It comprises 171 states parties, including the European Union. How does the UNCAC address issues pertaining to asset recovery and associated ma ers such as implementation, mutual legal assistance, and participation of civil society and the private sector? UNCAC provisions on asset recovery marked an important first in international treaties. The section on asset recovery (Chapter V) is regarded as one of the main reasons that so many developing countries quickly signed the UNCAC. Article 1(b) states, inter alia, that the goal of the convention is “to promote, facilitate and support international cooperation and technical assistance in the prevention of and the fight against corruption, including in asset recovery.” The negotiations that led to the inclusion of Chapter V were intense. There was marked resistance from countries of the North with concerns that such provisions not be used to encroach on or violate the rights of individuals through the pretext of asset recovery. The provisions on asset recovery are expansive and contain elements such as asset freezing and confiscation of assets acquired through corrupt means. Articles 43–50 cover a litany of related aspects such as joint investigations and mutual legal assistance in recovery efforts. Since the adoption of UNCAC, the provisions on asset recovery have been welcomed,20 especially because many adopters hope that UNCAC will be especially useful for developing countries.21 Implementation of the convention is the remit of the Conference of the States Parties (COSP). The COSP comprises the Implementation Review Working Group, the Working Group on Prevention, the Working Group on Asset Recovery, the Working Group on Technical Assistance, and expert groups that handle international cooperation between the sessions of the COSP.22 The 20

Bacarese, supra note 12; Mark Vlasic & Jenae Noell, Fighting Impunity: Recent International Asset Recovery Efforts to Combat Corruption, Cayman Fin. Rev. (Jan. 5, 2010).

21

Tim Daniel, UN Convention against Corruption, in The Global Corruption Report 106 (Robin Hodess, Tania Inowlocki, Diana Rodriguez, & Tony Wolfe eds., Pluto Press 2004).

22

The first COSP was held in Jordan in Dec. 2006, when an intergovernmental working group was created to address issues related to the implementation mechanisms. Parties also created the Working Group on Technical Assistance and Asset Recovery. The second COSP took place in Bali in Jan. 2008. During this meeting, there was a deliberate decision to avoid an adversarial approach to the issues of anticorruption, especially because the parties were keen to move toward universal adherence of the UNCAC. Other subjects covered during the meeting included technical assistance tools and the bribery of officials of international organizations. The third and thus far most important COSP was held in Doha, Qatar, in Nov. 2009. States parties adopted Resolution 3/1 on the terms of reference of the IRM. The UNCAC Civil Society Coalition took issue with the fact that COSP did not make the involvement of CSOs obligatory in the reviews and called for full publication of the reviews: see TPI, UN


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secretariat of the COSP is housed in the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). An important aspect of implementation was discussed at the third session of the COSP, held in Doha in 2009.23 There it was agreed that implementation be handled through the Implementation Review Mechanism (IRM). Reviews are contemplated in two tranches or cycles of five years. The first cycle relates to the implementation of Chapter III (criminalization and law enforcement) and Chapter IV (international cooperation) of the UNCAC; the second cycle covers Chapter II (prevention) and Chapter V (asset recovery). Because the second cycle is to be rolled out in 2015, it is hard to assess the effectiveness of the mechanism. COSP IV, in Marrakesh in 2011, adopted many important resolutions, including increased assistance to the Working Group on Asset Recovery.24 It also made decisions on technical assistance aspects of the review mechanism. Resolution 4/1 of COSP IV expressed concern about the unresponsiveness of several states parties in the conduct of country reviews. COSP V, in Panama in 2013, focused on the effectiveness of law enforcement cooperation in detecting corruption offenses (Resolution 5/1).25 The conference also issued a resolution on cooperation in the area of asset recovery (Resolution 5/3). Resolution 5/5 contained a novel element on the promotion of the contribution of young people and children in preventing corruption and fostering a culture of respect for the law and integrity. Mutual legal assistance (MLA) is a fundamental element of UNCAC. Chapter IV is dedicated to ways to enhance international cooperation and covers MLA. One of the longest provisions of UNCAC, Article 46(1), stipulates that “States Parties shall afford one another the widest measure of mutual legal assistance in investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings in relation to the offences covered by this Convention.” MLA that may be requested includes taking evidence; effectively serving judicial writs; executing searches, seizures, and freezes; and examining objects and sites. In terms of the involvement of civil society, Article 13 makes clear that the role of civil society participation is salient in realizing the goals of the UNCAC. The UNCAC Civil Society Coalition, created in 2006, is an umbrella organization that brings together more than 300 civil society groups working toward big-tent participation and transparency in the implementation of UNCAC. Also important is that the review process of UNCAC envisages a strong role for civil society entities. NGOs active in this area include Transparency International, Global Witness, and Open Society. Resolution 4/6 of COSP IV, on the role of NGOs in the mechanism of the review of implementation of UNCAC, proConvention against Corruption Review Mechanism: A Flawed Step Forward, Transparency Int. (Nov. 2009). The fourth COSP was held in Marrakesh in 2011; the fifth was held in Panama in 2013. Conferences are planned for 2015 in the Russian Federation and 2017 in Austria. 23

COSP, Report of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption on Its Third Session, Doha, CAC/COSP/2009/15, 9–13 (Nov. 2009).

24

Resolutions and decisions adopted by COSP of UNCAC, CAC/COSP/2011/4 (Oct. 28, 2011).

25

Resolutions and decisions adopted by COSP of UNCAC, CAC/COSP/EG.1/2013/3 (Nov. 28, 2013).


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vides for briefings with NGOs on the outcome of the review process, including aspects such as technical assistance. Article 12 of UNCAC covers the provisions related to the private sector. Specifically, Article 12(1) calls on states to take actions to prevent corruption involving the private sector. Some of the acts that are proscribed include making off-the-book accounts; making inadequately identified transactions; using false documents; and destroying bookkeeping documents earlier than foreseen by the law. Article 12(1) was inspired by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) system of combating bribery and corruption in international business transactions.26 The main institutions at the international level that address issues of asset recovery are UNODC and the World Bank. The entities partnered in 2007 to create the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR). It is both a platform that facilitates cooperation between countries involved in asset recovery and an initiative that disseminates best practices on asset recovery experiences around the world. StAR has developed a user-friendly database that tracks ongoing and completed examples of asset recovery cases launched in various jurisdictions. StAR has also developed a strong training and capacity building package and course that have been dispensed in partner countries, and the organization is helping regional networks facilitate communication and cooperation in asset recovery.27 In addition to these formal initiatives at the international level, Interpol plays a vital role in asset recovery. Equally significant are G8 and G20 efforts to combat dirty money.28 The dialogue between high-level G20 government officials and business leaders (B20) alongside major civil society groups (C20), especially on coordinated actions to enhance asset recovery, is significant. The Asset Recovery Expert Network is run by the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), housed at the Basel Institute of Governance.29

Regional and Multilateral Rules and Institutions The first regional entity to adopt a convention against corruption was the Organization of American States (OAS) when it endorsed the Inter-American Convention against Corruption in Caracas in March 1996 (entered into force in 1997). Article XV, pertaining to measures regarding property, provides for the 26

OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, Recommendation 10(i). Recommendation of the Council for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (Nov. 2009).

27

StAR, Stolen Asset Recovery Progress Report (Oct. 2009). StAR has also published Guide to Non– Conviction Based Forfeiture (Apr. 2009); Management of Returned Assets: Policy Considerations (Oct. 2009); Towards a Global Architecture for Asset Recovery (2009); Income and Asset Declarations: Tools and Trade-Offs (2009); and Barriers to Asset Recovery: An Analysis of the Key Barriers and Recommendations for Action (2011).

28

See, e.g., G20, Leaders’ Statement: The Pi sburgh Summit para. 15 (Sept. 24–25, 2009).

29

Anne Lugon-Moulin, History, Experience, and Workings of the Basel Institute of Governance, Cayman Fin. Rev. (Jan. 5, 2010).


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tracing, freezing, seizure, and forfeiture of property or proceeds gained from commi ing a crime proscribed under the convention. In the European Union, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) addresses issues of fraud in Article 325. In the specific area of asset recovery, an important communication in 2003 from the EU Commission on corruption included topics such as confiscation but did not include asset recovery.30 Council Framework Decision on Asset Recovery Cooperation, backed mainly by Austria, Belgium, and Finland, does cover aspects of asset recovery.31 In 2011, the EU Commission adopted an important communication on antifraud,32 which states that the goal of the text is to improve prevention, detection, conditions of investigation, and reparation and deterrence.33 Swift recovery of money that has been the subject of fraud and paid from the EU budget is an important component of the strategy.34 Member-states are responsible for making investigations pertaining to irregularities and fraud and for recovery of funds that are wrongly paid out. Such wrongful payment can also be a result of investigations of the commission’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). In the case of direct budget management, commission services are required to issue recovery orders following OLAF investigations.35 In 2012, the commission adopted another important communication on the ma er,36 noting that fraud costs EU taxpayers at least €600 million per year.37 Divergence of rules in member-states has diluted hopes of reaching complete deterrence in dealing with the problem. The key is to aim for equivalence in protection across EU member-states so that individuals with malevolent intentions do not forum shop for jurisdictions with lower standards.38 The African Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption (CPCC), adopted in Maputo in 2003 and celebrated as taking a human rightsbased approach to combating corruption,39 makes provision for asset recovery in Article 16. Article 16 encapsulates important elements such as confisca30

EU Commission, Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Commi ee: On a Comprehensive EU Policy against Corruption, COM(2003) 317 final, Brussels 10 (May 28, 2003).

31

Council decision concerning cooperation between asset recovery offices of member-states in the field of tracing and identification of proceeds from, or other property related to, crime, 2007/845/JHA (Dec. 6, 2007).

32

European Commission, On the Commission Anti-Fraud Strategy, COM(2011) 376, final, Brussels (June 24, 2011).

33

Id., at 3.

34

Id., at 4.

35

Id., at 16.

36

EU Commission, Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Fight against Fraud to the European Union’s Financial Interests by Means of Criminal Law, COM(2012) 363 final, Brussels (July 11, 2012).

37

Id., at 2.

38

Id., at 4.

39

Thomas R. Snider & Won Kidane, Combating Corruption through International Law in Africa: A Comparative Analysis, 40 Cornell Intl. L.J. 691, 748 (2007).


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tion, seizure, and repatriation. A crucial feature of asset recovery in Africa is that it is pursued through quasi-judicial human rights bodies; thus, recovery efforts as encoded in the CPCC are not novel. In 2001, 11 African countries adopted the Nyanja Declaration on the Recovery and Repatriation of Africa’s Wealth.40 In Asociación pro Derechos Humanos de España (APDHE) v. Equatorial Guinea (2007), the government of President Obiang Nguema was brought before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to respond specifically to the motion that the president, his family, and his government had used proceeds from natural wealth to illicitly enrich themselves. The case was brought by the Spanish NGO APDHE and the U.S. rights-based organization EG Justice and Open Society Justice Initiative. They based their actions on spoliation of the natural resources of Equatorial Guinea by President Obiang and the Mongomo ethnic group. They also based their case on corruption, a corrupt judiciary, and the crackdown on dissent. The case was dismissed on the grounds that national remedies had not been exhausted in Equatorial Guinea. The U.S. Department of Justice subsequently opened a case against the son of President Obiang, and there is a pending case in France against specific African leaders brought by a civil society organization (CSO) on grounds of bien mal acquis. In the Middle East, although there is no formal convention covering corruption and asset recovery, the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery (AFAR) was launched in 2012.41 AFAR aims to provide regional training for practitioners involved in the tracing, freezing, recovery, and repatriation of stolen assets in Arab countries in transition following the Arab Spring. It represents a collective effort to recover assets for citizens in countries that have been subject to the callous dictates of exploitative and corrupt leaders. AFAR is unique because it brings together policy makers and practitioners, including the G8 Deauville Partnership and Arab countries, in efforts to recover stolen assets. AFAR provides information on stolen assets and training on best practices. It also focuses on regional and international awareness training on the issue. Between 2011 and 2012, through AFAR, US$100 million in financial and physical assets were frozen or returned to these countries.42 For example, US$29 million from a bank account in Lebanon was returned to Tunisia. Efforts are being made to recover and return Sw F60 million of Ben Ali funds from Swi erland back to Tunisia, and an MLA has been reached in this respect. Physical assets have been recovered as well: for example, airplanes and yachts belonging to former president Ben Ali and his family have been sent back to Tunisia from Spain, France, and

40

Daniel Scher, Asset Recovery: Repatriating Africa’s Looted Billions, 14(4) African Sec. Rev. (2005).

41

Arab Forum on Asset Recovery 2012, Doha Qatar, h p://star.worldbank.org/star/ArabForum /arab-forum-2012.

42

Jean Pesme, Understanding the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery: Questions Answered by Jean Pesme, StAR Coordinator (Oct. 28, 2013), available at h p://star.worldbank.org/star/sites/star/files /the_arab_forum_and_asset_recovery_-_questions_and_answers_final.pdf.


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Italy.43 The AFAR demonstrates that mobilization and collective action work, even if slower than expected or desired. In Asia, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum memberstates follow the Santiago Commitment, the APEC Course of Action, and APEC Transparency Standards. The APEC Forum promotes cooperation in extradition, legal assistance, and recovery. Members agree to promote regional cooperation in areas of the extradition, recovery, and return of stolen assets.44 The APEC senior officials met in September 2004 and resolved to adhere to UNCAC standards on asset recovery and return.45 In November 2013, APEC member-states agreed to create an informal network of law enforcement officials and practitioners who are experts on asset tracing, freezing, and confiscation in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asset Recovery Interagency Network of Asia and the Pacific (ARIN-AP) is modeled on Europe’s Camden Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network (CARIN).46 It encompasses members from twenty-one jurisdictions in Asia-Pacific and six international organizations. Its mission statement notes that “the aim of ARIN-AP is to increase the effectiveness of members’ efforts in depriving criminals of their illicit profits in a multiagency basis by establishing itself as the center of professionals’ network in tackling the proceeds of crime.”47 ARIN-AP targets the creation of national contact points that exchange experiences on asset recovery. The aspect of implementation of the anticorruption treaty provisions in the inter-American system is handled by the OAS Secretariat under the auspices of the Permanent Council. In Africa, the task of implementation is under the aegis of the Executive Council of the African Union, which has the power to appoint an 11-member advisory board charged with the implementation of the CPCC and its specific provisions (Art. 22). In the Middle East, AFAR II, in Morocco in 2013, set the agenda and objectives of the forum in terms of future goals. It was a ended by 200 delegates from all over the world (25 countries), mainly law enforcement and prosecution officials. Work continues throughout the year in sessions on ma ers such as financial investigations, MLA, and the role of civil society in asset recovery.48 Within Asia, cooperation on such ma ers is very loose and voluntary. The Asian Development

43

Gerard Byam, Opening Statement by Director of Strategy and Operations, MENA Region, World Bank, AFAR II (Oct. 26, 2013).

44

APEC, Santiago Commitment to Fight Corruption and Ensure Transparency, 2004/AMM/032 rev1 Agenda Item XXII, 16 APEC Ministerial Meeting, Santiago, Chile 1 (Nov. 17–18, 2004).

45

APEC, APEC Course on Fighting Corruption, APEC Course of Action on Fighting Corruption and Ensuring Transparency, 2004/AMM/033 rev2 Agenda Item XXII, 16 APEC Ministerial Meeting, Santiago, Chile 1 (Nov. 17–18, 2004).

46

APG News, Launch of the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network for Asia Pacific (Jan. 7, 2014) h p://www.apgml.org/news/details.aspx?n=28.

47

See ARIN-AP website, h p://www.arin-ap.org/about/mission.

48

Arab Forum on Asset Recovery, Marrakesh (Oct. 26–28, 2013), h p://star.worldbank.org/star /ArabForum/About.


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Bank has sought to play an active role.49 The APEC Forum’s Anti-Corruption Transparency Working Group was constituted as a task force in 2005 and was upgraded to a working group in March 2011. The working group coordinates the implementation of the Santiago Commitment, the APEC Course of Action, and APEC Transparency Standards. It is open to APEC observers, including the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Pacific Island Forum (PIF).50 China organized an asset recovery event as chair of APEC in February 2014 in Ningbo.51 MLA is envisaged in the Inter-American Convention, which provides that bank secrecy norms cannot be used to forestall cooperation (Article XVI). This provision is similar to the one in the AU CPCC that aims to avert the use of bank secrecy as a decoy to elude cooperation (Article 17). The Inter-American Convention also provides for MLA in processing requests (Article XIV). Clauses on MLA are included in the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention (Article 26) and the OECD 1999 Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (Article 9(1)). MLA issues have been discussed in the intersessional meetings of AFAR and in the APEC Forum. On civil society involvement, Article III of the Inter-American Convention is explicit that in addition to NGOs, community-based groups must be engaged fully in preventive efforts. Civil society involvement is weaker in the African system but sharper in the European Union, where the commission consulted with taxpayer groups and academics before adopting its proposal on a directive to criminalize fraud. In Asia, the APEC Forum has highlighted the importance of the partnership of CSOs, companies, and governments to work together to dismantle the illicit networks of financial flows.52 In the framework of AFAR, intersessional expert dialogues have been organized on the role of civil society in asset recovery, and AFAR has developed a guide for CSO involvement in asset recovery activities that is hosted on its website.

Problems in Asset Tracing, Recovery, and Return In discussions of efforts to deal with asset recovery, a ention is often given to what specific developed countries (regarded as popular destinations of stolen assets) are doing to curb the practice and to retrieve and return stolen assets. Some examples of national experiences are presented here to indicate some of 49

ADB/OECD Anti Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific, Combating Corruption in the New Millennium, Tokyo (Nov. 30, 2001).

50

APEC, h p://m.apec.org/Groups/SOM-Steering-Commi ee-on-Economic-and-Technical-Co operation/Working-Groups/Anti-Corruption-and-Transparency.aspx.

51

See APEC, APEC Network of Anti-Corruption Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies (ACT-NET), 18th Anti-corruption and Transparency Working Group (ACTWG), Ningbo, China.

52

APEC, Chair’s Summary, APEC Pathfinder Dialogue with ASEAN and PIF Partners, Combating Corruption and Illicit Trade across the Asia-Pacific Region, Bangkok, Thailand 2 (Sept. 23–25, 2013).


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the challenges entailed in asset recovery. The examples cited at the national level are those that have a racted extensive media a ention. In the United States, the main law that addresses ma ers related to graft does not specifically deal with asset recovery but targets entities that bribe foreign officials. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) makes it illegal to bribe foreign public officials, but says nothing about the corruption of foreign private individuals.53 In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, Congress adopted the DoddFrank Act, which seeks to sharpen prudential standards and check flows of illicit assets. Institutionally, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has been vigorous in implementing the FCPA,54 and has taken steps to ensure that stolen assets are recovered and returned to requesting countries. A orney General Eric Holder established a special unit for this purpose. The DoJ also operates the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, and further efforts in asset recovery are channeled through stringent antimoney laundering legislation. Another jurisdiction where important legal and institutional efforts have been made to improve standards of recovery and return is Swi erland. Some of the impetus for these efforts emanated from judicial proceedings on the recovery and return of money stolen from Haiti by Jean-Claude Duvalier. In the absence of a local conviction order in Haiti and with the expiry of the statute of limitation forfeiting conviction in Swi erland (15 years), it was hard to freeze and recover the funds there. Despite a court’s decision to reject efforts to recover assets allegedly stolen by Duvalier, Swiss officials were able to use administrative discretion to retain the frozen assets.55 Eventually, Swiss legislators changed the law waiving the local conviction requirement through the 2010 Restitution of Illicit Assets Act (RIAA), or lex Duvalier, which requires the Swiss government to show that assets held could not have been acquired legally in office by the accused and to prove that the originating country is known to be corrupt. Once this occurs, the burden of proof shifts to the respondent.56 Another important development in Swi erland occurred in 2009, when a Swiss judge ordered the confiscation of assets belonging to the

53

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-213, 91 Stat. 1494 (codified as amended at 15 USC secs. 78dd-1 & 78dd-2 (1994)). The act was subsequently modified by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-418, 102 Stat. 1107; International Anti-Bribery and Fair Competition Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-306, 112 Stat. 3302. See Alejandro Posadas, Combating Corruption under International Law, 10 Duke J. Comp. & Intl. L. 345–414 (2000).

54

Sasha Kalb, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Developments in 2009 and Expectations for 2010, Cayman Fin. Rev. (Jan. 5, 2010).

55

ICAR, Duvalier Asset Cannot (Yet) Be Returned to Haiti: Swiss Federal Court Decision, Basel Institute of Governance (Feb. 3, 2010). Because of similar considerations, especially the aspect of expunged statute of limitation, another court in Swi erland ordered the release of funds owned by the former leader of the DRC (Mobutu) to his family, but this was challenged by Mark Pieth; see Court Agrees to Release Mobutu Assets, Swiss Info (July 14, 2009).

56

See Mark V. Vlassic & Gregory Cooper, Beyond the Duvalier Legacy: What New Arab Spring Governments Can Learn from Haiti and the Benefits of Asset Recovery, 10(1) Nw. J. Intl. Hum. Rights 19, 24 (Fall 2011).


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Abacha family—not in Swi erland but in Luxembourg and in the Bahamas. This was a legal first.57 In the United Kingdom, there have been court orders on the recovery and return of stolen assets to Nigeria and Zambia. In the case relating to Nigeria, the United Kingdom’s Serious Organized Crimes Agency made a decision to repatriate £43 million in stolen assets from offshore accounts to Nigeria.58 In the case relating to Zambia, a London court ordered former president Frederick Chiluba to pay back to the Zambian state the sum of £23 million in looted funds.59 In the context of AFAR, the United Kingdom has worked with Arab countries to recover stolen assets.60 In 2012, the British government established the CrossGovernment Task Force on Asset Recovery. Its goal is to accelerate efforts in tracing stolen assets from the Arab Republic of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. The main tasks have included gathering evidence and instituting court cases. Led by the Home Office minister, the task force is a multiagency team of 10 investigators from the National Crime Agency, the Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Services, the UK Central Authority, and Her Majesty’s Treasury. The task force cooperates with Egyptian officials on asset recovery, and court orders have been issued allowing for intrusive financial investigations.61 In some examples of recovery efforts (Haiti, the Philippines), the first challenge relates to the requirement in some jurisdictions that petitioners secure a local conviction order as a precondition for asset tracing and recovery in the lex situs where the stolen assets are concealed or in a preselected remedial jurisdiction. This is a difficult requirement to satisfy because many of the requesting states have weak judicial systems and, given the patronage maintained by political elites, it is often hard to ensure that there will be a local conviction order. Such was the case in the efforts to trace and recover the stolen assets of Abacha of Nigeria.62 In a welcome recent development, following a court order from the constitutional court in Liechtenstein, the government there agreed to release US$167 million stolen by Abacha to be returned to Nigeria.63 An outstanding US$1.1 billion tied to Abacha’s stolen assets is still wrapped in legal proceedings in the United Kingdom, France, and Luxembourg. As a practical 57

Frances Williams, Swiss Judge Sets Precedent in Global Graft Fight, Financial Times (Nov. 23, 2009).

58

Yemi Akinsuyi, UK to Repatriate 43 Pounds Stolen Money to Nigeria, This Day—African Views on Global News (2010).

59

David Smith, Former Zambian President Faces Jail in Unprecedented Corruption Trial, Guardian (Aug. 13, 2009); Jonathan Clayton, Frederick Chiluba Likely to Avoid Jail after Zambian Corruption Trial, Times (Aug. 17, 2009). It is noteworthy that in the Zambia case, local conviction failed; see Cecilia Dugger, Former President of Zambia Is Acqui ed, N.Y. Times (Aug. 17, 2009).

60

Dominic Jermey, How the UK Is Working to Return Stolen Assets to the Arab World, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Oct. 23, 2013).

61

Id.

62

Boco Ede, Nigeria: Corruption—EFCC Blames Judiciary for Slow Impact, Daily Trust (July 6, 2009).

63

William Wallis, Liechtenstein Agrees to Return Abacha’s Stolen 167 Million to Nigeria, Financial Times (June 18, 2014).


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ma er, local conviction is challenging to secure because, in many instances, those who are accused of stealing state assets leave the country, as happened in Haiti. However, there are other ways to recover assets than secure a conviction and seek enforcement elsewhere, including a foreign jurisdiction opening its own investigation, nonconviction-based recovery proceedings, plea agreements, and civil remedies. Even where there is local conviction, the process can be difficult because a tracing and recovery order must be implemented. Strong bank secrecy laws can render the process arduous and complicated.64 Even if there are waivers or legal changes with respect to bank secrecy laws, and agreements on mutual legal assistance are in place, it may be difficult to change the culture and practice within foreign banks and financial houses that are inclined to protect the confidentiality of their clients and maintain tight control on access to information. It is important to note, however, that the issue of bank secrecy laws is greatly tempered in most jurisdictions, which do have norms and mechanisms in place to allow bank secrecy practices to be lifted for cooperation on combating crimes, including acts of corruption. So, whereas bank secrecy posed a considerable challenge in the past, increased cooperation within and between jurisdictions has reduced the problem. There is no guarantee that, when funds are recovered and returned, they will serve the people and the public. Monitoring mechanisms to ensure that returned proceeds are properly used to address poverty are vital.65 If funds are returned to countries with dubious political and economic elites and where institutions are weak, there is a chance that the assets will again be the object of graft and abuse. To mitigate this problem, third parties such as development agencies and the World Bank have the responsibility to ensure that funds are used for the benefit of the public. Cost can be a prohibitive factor in asset tracing, recovery, and return. Successful efforts are characterized by protracted and costly court proceedings that may entail hiring lawyers, accountants, economic experts, and investigators to trace, recover, and return stolen assets. Given that many countries are hard-pressed to pay for such services, tracing and recovery efforts are often aborted even before they start. When private firms are experienced and have trained experts in asset recovery, the cost of their services can be prohibitive for governments in developing countries. In Pakistan’s asset recovery effort, for instance, the firm Broadsheet was hired to help authorities track and recover assets stolen by Asif Zardari and the Bhu o family. Broadsheet requested US$1 million up front and 20 percent of the recovered proceeds.66 In addition to the issue of cost is the task of identifying the modalities and tools 64

Khadija Sharife, Africa’s Missing Billions, Foreign Policy (May 11, 2009).

65

Ignacio Jimu, Managing Proceeds of Asset Recovery: The Case of Nigeria, the Philippines, Peru, and Kazahkstan, 6 ICAR Working Paper Series (2008).

66

Samina Ibrahim, On the Billion-Dollar Trail (International Centre for Asset Recovery Sept. 1, 2002).


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that allow experts to work together given the complexities entailed in asset recovery processes. Asset recovery can be a dangerous business. Entrenched interests are at stake, and those who are affected often wield enormous wealth and power and may make efforts to silence those who are determined to combat graft and to trace, recover, and return looted assets. For example, officials involved in asset recovery processes in Burundi and in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been killed.67 In many cases, it is clear that the families of those accused of illicit enrichment are willing to do everything possible to retain their loot.68 Furthermore, asset recovery can be a long process.69 As indicated by Pakistan’s experience, the time between the freezing of assets and return is anything but short.70 In the Nigerian effort to retrieve funds stolen by Abacha concealed in Swiss banks, the entire process lasted five years.71 It took eighteen years for closure in the process of recovering identified stolen assets of Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.72 The longer a process takes, the more likely the funds will be moved to other concealed jurisdictions. The task is further complicated by the fact that different jurisdictions may have different legal systems or belong to different legal families (e.g., common law as opposed to the continental European civil law families), meaning that time must be spent to align procedures and practices. All this enhances the opportunity for culprits to move their assets.73 There is the additional challenge of working across many languages and navigating different legal and social cultures when multiple jurisdictions are involved. Asset tracing and recovery can succeed only if there is strong political will in both the requesting and the requested state to ensure that norms and institutions are put in place to guarantee the successful tracing, recovery, and return of stolen assets. In many developing countries, those accused of stealing public assets may have powerful networks in the administration and in the judiciary, thereby complicating the process of asset tracing and recovery. There may be a persistent problem of double standards, whereby leaders

67

Celia W. Dugger, Grand Larceny in Africa, N.Y. Times (June 16, 2009).

68

Jack Smith, Mark Pieth, & Guillermo Jorge, The Recovery of Stolen Assets: A Fundamental Principle of the UN Convention against Corruption, 2 CMI U4 Brief 2 (Feb. 2007).

69

Eric Holder, Remarks Delivered at the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery (Oct. 28, 2013), h p://star .worldbank.org/star/sites/star/files/speech_of_us_a orney-general_eric_holder_to_afar_ii.pdf.

70

Jeremy Carver, The Hunt for Looted State Assets: The Case of Benazir Bhu o, in The Global Corruption Report 102, 103 (Robin Hodess, Tania Inowlocki, Diana Rodriguez, & Tony Wolfe eds., Pluto Press 2004).

71

UNODC & World Bank, Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative: Challenges, Opportunities, and Action Plan 19 (World Bank June 2007).

72

Id., at 20.

73

Alan Bacarese, Tracing, Freezing, Confiscating, and Repatriating the Proceeds of Corruption (paper presented at the Annual Asia-Pacific Regional Seminar for the ADB/OECD, Bali Indonesia 3 Sept. 5–7, 2007).


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express the desire to combat illicit transfers but tacitly condone the acceptance of dirty money in financial houses located in their own countries.74 Political will is clearly needed to change or harmonize relevant laws in support of international or cross-border efforts regarding asset tracing and recovery, including bank secrecy laws. Strong political will is also required for mitigating some of the stringent preconditions or procedures that must be fulfilled before a legal process of asset tracing and recovery can come full cycle (including implementing a local criminal conviction order).

A Multiactor Approach to the Problem Are there ways in which a wider pool of actors can combine their efforts to ensure that stolen assets are traced, recovered, and returned to poor countries in a be er coordinated, more effective, and expedited manner? Given that asset recovery can be uncoordinated and very slow, what can be done to obviate these limitations? The answer to these questions may lie in the creation of a global fund for asset recovery, referred to here as the Global Stolen Asset Recovery Fund (GSARF). But before addressing the nature of such a fund, the author requests that the reader bear in mind two important caveats. First, the proposal for such a fund, which will function according to specific terms and conditions that govern its operation, is likely to run at cross-purposes with one of the main principles behind UNCAC’s asset recovery approach—namely, that asset recovery is unconditional. Second, according to the author’s understanding, some of the multilateral institutions that may be important for the effectiveness of such a fund, such as the World Bank, have yet to indicate their support for such a proposal. This proposal is a solution to the problems of asset recovery highlighted in this chapter. It originates solely from the author. Nonetheless, even if current realities are not yet conducive for or supportive of the creation of such a fund, it could be a solution to consider in the future. The GSARF ideally would be run similarly to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF). The GF model, which includes the World Bank as a monitor, uses a network of local coordinators, accepts the contributions of the private sector and civil society, and is vital for a sustainable approach to asset recovery. All the actors in the GSARF would agree on what percentage of funds recovered through the fund would be contributed to the GSARF. This money could then be used to help governments that want to institute asset recovery proceedings but lack the funds to do so. The World Bank would play an important role in assessing the needs of the requesting states and disbursing the funds. The GSARF could also be used to support the StAR initiative.

74

Raymond Baker, The Biggest Loophole in the Free-Market System, 22(4) Wash. Q. 29, 30 (Autumn 1999).


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Given that the GSARF would mainly target asset recovery cases pertaining to flows from developed to developing countries, a more customized approach could also focus on South/South asset recovery efforts. It is wrong to assume that stolen assets from developing countries are concealed only in rich countries. A GSARF-like body at the regional level could be aligned with the respective regional development banks. The regional development banks in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe already play important roles in combating graft in the projects they finance, and they have schemes to address the issue in their local shareholder member-states. Given that these institutions have experience in the operation of the financial infrastructure in their respective regions, they could act as trustees or guarantors for region-wide GSARF-like bodies that would work closely with state officials, the private sector, and civil society to ensure that stolen assets are used for the benefit of the populations they serve. The World Bank could play a coordinating role among the various regional development banks. At the national level, it makes sense to consider the creation of asset recovery focal points that would work closely with the GSARF at both the regional and the global levels. Similar proposals have been made in the past.75 Such national focal points could form a broad umbrella that includes representatives from the national government, the private sector, and civil society. It is not enough to say that many actors should be involved in the GSARF. Their competence would be a vital factor. States parties and local authorities would be central players because they hold the power to make sovereign requests and grants. They also can shape national and international institutions to meet specific tasks in the area of asset recovery. Successful asset recovery also needs ethical and strong leadership.76 It would be hard to achieve success if public officials who are supposed to be doing the recovery are the ones looting.77 But even if public officials are decent and positively driven, they cannot work alone. The involvement of the private sector would be salient. For the requesting states, the use of private investigating firms with accountants and lawyers specialized in asset tracing and recovery is important, as evidenced in recovery efforts in Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Their input or participation should be cost-free or pegged at relatively marginal rates.78 Civil society also would be central in advocacy and awareness efforts. Finally, there is room in this proposal for the expansion of the Europeanled CARIN.79 The network was officially initiated in 2004 in The Hague and 75

Ian King, Banks Accused of Aiding Corrupt Regimes, Sunday Times Online (Mar. 11, 2009).

76

Stephen Riley, The Political Economy of Anti-Corruption Strategies in Africa, in Corruption and Development 155 (Mark Robinson ed., Frank Cass 1998).

77

Scher, supra note 40.

78

Scher, supra note 40, proposes that in the case of Africa, the African Union should develop a unit that specializes in asset recovery rather than relying on the expensive services of private companies. However, until such a unit is created, these experts will be needed.

79

Bacarese, supra note 12, at 432.


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brings together practitioners and experts of law enforcement and the judiciary from 53 member jurisdictions, including EU member-states. The initiative is focused on identifying, freezing, seizing, and confiscating proceeds of crime. It is aimed at transborder cooperation in closing loopholes used by criminals to move proceeds acquired illegally. Some of the many members and observers of CARIN include the UNODC, the International Criminal Court, Interpol, Israel, the Russian Federation, and South Africa. The World Bank is an associate member of the network. This model has been replicated in Southern Africa with the creation of the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network of Southern Africa (ARINSA). Affiliated with CARIN, ARINSA brings together investigators and prosecutors to share their experiences recovering funds that are proceeds from crime. The Asset Recovery Unit in South Africa provides secretariat support services for ARINSA. ARIN-AP is also modeled on CARIN. The UNODC is helping put in place a similar mechanism in West Africa. In the Americas, the Asset Recovery Expert Network operates within the framework of the OAS. The CARIN model is worth replicating because it is targeted in its goals and flexible thanks to the use of select national focal points.

Conclusion Many developing countries are caught in a situation of persistent poverty while leaders amass enormous wealth through illegal means. In many cases, the assets taken from public coffers or acquired illegally from the state are siphoned off without the local population benefiting at all. The gravity of the situation is compounded when the looted funds are sourced from external funders as loans that must be repaid by citizens. The assets that are stolen from developing countries are often hidden abroad in distant safe havens, and citizens in developing countries often lack the means to bring their deceitful leaders to account. A multiactor approach to addressing some of the problems associated with asset tracing and recovery through the creation of a global fund for asset recovery, as described in this chapter, could resolve some of the a endant issues. Such a fund could provide technical assistance to countries that need be er capacity in preventing corruption and recovering looted assets. The multiactor model would ideally be activated at the national, regional, and global levels. In any case, efforts to create interagency networks on asset recovery on regional bases should continue. In due course, it would be useful for regional interagency networks on asset recovery to cooperate on an interregional basis; some have already started. As this chapter has demonstrated, major challenges and limitations exist in connection with the proposed transnational and global fund. But such challenges must not serve as a pretext to avoid debates on solutions.


PART VII

Perspectives on the World Bank Inspection Panel



22

Improving Service Delivery through Voice and Accountability The Experience of the World Bank Inspection Panel DILEK BARLAS

AND

TATIANA TASSONI

Pressure for more accountability and internal concerns about the performance of its portfolio led the World Bank to establish, in 1993, an unprecedented mechanism to investigate complaints related to specific projects, so as to provide its Board of Executive Directors with a source of independent judgment on projects facing severe implementation problems.1 The Bank Inspection Panel is the first accountability mechanism with the mandate to investigate an international financial institution’s compliance with its own operational policies and procedures for the design, appraisal, and implementation of the projects it finances.2 International review mechanisms prior to the Inspection Panel were concerned exclusively with the activities of states, rather than of international organizations, and the existing review mechanisms of international 1

See World Bank Inspection Panel, Accountability at the World Bank: The Inspection Panel at 15 Years 3–5 (World Bank 2009), for a history of events leading to the creation of the Inspection Panel. See also Ibrahim F. I. Shihata, The World Bank Inspection Panel: In Practice 1–8 (2nd ed., Oxford U. Press 2000); and Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox & Kay Treakle, Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel 1–9 (Rowman & Li lefield 2003). The Inspection Panel was created in the aftermath of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development calls for greater transparency and participation, for the right of citizens to hold their governments accountable for the impacts of environmental policies, and for a citizen’s right to redress and remedy. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development: Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (adopted June 14, 1992), U.N. Doc. A/CONF.151/5/Rev.1, 31 I.L.M. 874, 878, h p://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151 /aconf15126-1annex1.htm.

2

The panel model was replicated in other international financial organizations. Today, almost all international financial institutions have accountability mechanisms similar to the Inspection Panel, but, unlike the Panel, along with the compliance function, these mechanisms also have a formal grievance redress and problem-solving role. Such accountability mechanisms can be found at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Guarantee Agency of the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the InterAmerican Development Bank (ASDB), and the Japan Bank for International Corporation, among others. The Inspection Panel spearheads the annual meeting of accountability mechanisms, which provides a forum to exchange ideas, challenges, and lessons learned. Members and staff of these accountability mechanisms belong to the Independent Accountability Mechanisms Network (IAMs Network). See Kristin Lewis, Citizen-Driven Accountability for Sustainable Development Giving Affected People a Greater Voice: 20 Years On (2012), www .inspectionpanel.org.

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organizations were limited to the institution’s internal activities. The Inspection Panel’s creation reflected the need to look beyond the existing state-based accountability systems on the premise that actions of institutions such as the World Bank can have significant impacts on local communities and their environments.3 The Inspection Panel is a three-member body that provides an independent forum for private individuals and communities that believe that their rights or interests have been or could be harmed by a project financed by the World Bank as a result of a failure to follow Bank operational policies and procedures.4 It is an accountability mechanism for Bank operations to respond to people who feel harmed by Bank-financed projects. This chapter argues that the Inspection Panel (hereafter “the Panel”) has improved and increased the sustainability and effectiveness of Bank operations, including service delivery. The Panel has positively affected not only the people who have resorted to the Panel but also the Bank’s application of its operational policies and procedures. The chapter illustrates through case studies how the Panel has become an instrument that gives voice to people affected by Bank projects, and how its accountability actions have clarified and strengthened the Bank’s operational policy framework, particularly safeguard policies, an environmental and social framework that the Bank created to ensure the sustainability of the development projects it finances. The chapter briefly introduces the Panel and its function and procedures and describes the policy framework within which the Panel operates. It then presents cases studies illustrating how voice and accountability are expressed through the Panel’s work and how they have had an impact on Bank operations. Concluding remarks follow.

The Inspection Panel and the Bank’s Operational Framework The Inspection Panel is an investigative body tasked with responding to complaints known as “requests for inspection.” Requests are lodged by two or more individuals or communities that feel affected by a Bank-financed project or program and believe that they or the environment in which they live has been or will be harmed as a result of the Bank’s noncompliance with the policies and procedures applicable to Bank operations. The Panel is an internal body of the Bank; it is functionally independent from Bank Management, whose actions it investigates, and reports directly to the Board that created it. The Panel process is designed to deal with issues of policy compliance on the part of the Bank and harm, if any, resulting from noncompliance.

3

Robert Lloyd, Jeffrey Oatham, & Michael Hammer, Global Accountability Report (One World Trust 2007).

4

The World Bank Inspection Panel Resolution, resolution no. IBRD 93-10 & resolution no. IDA 93-6.


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A request for inspection that meets certain admissibility and eligibility criteria may warrant investigation by the Panel.5 As of May 2014, the Panel had received 94 requests for inspection, 30 of which proceeded to a full investigation. In a number of cases, an investigation was not needed due to early resolution of the requesters’ concerns.6 The investigation is a fact-finding process by which the Panel determines facts relevant to the claims included in the request and assesses whether there was compliance by the Bank with the policies applicable to the design, appraisal, and implementation of the project in question. In practice, the scope of the Panel’s mandate is confined to situations where there may be linkages between the harm alleged by the requesters and Bank policy violations; the operational policies, as they stand and are in force at a given time, are the only standard of compliance for an investigation.7 The Panel does not recommend, nor can it implement, steps to remedy the harm that may have been identified with an investigation. The responsibility to formulate an action plan that addresses the harm and compliance rests on Bank Management, in collaboration with the member government and in consultation with requesters. Moreover, the founding resolution gives the Panel no formal role with respect to the implementation or monitoring of progress in implementation of these action plans. From a narrow lens, the Panel may seem to be simply an investigative body with a limited mandate and no power to propose remedies or changes to policies. It could be regarded as yet another oversight body that may slow down, create obstacles, and dramatically increase costs for Bank operations. This is indeed a limited view: in more than 20 years of operations, the Panel has demonstrated that it is an important change agent, contributing to be er development outcomes for the Bank and acting as a promoter of the rule of law within the institution.8

Operational Policies and Procedures: The Creation of a Social Contract Operational policies and procedures are instructions from Management to its staff on how to design, appraise, and implement a project the Bank finances;

5

Inspection Panel, Operating Procedures at paras. 25, 42, 43 (Apr. 2014), www.inspectionpanel .org; see also World Bank, BP 17.55, Review of the Resolution Establishing the Inspection Panel: Clarification of Certain Aspects of the Resolution, at para. 9 (1999). The Inspection Panel Resolution was reviewed for the first time in 1996.

6

See, e.g., Inspection Panel Report and Recommendation, India Mumbai Urban Transport Project, Request No. 58, received in 2009 (Aug. 7, 2009). Earlier requests related to the same project were the subject of another Panel investigation.

7

See Shihata, supra note 1, at 33, for a discussion of the scope of the Panel’s mandate.

8

Sabine Schlemmer-Shulte, Sustainable Development Principles in World Bank Inspection Panel Decisions, in Sustainable Development Principles in the Decisions of International Courts and Tribunals 1992–2012 2 (Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Duncan French, & Nico Shrijver eds., Cambridge University Press 2012).


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and they may be viewed as “operational codes” that may apply in different situations.9 They are not instructions to borrower countries,10 but they reflect standards that borrowers must meet to qualify for Bank financing.11 These policies provide standards that are applicable to Bank-financed operations and that are intended to assist the Bank in fulfilling its purpose of combating poverty and promoting the sustainable economic and social development of its member countries.12 The policies and procedures most raised in requests for inspection are the so-called safeguard policies, which cover environmental and social aspects of Bank projects and ensure, primarily, that projects do “no harm” to people and the environment in the development process.13 These policies generally reflect best practices for sustainable development purposes.14 Among others, safeguard policies include the policies on environmental assessment, involuntary rese lement and indigenous peoples, issues of particular relevance in the Panel’s case record.15 Safeguard policies generally establish higher standards than most of the borrowing countries’ legislation,16 and their application in projects often faces some resistance and challenges. Nevertheless, safeguards have often provided a platform for the participation of stakeholders in project design and have been an important instrument for creating a sense of ownership among local populations and delivering be er development results.17 The operational policy framework, including safeguard policies, can be considered an expression of a social contract that goes beyond the framework of formal financing agreements and includes the people affected by the projects

9

Shihata, supra note 1, at 43.

10

Borrower countries here included countries acting as guarantors of loans made to other entities.

11

Shihata, supra note 1, at 47. See also David Freestone, Environmental and Social Safeguard Policies of the World Bank and the Evolving Role of the Inspection Panel, in The World Bank and Sustainable Development Legal Essays 48 (Nijhoff 2003).

12

Schlemmer-Shulte, supra note 8, at 2.

13

The Bank is undertaking a review and update of its safeguard policies that “will lead to a new integrated framework that builds on the existing core principles of the safeguard policies, and may include several components, such as principles, policies, procedures, and guidance.” See The World Bank’s Safeguard Policies Proposed Review and Update Approach Paper (Oct. 10, 2012) [hereinafter Approach Paper].

14

It is important to note that the operational policies become binding on the borrowing country only when they are reflected in loan agreements, which are international agreements between a state and the Bank. The Bank’s responsibility under its supervision policy is to ensure that borrowers’ obligations are complied with.

15

The ten safeguard policies are available at h p://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL /PROJECTS/EXTPOLICIES/EXTSAFEPOL.

16

Sabine Schlemmer-Shulte, The World Bank, Its Operations, and Its Inspection Panel, 3 Recht der Internationalen Wirtschaft 181 (1999).

17

Approach Paper, supra note 13, at 1.


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that the Bank finances.18 It is through its environmental and social framework that the Bank has commi ed itself to finance operations that promote its member countries’ sustainable development and ultimately ensure economic and social benefits to these countries’ citizens. Although in strict legal terms, one cannot regard the Bank’s relationship with affected people as a formal contract, the social and developmental role of the Bank has generated a relationship with affected people that has created de facto obligations toward them. These obligations in turn led to the establishment of an enforcement mechanism such as the Panel that has had a profound impact not only on the Bank and its operations but also in empowering local communities to make their voices heard and to demand timely and meaningful access to information, participation, and Bank accountability in projects and programs that affect them. 19 By creating the Panel, the Bank agreed to be held accountable to private citizens and individuals for complying with the standards that govern its operations. It bound itself to adhere to specific rules of engagement (rules created through an internal decision-making process)20 and to address failures in following such rules when that failure has caused, or may cause, harm to people or the environment. In this context, the Panel’s role and function provide the opportunity for affected people to ensure that the Bank honors the social contract expressed through its operational policy framework.21 By giving voice to affected people and promoting clarification in the application of policies and bridging policies’ lacunae through its accountability function, the Panel contributes to reaffirming as well as strengthening such social contracts.

18

Clark et al., supra note 1, at 1, mention a social contract embodied in the operational policy framework. For an overview of the history of social contract thinking in relation to international development, see Sam Hickey, The Politics of Social Protection: What Do We Get from a Social Contract Approach? (Inst. Dev. Policy & Man., U. Manchester, Chronic Poverty Res. Ctr. July 2011), which traces the history of social contract thinking, pointing to the work of John Rawls as the most important contribution to social contract theories in relation to international development. In this context, there are two approaches to social contract thinking. The first, known as the social or rights-based approach, where a social contract is an expression of the rights and obligations of individuals vis-à-vis each other and the state, was first theorized by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and later adopted by Rawls. The second, known as the liberal interest-based approach, found its first proponent in Thomas Hobbes. Both approaches take the idea of reciprocity (social cooperation is to mutual advantage), but they differ in the basic idea: the social approach is based on the desire to treat people fairly and to reach equality, while the liberal approach presumes that in the social contract context, individuals aim to maximize their advantage.

19

Daniel Bradlow argues that the executive directors’ decision to establish the Inspection Panel constitutes the first formal acknowledgment that international organizations have a legally significant noncontractual relationship with private parties that is independent of either the organization’s or the private actor’s relationship with a member-state. See Daniel Bradlow, International Organizations and Private Complaints: The Case of the World Bank Inspection Panel, 34 Va. J. Intl. L 553, 160 (1994).

20

Shihata, supra note 1, at 41.

21

Clark et al., supra note 1.


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Voice and Accountability in Practice The role of voice and accountability in effective service delivery has increased in the international development discourse. Accountability and voice, which includes access to information and the right to participation, are critical aspects of effective service delivery.22 Increasingly, accountability is regarded as an instrument not only for adherence to procedures but also for delivery of outcomes.23 Accountability provided by a mechanism such as the Inspection Panel has improved the way that the Bank conducts its operations because the compliance investigation promotes respect of obligations contained in the policies, and it plays a key role in clarifying the application of these policies, leading to improved and more sustainable outcomes. In giving voice and exercising the accountability function, the Panel is an internal governance tool that enhances institutional development effectiveness.24 The sections below illustrate these points in practice, with examples of actual cases. One section shows how the Panel process provides an opportunity for project-affected people and communities to voice their concerns and engage in a dialogue with Bank Management at several stages of the process. The section on the impacts of the Panel’s accountability function presents specific findings that brought clarity to some aspects of the operational policy framework of the Bank.

Voice One of the most important characteristics of the Inspection Panel is that it provides a forum for community-led, “bo om-up,” accountability. Its creation opened a direct channel of communication between affected people and the World Bank’s highest level of decision making, the Board of Executive Directors. The findings of Panel investigations are made public and become available to a wide set of stakeholders, producing a “sunshine effect” and pu ing a public spotlight on people’s problems and the Bank’s reactions.25 22

See Samuel Paul, Does Voice Ma er? For Public Accountability, Yes 9 (Policy Res. Working Paper No. 1388, World Bank 1994). Paul argues that service outcomes are created through actions taken by providers who have the resources and skills to carry them out and that the public has no direct means to improve service outcomes. Therefore, he assumes that enhanced accountability is the mediating variable that induces providers to generate improved outcomes. This implies that an increase in provider responsiveness and compliance, and the reinforcement of these behaviors through changed agency structures, monitoring, and incentives, are conditions required for service outcomes to improve.

23

Anne Marie Goe & Rob Jenkins, Voice and Accountability in Service Delivery 3 (Birkbeck College, U. London 2004).

24

Suresh Nanwani, Accountability Mechanism of Multilateral Development Banks: Power Complications Enhancement, in Law in the Pursuit of Development 115 (Amanda Perry-Kessaris ed., Routledge-Cavendish 2009). He speaks of “empowerment through access.” See also Shihata, supra note 1, at v, where World Bank President Louis Preston states that the “Panel is part of the Bank’s evolving policy of improving its effectiveness, strengthening accountability and increasing openness.”

25

Edith Brown Weiss & Harold K. Jacobson, Engaging Countries: Strengthening Compliance with International Environmental Accords (MIT Press 2000).


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The Bank has immunity from national courts, and there is almost no judicial recourse for third parties affected by Bank-financed projects because of the Bank’s status as an international organization and the immunities provided in its Articles of Agreement, which are signed and ratified by all member countries. Because communities affected by Bank-financed projects were not a party to loan agreements and contracts with the Bank, prior to the Panel, they had no opportunity in any forum to seek an adjudication of their rights and interests.26 The Panel’s creation reflected a growing interest in giving individuals and private groups more formal legal recognition, with rights and obligations under international law. This interest went beyond the traditional approach of international law governing relations between sovereign states. The Panel process recognizes the rights of the affected communities and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in areas of social and economic development and environment, and significantly contributes to the growing reality of public participation.27 According to the resolution that established the Panel, concerns of affected people must be brought to Bank Management’s a ention before being brought to the Panel to give Management an opportunity to address these concerns.28 This early window of discussions, with the possibility of an impending Inspection Panel process, can create an important opportunity and incentive for Management to take early action to address problems. A recent complaint submi ed by an NGO in Nepal on behalf of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community related to the Nepal Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project is an example of this window of opportunity. In September 2013, the Panel received a request for inspection from the Blue Diamond Society, an NGO, on behalf of the LGBTI community of Nepal. The Blue Diamond Society stated that the project invited only men and women to apply for offered trainings, thus discriminating against the LGBTI community and those who prefer to choose a “third gender” or “other.” The Blue Diamond Society feared that some people in the LGBTI community would be deterred from applying for training and that discrimination, marginalization, and a pa ern of possible exclusion might result, thereby possibly hindering 26

David Hunter, Using the World Bank Inspection Panel to Defend the Interests of Project-Affected People, 4(1) Chi. J. Intl. L. 201–11 (2003).

27

Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Public Participation in Decision Making: The World Bank Inspection Panel, 31 Studies Transnatl. Leg. Policy 84 (1999).

28

Inspection Panel Resolution, supra note 4, at para. 16. No data are available to show how many complaints are resolved before coming to the Panel through Management interventions. The World Bank Independent Evaluation Group’s Safeguards and Sustainability Policies in a Changing World report notes that “the Bank does not yet have a system for receiving or resolving such complaints and continues to deal with such issues on an ad hoc basis.” World Bank Group, Safeguards and Sustainability Policies in a Changing World (2010), h p:// siteresources.world bank.org/EXTSAFANDSUS/Resources/Safeguards_eval.pdf. The Bank is in the process of developing a more systematic approach to deal with complaints received.


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their future empowerment. Following the receipt of the request, representatives from the Bank, the Blue Diamond Society, and the Ministry of Education and Sports met to discuss the concerns raised in the request, and the ministry agreed that subsequent calls for applications related to vocational training delivered under the project would be revised to address the requesters’ concerns. The Panel decided not to register the request, taking into account Management’s swift actions to meet with the requesters and propose steps to address and resolve their concerns.29 The procedure to present a request for inspection is relatively easy and user friendly. It ensures that any affected people and community, even those in remote locations, can access the Panel. Requests for inspection need not be long and detailed, can be submi ed as a simple le er in any language, and do not have to reference specific Bank policies in describing the complaint. People who come to the Panel are often the poorest or in some way most vulnerable and lack voice or influence in the political process. They may fear that raising their concerns against a World Bank–financed project might put them at risk of retaliation or losing project benefits. For this reason, the Panel developed strict provisions to maintain the confidentiality of the requesters’ identities when they so request. Panel procedures also allow affected people to submit a request through a local representative, that is, a civil society organization or, in exceptional cases, a foreign representative, when the executive director agrees that the party submi ing the request does not have access to appropriate local representation. In several Panel cases, requesters have relied on representatives to submit a claim. The Panel procedures also provide that an executive director may, on his or her own initiative, request an inspection. The 94 requests for inspection received by the Panel by May 2014 came from 45 countries from all regions of the world. The requests were filed by a mix of local, national, and international civil society organizations on behalf of project-affected people, or by community members acting on their own behalf without the support or representation of another organization. During the 20 years of its operation, the Panel has received 40 percent of its requests directly from affected communities. Indigenous communities in different countries brought 22 requests to the Panel.30 Over the years, requesters have brought to the a ention of the Panel many different types of harm or potential harm to people or their environment and issues of compliance regarding a wide range of operational policies. These include harms arising from displacement and rese lement of project-affected people; project impacts on indigenous peoples, their culture, traditions, and 29

Inspection Panel, Nepal Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project: Notice of Non-Registration (2013), h p://www.inspectionpanel.org.

30

They include Adivasi from India (belonging to the Jenu, Kurubas, Yeranas, and Soligas communities), Pygmies from Democratic Republic of Congo, Garífuna from Honduras, Pueblo Naso and Ngobe-Bugles from Panama, Kuoy from Cambodia, Pehuenche from Chile, Anuak from Ethiopia, Cherangany-Sengwer from Kenya, and Adivasi from Nepal.


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land tenure; impacts on cultural property, including sacred places, natural habitats, and the environment (e.g., wetlands, forests, fisheries, protected areas); harm resulting from lack of adequate consultation, participation, and disclosure; and impacts of economic and social reform programs. Once the Panel registers a request, Bank Management has 21 working days to develop a formal response, and the Panel has 21 working days from receiving the Management response to decide whether or not to recommend an investigation.31 This phase, known as “eligibility,” provides important additional opportunities for affected people and the Bank to resolve their differences. Once a request has been filed and the eligibility phase has begun, Bank Management has a strong incentive to address problems and alleged violations of Bank policies and avoid the need for an investigation. In several Panel cases, in its response, Management indicated that it was taking, or was planning to take, steps to address the requesters’ concerns. In such cases, if the Panel is satisfied that the process will not be detrimental to the interests of the requesters and that both Bank Management and the requesters are interested in pursuing this course of action, the Panel may recommend deferring a decision on whether an investigation should take place. The Panel stays in regular contact with the requesters to foster such opportunities. Interactions between requesters, Bank Management, and the Panel during this phase have resulted in resolution of a number of concerns brought to the Panel. For example, in April 2009, the Panel received a request claiming that the Bank failed to comply with the principles of transparency, disclosure of information, and consultation in respect to the Republic of Yemen Institutional Reform Development Policy Grant Program, which the requesters contended would produce negative effects on wages and employment. In its eligibility report, the Panel recommended an investigation into the issues of consultation and participation. A Board discussion on the Panel’s recommendation was requested, and, in advance of this discussion, Management submi ed an enhanced action plan to address the issues that the Panel had recommended for investigation. Based on this action plan and the requesters’ expressed interest in its implementation, the Panel proposed, and the Board agreed, to defer its recommendation for a year in order to provide an opportunity for the Bank to address these concerns. During this time, the requesters confirmed many positive developments in the Bank’s interactions with civil society organizations in the Republic of Yemen, including the translation of documents into Arabic, transparency and disclosure of information, and consultation with respect to projects and policy issues. In September 2010, the Panel sent the Board its final report and noted that an investigation was not warranted.32

31

Inspection Panel Resolution, supra note 4, at paras. 18–19.

32

Inspection Panel, Yemen: Institutional Reform Development Policy Grant—Final Report and Recommendation on Request for Inspection 8 (2008), h p://www.inspectionpanel.org.


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In cases where the Panel does carry out an investigation, Bank Management is required to develop actions to address Panel findings of noncompliance and harm. These actions are normally included in an action plan submi ed for Board approval. The Panel process, over the years, has led to substantial benefits for affected people and their environment. Types of positive impacts include a range of remedial actions to ensure that affected people obtain the benefits set forth under the Bank’s policy on involuntary rese lement, such as increased compensation, livelihood restoration, inclusion of all those eligible for benefits and compensation, and improved conditions and rese lement sites; strengthening of the rights and protections for indigenous peoples and traditional communities affected by Bank projects, such as rights of full participation and representation; respect for traditional practices and means of representation of the community; rights to land tenure, including collective title; adherence to requirements under Bank policies relating to the environment and natural habitat, such as analysis of environmental impacts and of alternatives to proposed projects and minimization and avoidance of adverse environmental impacts; and protection of cultural resources, including places recognized as protected by traditional local communities. According to the 1999 Clarification to the Panel Resolution, Management needs to consult with requesters and affected people when preparing an action plan to address Panel findings.33 Management is required to reach out to the requesters for meaningful consultations during the preparation of the action plan and to take the results of those consultations into account in its discussions with the borrower to finalize the action plan. These consultations ensure that the voices of affected people, which are heard during the investigation process, are also listened to in the preparation of the final action plan so that the agreement between the Bank and the borrower takes into account the concerns of the requesters and affected parties. However, a structural asymmetry occurs in this process because the Panel’s investigation report is not made available to requesters and the public until after the development of the Management action plan and the subsequent Board meeting. As a result, although Management is required to consult with requesters in developing an action plan and has access to the Panel’s investigation report, the requesters do not have access to the Panel’s findings during this consultation process. This asymmetry may prevent requesters from playing a meaningful role in the consultation. In this context, the Panel has the authority to submit a report to the Board on the adequacy of these consultations.34 In April 2014, the Panel updated its operating procedures (OPs) to make the review process more efficient and effective.35 This was the first update of the OPs since they were drafted in 1994. The updated OPs reflect the governing framework of the Panel and changes in Panel practices that evolved over time. 33

World Bank, supra note 5, at para. 15.

34

Id., at para. 16. The Panel has not used this authority thus far.

35

Inspection Panel, supra note 5.


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During the course of updating the OPs, in order to enhance opportunities to obtain early solutions to affected people’s concerns, a pilot approach was launched to allow Management and the requesters to address concerns without immediately triggering the full Panel process.36 This approach is now considered in cases where the issues of alleged harm are clear, limited in scope, and amenable to early resolution. It applies in cases where Management has initiated or planned to address the alleged harm and confirms that it is able to do so, and when the requesters support a postponement of a decision on registration to explore this opportunity. It is within the requesters’ prerogative to return to the regular Panel process at any time. An independent assessment of the experience of this pilot project is planned for 2015, when the appropriate lessons will be drawn. The Panel is piloting this approach for a request received regarding the Nigeria: Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project. The request was sent by the Social and Economic Rights Action Center on behalf of individuals, families, and groups living in the Badia area of Lagos state. The requesters, a vulnerable slum community in Lagos, allege that the project has worsened their impoverishment and insecurity as a result of evictions that have occurred under the project. The requesters and Management are engaged in addressing the affected communities’ concerns under the pilot approach. The Panel will inform the Bank’s Board of its recommendation on how to proceed.37

The Panel’s Accountability Function The following Panel cases illustrate some impacts of the Panel’s findings on the application of the standards in the Bank’s operational policies and procedures. They show how the Panel has “used its competencies to sharpen the operational policies’ teeth,” as noted by one author, by clarifying the scope of application of certain policies and by helping identify some policies’ lacunae.38 These are cases where the voice of affected communities and the Panel’s investigation and findings led the Bank to reflect on lessons learned and to corresponding actions. By promoting the Bank’s learning experience, the Panel process has led to greater a ention in the Bank to project quality and effectiveness and increased Bank awareness about the policies and their application and of problems in projects that Management may not always be fully aware of. Ultimately, the effectiveness of the Panel process depends on Bank Management, which addresses the harms and learns lessons to apply to future operations. The action plans that Management prepares in response to the 36

Id., at annex 1.

37

Inspection Panel, Nigeria: Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project—Pilot Approach to Support Early Solutions for Request for Inspection Interim Note (Mar. 20, 2014). , h p:// www.inspectionpanel.org.

38

Schlemmer-Shulte, supra note 8, at 3.


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Panel’s findings, as well as actions taken throughout the process, lead to outcomes of the Panel process. Although the relationship between the Panel and Management has not been easy over the years—becoming at times adversarial—and even with a mandate only focused on compliance with policies and procedures, the Panel has become a small but key part of the development landscape in which the Bank operates. Decisions have been made and concrete changes have occurred on the ground and in the Bank’s implementation of its operations. These are positive changes that should be embraced as key achievements of the World Bank as well as of the Panel. Bridging the Gaps: Legacy Issues Over the years, the Inspection Panel has reviewed a number of projects where the Bank has become involved in financing either in late stages of a project cycle or after project preparation or implementation has been suspended for a significant period of time. These projects normally include some legacy issues regarding possible social and environmental impacts, the a ainment of their objectives, or even justification of the best possible alternative for a aining such objectives. Legacy issues are also associated with the economic, social, and environmental impacts related to the closure of mines, factories, or other similar businesses or enterprises. Other than the general OPs applicable to all projects and programs financed by the Bank, there is no specific OP dealing with situations of this nature where most of the preparatory work has been done or has become to a certain extent obsolete, or where damage already done by previous undertakings must be dealt with when Bank financing is considered. The two Panel cases described below provide examples of this situation and how the Bank addressed it as a result of the requests for inspection. In 2007, the Panel received a request related to the Uganda: Private Power Generation Project (the Bujagali project). The Bujagali project consisted of a 250-megawa , run-of-the-river hydropower project developed by a private sector company (Bujagali Energy Ltd., BEL) on Dumbbell Island on the Nile River, Uganda.39 This was the second a empt to carry out this undertaking, aimed at meeting Uganda’s growing electricity needs. About seven years earlier, in December 2001, the Board of Executive Directors approved an International Development Association (IDA) guarantee to support an earlier proposal for the Bujagali hydropower project. Due to difficulties encountered by the former project sponsor, however, the earlier Bujagali project was terminated by the government in September 2003, and the IDA guarantee was canceled. At that time, construction of the power plant had not begun, but the sponsor had completed the economic, social, and environmental assessments of the project and some resulting activities, and the Rese lement and Community Development Action Plan was under implementation. As a result of the rese lement plan, 39

The original project included a separate associated project for the construction of transmission lines, substations, and related works.


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approximately 8,700 people were either rese led or lost assets for which they were entitled to compensation under the project. By the time the (first) Bujagali project was terminated, neither the affected people nor all the affected villages had received all the compensation and/or assistance under the action plan agreed to with the Bank. People affected by the construction of the dam and the rese lement operations submi ed a request in 2007,40 shortly before the Board discussion of a new IDA guarantee to support the (second) Bujagali project. The Panel carried out an investigation and found that many of the affected people had been left in limbo after the first a empt at the project halted, and key elements of the rese lement process to which they were entitled under Bank policy, such as livelihood and income restoration or community development initiatives, had not been provided. The Board discussion of the Panel’s investigation report and Management’s response resulted, among other things, in an agreement that Management would “develop guidance for staff on how to address environmental and social safeguard issues in legacy projects that suffer significant interruptions in implementation, to avoid situations such as the one described by the Panel in the Bujagali project.”41 A similar situation occurred in the Ghana: Second Urban Environment Sanitation Project (UESP II), a component of which was a proposed sanitary landfill at Kwabenya, a township located in the Accra metropolitan area. In 2007, the Panel received a request for inspection submi ed by a local NGO on behalf of the Agyemankata community, which lives in the Kwabenya area. The requesters claimed that the Kwabenya landfill, if constructed, would result in the involuntary displacement of much of the Agyemankata community and leave those who are outside the area of displacement but in proximity to the landfill at grave risk to their health. According to the requesters, the site for the Kwabenya landfill was based on a 1990 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) strategic plan for the greater Accra metropolitan area; although circumstances on the ground had substantially changed since 1990, the analytical studies underpinning the project and the related action plans had not reflected such changes. The Inspection Panel investigation report, dated 2009, noted that one of the Panel’s concerns related to legacy issues and the impacts of changing circumstances on the ground. The Panel found that the Kwabenya 2003 environmental and social assessment relied heavily on a siting study and environmental assessment from many years earlier sponsored by another financier, without properly taking into account the social and environmental reality in the

40

This was the second request related to the Bujagali project. The first request was submi ed in 2002; the Panel investigated that complaint. That investigation report is available at h p:// www.inspectionpanel.org.

41

News Release no. 2009/166/AFR, World Bank Board Discusses Investigation by the Independent Inspection Panel of Power Project in Uganda, h p://siteresources.worldbank.org /EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/Bujagali_Press_Release_Final_121208_Clean.pdf.


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proposed landfill area resulting from an influx of people with corresponding investments in physical structures and commercial activities. Following the investigation related to the Ghana landfill project and as recommended in the context of the Uganda Bujagali project investigation, Management prepared Interim Guidelines for Addressing Legacy Issues in World Bank Projects to provide Bank project teams and Management with guidance on how to address legacy challenges related to safeguard issues when the Bank restarts engagement in projects. Clarifying the Scope of Policy Application In some instances, the Panel’s investigation and compliance findings have identified the need to clarify the scope of a policy application or some of its provisions. The case of the Cambodia Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project (FCMCPP) provides an example of this with respect to the policy on environmental assessment, particularly the provisions related to the environmental classification of projects. Depending on the type and magnitude of their impacts, projects are categorized as A, B, C, or FI, with category A reflecting the highest degree of impacts.42 In early 2005, the Panel received a request for inspection concerning the FCMCPP submi ed on behalf of affected local communities, mainly indigenous peoples. The project was a technical assistance (TA) operation aimed at demonstrating and improving the effectiveness of a comprehensive set of forest management and operational guidelines and control procedures in forest concession areas. The request claimed that through this project, the Bank was supporting and promoting a flawed and corrupt forest concession system and the interests of logging concessionaires with track records of illegal logging and human rights abuses. In its investigation report, the Panel commended the World Bank’s willingness to become involved in the forestry sector in Cambodia at a time when others would not, but also found that the Bank did not put sufficient emphasis on the environmental and social impacts of the concession system. The Panel noted that, “given the very serious potential impacts, and the close association of the Project with these impacts, the Project should have been placed in Category A and a full Environmental Assessment carried out.”43 In response to the investigation report, Management stated that it drew significant lessons from the process that would be important for the Bank’s future dialogue with the government of Cambodia on natural resources management and for future operations in the region and across the Bank. Actions 42

OP/BP 4.01 assigns proposed projects to one of four categories. A project is assigned category A if it “is likely to have significant adverse environmental impacts that are sensitive, diverse, or unprecedented.” A project is classified as B if its potential impacts “are less adverse than those of Category A projects.” Category A projects require a much more extensive environmental assessment.

43

Inspection Panel, Investigation Report Cambodia: Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project, “Executive Summary” xxi (Mar. 30, 2006).


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proposed by Management following the investigation included a review and update of the Guidelines for Environmental Screening and Classification to provide guidance to Bank staff on the classification and methods to undertake environmental and social safeguard–related actions in TA projects, including approaches in natural resource management (NRM) projects and the proposed wider use of strategic environmental assessments to support the preparation and implementation of NRM projects. The Panel has indeed taken into consideration the new guidelines for the classification of projects in other investigations.44 A Key Issue: Land Administration and Management Projects Increasingly, the Panel has received complaints concerning land use, land administration, and management projects or complaints where land rights issues figure prominently in the complaint whether or not the project is tasked specifically with regularizing land titles or with land management activities.45 In its investigation reports on projects dealing with land administration and land use management,46 the Panel has generally found (a) inadequate assessment of social, political, institutional, and legal risks during project preparation; (b) the impact of such projects may warrant application of the policies on involuntary rese lement and indigenous peoples; (c) projects involving indigenous peoples should carefully assess the social and legal importance of collective titles for certain groups; (d) longer-term impacts of land titling for tenure security of poor and marginal communities need careful consideration; and (e) the importance of paying greater a ention to changing social, political, institutional, and legal circumstances in land-related projects. Panel cases have also revealed a policy lacuna with respect to impacts from land management projects. Because the Bank’s safeguards framework does not clearly specify how to address consequences for people and communities from changes in rights to land and land-based resources, the Bank has issued guidance documents clarifying the application of existing policies in the aftermath of Panel investigations. One notable example is the investigation

44

Inspection Panel, Management Report and Recommendation in Response to the Inspection Panel Investigation Report Cambodia Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project (May 16, 2006), www.inspectionpanel.org.

45

In 2013, the Panel received a complaint from the Cherangany-Sengwer indigenous peoples related to Component 2 of the Kenya: Natural Resource Management Project dealing with the management of forest resources. Notably, although the objectives of the project are not strictly related to land administration and land management activities per se, the issue of recognition and regularization of ancestral land rights is at the root of the complaint and of implementation challenges that the project has encountered since the early stages. The request, management response, and the Panel’s report and recommendation are available on the Panel’s website.

46

Other Panel investigations related to land administration and management projects have concerned the Honduras: Land Administration Project, the Panama: Land Administration Project, and the Cambodia: Land Management and Administration Project. The related investigation reports are available on the Panel’s website.


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related to the Albania: Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean-up Project (Albania Coastal Management project).47 In July 2007, a number of families from the small community of Jale, on the Adriatic coast, filed two requests for inspection concerning the Albania Coastal Management project. The requesters stated that the local construction police demolished their residences as part of the implementation of the World Bank Southern Coastal Development Plan because residents did not possess building permits. They believed that their displacement—they claimed human rights violations, inhumane actions, and violence during the demolitions—occurred as a result of the Bank project and that the Bank did not consider their rights and their well-being. Given that no rese lement was planned for people whose houses were demolished, the requesters also alleged that the Bank failed to comply with its policy on involuntary rese lement. Bank Management argued that the project was not linked to the demolitions and, therefore, that the families in Jale were not entitled to benefits and rights under the policy on involuntary rese lement.48 In its investigation report, the Panel argued that a claimed “agreement” with the government to suspend demolitions in the project area (stated in the project appraisal document) had given the impression that a safeguard was in place to protect potentially affected people, and the Bank, against the critical project risk of demolitions. During its investigation, the Panel found that the government had not made such a commitment and that, without such alleged agreement or without applying the policy on involuntary rese lement to ongoing demolitions, Management failed to safeguard people potentially affected by project-related activities. The Panel investigation concluded that the involuntary rese lement policy should have been applied to the demolitions related to the project.49 Acknowledging lack of clarity in the application of the policy on involuntary rese lement, Management indicated that it would review the application of safeguard policies in projects that support land use planning to issue guidance to address environmental and social issues.50 As a result of the investigation, Bank Management indicated that it had undertaken a Bank-wide review of more than one thousand projects in the portfolio and quality control arrangements in all regions. Following discussion of the Board, two guidance

47

For analyses from different angles of this investigation, see Andria Naudé Fourie, The World Bank Inspection Panel and Quasi-Judicial Oversight 208 (Eleven Intl. Publg. 2009); see also Alberto Ninio, Accountability and Environmental and Social Safeguards: Postscript and Update (response to David Freestone’s article in The World Bank and Sustainable Development Legal Essays, supra note 11, at 69.

48

Inspection Panel, Bank Management Response Inspection Panel Review of Albania: Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean Up Project 10 (Sept. 17, 2007), www.inspectionpanel.org.

49

Inspection Panel, Investigation Report Albania: Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean Up Project (Nov. 24, 2008), www.inspectionpanel.org.

50

Inspection Panel, Management Report and Recommendations on Response to the Inspection Panel Investigation Report Albania: Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean Up Project 8 (Feb.18, 2009), www.inspectionpanel.org.


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documents were issued for Bank staff. The first was a clarification of the policy on involuntary rese lement, regarding an application for land use planning projects; the second was an Interim Guidance Note on Land Use Planning. The la er is intended to clarify risks intrinsic in land use planning projects, the application of safeguards during project implementation, measures available to mitigate risks, and recommended actions in supervisions.

Conclusions By responding to concerns raised by people and communities affected by Bank projects, the Panel has offered an opportunity to affected people to make their voices heard with respect to projects and programs that may affect their lives, and it has given them additional means of participation in the decision-making process. At the same time, the Panel’s compliance function has contributed to strengthening the OP framework, clarifying the scope of application of its rules, and promoting, as a result, the rule of law within the World Bank. Although a mandate focused exclusively on compliance with policies and procedures, which does not allow other formal avenues to address the issues raised by the complainants, may constrain the process of achieving redress of harm suffered by affected communities as well as the learning of the institution, the cases presented in this chapter show that the underlying concepts that led to the Panel’s creation are as valid today as they were 20 years ago. The Panel process has led, in many cases, to positive actions on the ground as well as within the institution, thus becoming valuable to both complainants and Bank staff. At the same time, the updating of the OPs, the introduction of differentiated ways to evaluate complaints at their point of entry, and the increased a ention on learning from past cases are reflections of the need to ensure the delivery of be er results in fulfilling the accountability mandate. The pioneer establishment of the Panel was a forceful, credible, and effective commitment of the Bank to the implementation of the social contract embodied in its operational policies and procedures. The Panel—through its process and investigations—has been an effective conduit both to address the concerns of affected communities and civil society and to improve the World Bank’s service delivery and support for sustainable development.



23

The World Bank’s Inspection Panel A Tool for Accountability? YVONNE WONG

AND

BENOIT MAYER

The World Bank needs no introduction. Since it commenced operations on June 25, 1946, it has approved billions of dollars of loans, provided millions of hours of technical assistance, and published countless papers about development economics. Its first loan, to France for postwar reconstruction, was for $250 million.1 Today, the World Bank, through its two development institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA),2 provides public sector loans and grants to developing countries for human development (education and health projects), infrastructure, communications, and many other purposes. As an institution managing public funds and influencing public policies, the World Bank raises queries with respect to accountability. Accountability is a broad concept with several meanings. It generally refers to the responsibility, answerability, or blameworthiness of a party that performs a duty or works in an official capacity. As a social or political concept, accountability extends beyond the scope of the legal concepts of responsibility (i.e., the legal consequences of a breach of an international obligation, particularly the obligation to make reparation)3 or liability; however, its content, although vaguely defined, often stops short of an obligation to make full reparation. Intergovernmental organizations, such as the Bank, are not generally held directly legally responsible or politically accountable for individuals affected by their conduct. Rather, the dominant perspective is that such organizations are accountable only to states, which are then charged with the responsibility of exercising public power over individuals. 1

World Bank Group Archives, World Bank Group Historical Chronology, 12 (last updated Sept. 2005), h p://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTARCHIVES/Resources/World_Bank_Group _Historical_Chronology_19944_2005_.pdf.

2

Each institution plays a different but supportive role in the Bank’s mission of global poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards. The IBRD focuses on middle-income and creditworthy poor countries, while the IDA focuses on the poorest countries in the world. IBRD loans are made with favorable interest rates and rather long repayment schedules, whereas IDA credits are extended to the poorest of the poor countries with no interest and very relaxed loan repayment schedules. The IBRD and IDA also provide loans and guarantees in support of private sector projects. However, the majority of Bank financing for private sector operations is done through the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.

3

See, in particular, as applicable to international organizations such as the World Bank, the draft articles on the responsibility of international organizations adopted by the International Law Commission in 2011, in Y.B. Intl. L. Commn., 2011, vol. II, pt. 2.

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In public sector Bank-financed projects, the borrowing government, not the Bank, generally implements the project. However, the conditions under which these loans are made generally have significant bearing on the design and implementation of the project. Consequently, the Bank, by requiring certain conditions for its loans, can have a direct effect on the economic and political decisions of borrowing states and thereby affect individuals and communities in borrowing states. That the Bank’s imposed conditions influence key policy strategies (particularly in fiscal, monetary, and development policies) of the borrowing states by effectively changing the public decisionmaking power of those states has prompted various commentators to demand greater accountability from the Bank.4 The Bank’s response to date has been to adopt various policies addressing socio-environmental concerns and to create an institutional review mechanism, the World Bank Inspection Panel, in 1993. This chapter examines the general functioning of the World Bank Inspection Panel (hereafter “the Panel”) during its first two decades of operation (1994–2014) to assess whether it really is a vehicle through which individuals can hold the World Bank accountable. In making this assessment, the chapter considers (a) the history of the Panel’s creation; (b) the novelty of the Panel as a mechanism for implementing the accountability of an international organization; (c) the legal framework of the Panel; (d) the accessibility of the Panel to the people whom it seeks to help; (e) the transparency, independence, and public accountability of the Panel; and (f) the direct and indirect outcomes of the Panel mechanism. The chapter suggests that, while not providing affected persons a legal avenue for redress, the Inspection Panel, if used strategically as part of larger advocacy strategies, particularly by increasing media coverage on problematic projects, can nevertheless serve as a useful tool in helping redress wrongs commi ed as a result of the Bank’s failure to comply with its own policies. More generally, the Panel can also push for a cultural change toward greater consideration of the unintended consequences of development projects.

Background to the Panel’s Creation Concerns grew in the early 1970s that the Bank was administering loans and supporting projects without due regard to a variety of environmental and social impacts. In response to these concerns, the Bank began developing social and environmental policies—which came to be known as the “safeguard policies”—as a guide for its projects. Inherent in this development was the assumption that Bank projects would be negotiated only with borrowing governments that supported socially and environmentally

4

See, for example, Namita Wahi, Human Rights Accountability of the IMF and the World Bank: A Critique of Existing Mechanisms and Articulation of a Theory of Horizontal Accountability, 12 U.C. Davis J. Intl. L. & Policy 331, 333–34 (2006); Benoit Mayer, Development Is No Excuse for Human Rights Abuses: Framing the Responsibility of International Development Agencies, 5(2) Trade, L. & Dev. 286–343 (2014).


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responsible development investments. However, the Bank’s safeguard policies were often more rigorous than the actual practices of most borrowing governments, and during the late 1980s and early 1990s these policies were routinely ignored by Bank staff. This disregard of Bank policies finally came to a head in the Bank’s funding of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River in India, a project that required the rese lement of 120,000 people. As a result of a broad grassroots and international campaign against the project, the Bank commissioned an independent review of its role. This review, known as the 1992 Morse Commission report, found clear violations of Bank policies and denounced their devastating human and environmental consequences.5 The Morse Commission found that the Bank largely disregarded its social and environmental policies and tolerated its borrowers’ violations of its safeguard policies. Furthermore, the follow-up report on the Morse Commission report found that the violations identified in the Narmada River case were not an aberration but a systemic part of the Bank’s culture. The same year, a devastating internal report, authored by Bank vice president Willi Wapenhans, criticized the Bank’s pervasive “culture of approval,” in which the incentive structure encouraged staff to move large amounts of money quickly, without adequate a ention to the social and environmental implications of projects.6 On September 1, 1993, the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors7 heeded the call for greater public accountability in relation to World Bank lending, passing a resolution creating the World Bank Inspection Panel.8 The Panel was established to provide people directly and adversely affected by a Bankfinanced project with an independent forum through which they could request the Bank to act in accordance with its own policies and procedures.9 The Panel’s creation, heralded by many observers as groundbreaking because it envisaged a mechanism for individuals to hold an international organization accountable, inspired the establishment of comparable mechanisms in other multilateral development banks and development agencies.

5

Bradford Morse & Thomas R. Berger, Sardar Sarovar: Report of the Independent Review (Resource Futures Intl. 1992).

6

World Bank, Accountability at the World Bank: The Inspection Panel 10 Years On 2 (World Bank 2003) [hereinafter 10 Years On].

7

The Board of Executive Directors is responsible for oversight and day-to-day decision making at the Bank. All loans and projects supported by the Bank are approved by the Board of Executive Directors. There are 24 executive directors representing 184 member governments. The president of the World Bank, the most senior member of Bank Management, is also the chairman of the Board of Executive Directors.

8

Two separate resolutions (IBRD Res. 93-10 and IDA Res. 93-6) were actually passed, but they have identical content and so are referred to as “the resolution.”

9

As stated in the paragraph subheaded “Purpose in the Operating Procedures” as adopted by the Panel on August 19, 1994, in 10 Years On, supra note 6, at 147.


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International Law and the Law of International Organizations The Inspection Panel’s agenda is somewhat novel. International organizations like the Bank have rarely granted standing to individuals. The funds lent by the Bank are provided by states to states, according to terms specified in a loan agreement by the government of the borrowing state. These agreements are entered into in accordance with the World Bank’s Articles of Agreement (the IBRD and IDA each have their own Articles of Agreement) and the Bank’s General Conditions Applicable to Loans and Guarantee Regulations.10 The General Conditions provide that the rights and obligations of the Bank under such agreements “shall be valid and enforceable in accordance with their terms notwithstanding the law of any State or political subdivision thereof to the contrary.”11 Individuals are not parties to the loan agreement, and they are rarely consulted or even informed when such agreements are reached. The Bank’s General Conditions provide for arbitration in the event of a dispute between the Bank and a state, but arbitration is not accessible to individuals because the Bank’s objective of fostering economic development may not always coincide with the protection of individual rights. Utilitarian ends may be achieved at the cost of individuals’ interests, or projects may simply be misconceived or misconducted. In such cases, individuals do not always have access to effective administrative law remedies in the borrowing state. There is clearly a need, then, for a mechanism allowing individual claims against the Bank. Although the Bank has a legal personality in domestic and international law, it is generally impossible for individuals to bring legal claims against the Bank in domestic or international forums. An important obstacle is the doctrine of jurisdictional immunity of international organizations. This theory rests on the assumption that an international organization can truly operate in the common interest of all member-states participating in it only if it is not subject to the control or jurisdiction of any individual member-state. This immunity, however, is limited to those acts that are necessary for the Bank’s functions or achievement of its purposes, and the Bank may in principle waive its immunity.12 Bank employees, for example, have succeeded in bringing discrimination suits; however, the exception to immunity has not extended to affected individuals in borrowing countries.13 The legal and political ramifications of law and practice are such that, should affected individuals a empt to bring an action against the Bank, that action is unlikely to be successful, inasmuch as domestic courts are hesitant to diminish the scope of immunity available to international organizations.14

10

These documents are available at the World Bank website, h p://www.worldbank.org.

11

IBRD, General Conditions for Loans, sec. 8.01 (Mar. 12, 2012).

12

See Broadbent v. Org. Am. States, 628 F.2d 27 (D.C. Cir. 1980). See also Wahi, supra note 4, at 368–69; art. 7, sec. 3 of the IBRD’s and the IDA’s Articles of Agreement.

13

Wahi, supra note 4, at 370.

14

Id.


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Even if it is assumed that opportunities exist for individuals to bring a claim before domestic courts, perhaps through a tort claim, such actions are likely to have limited success in borrowing countries because a large number of them have illiberal regimes that deny the standards envisaged by the safeguard policies or, more generally, a duty of care to its people, a necessary element for a tort claim. Moreover, a tort-based claim would posit that the state (as the sole actor implementing various policy measures) is the primary violator of the rights of the persons affected, with the Bank responsible only as an aider or abe or. Political obstacles may prevent such claims from succeeding in illiberal regimes,15 or there might simply be li le incentive for claimants to look beyond the responsibility of the state, except in exceptional circumstances relating to a change in government, for example, following the independence of a former colony.16 Likewise, claims are equally improbable before international jurisdictions. Individuals generally do not have any standing before international courts or tribunals, especially against international organizations.17 In principle, individuals could appeal to their state to seek redress for wrongs resulting from Bank projects. However, diplomatic protection is not a right for affected individuals, and a borrowing state is likely to be reluctant to seek redress from the Bank for funding a project that the same state has itself implemented. Thus, before the creation of the Panel, if a citizen’s government, on its own behalf, chose not to bring a claim against the Bank, affected individuals traditionally had li le or no recourse against the Bank. The Panel’s creation challenges these traditional relationships between the Bank, its member-states, and affected individuals, in that it allows any affected individual in a country where Bank-financed projects are in place to request a review of the compliance of the Bank with its internal rules. Although the government of the borrowing state remains represented on the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors, which retains ultimate authority,18 the Panel’s creation contributes to a certain shift of power in the traditional roles allowed to individuals in international relations. This shift is explained by some commentators as part of a reflection on a nascent global administrative law, whereby individuals tend to play a more prominent role by invoking

15

Id., at 371.

16

See, by analogy, the case of Certain Phosphate Lands in Nauru (Nauru v. Australia) before the Intl. Ct. J, judm., June 26, 1992, ICJ Rep. 240 (1992).

17

Exceptions exist, particularly in international human rights law, through regional courts and other international mechanisms, but such mechanisms do not allow individuals to bring claims against international organizations. Other nonjurisdictional mechanisms have been established to receive individual claims in highly specific circumstances. See Simon Chesterman, Thomas Franck & David Malone, Law and Practice of the United Nations 504–64 (Oxford University Press 2008).

18

Jonathan A. Fox, The World Bank Inspection Panel: Lessons from the First Five Years, 6 Global Governance 279–318 (2000), h p://repositories.cdlib.org/reprint/CGIRS-Reprint-2005-7.


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general administrative standards against institutions that were previously unaccountable to them.19

The Legal Framework of the Panel Since 1993, the resolution that created the Panel (hereinafter the Resolution) has been supplemented by two “clarifications” adopted by the Board of Executive Directors. The Panel has also issued its own operating procedures and administrative procedures to add details to the procedural and administrative aspects of the Resolution. The original operating procedures of 1994 were fully refurbished in 2014. Hence, the Panel’s operations are now governed by the following documents: I.

The resolutions establishing the inspection Panel dated September 22, 1993 (IBRD 93-10 and IDA 93-6, called together “the Resolution”);

II.

The clarifications adopted by the Board of Executive Directors in 1996 and 1999;

III. The operating procedures as adopted by the Panel on August 19, 1994 and revised in April 2014; IV. The administrative procedures adopted by the Panel.

Pursuant to the Resolution, the Panel is charged with investigating claims of noncompliance with Bank policies in the design and implementation of Bank projects. The Panel’s mandate extends only to projects undertaken by the IBRD and the IDA: it does not extend to the activities of the private sector lending arms of the World Bank Group, that is, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral International Guarantee Agency (MIGA).20

Panel Composition As set out in the establishing Resolution, the Panel consists of “three members of different nationalities from Bank member countries,”21 appointed by the Board of Executive Directors for three years. The Panel has generally been composed of two nationals from developed countries and one from a develop-

19

Benedict Kingsbury et al., Foreword: Global Governance as Administration—National and Transnational Approaches to Global Administrative Law, 68 AUT L. & Contemporary Problems 1, 3 (2005).

20

The IFC provides financing for private enterprises without government guarantee; the MIGA encourages the flow of foreign private investment, mainly by offering guarantees against noncommercial risks. Although the Inspection Panel cannot consider claims involving the IFC and MIGA, complaints relating to the projects of these institutions may now be addressed to the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman.

21

Resolution Establishing the Inspection Panel, Resolutions IBRD 93-10 and IDA 93-6, Sept. 22, 1993, para. 2, h p://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/Pages/Panel-Mandate.aspx.


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ing country. The chairperson is more often from a developed country.22 At the time of writing, the Panel was chaired by Eimi Watanabe (a Japanese national and former assistant secretary-general and director of the UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy), with members Zeinab Bashir El Bakri (a Sudanese national and former vice president of operations at the African Development Bank) and Gonzalo Castro de la Mata (a U.S. and Peruvian national and former chair of an independent advisory panel for the Export-Import Bank of the United States).23

Mandate The establishing Resolution provides that the Panel has the power to receive requests and to investigate claims where the Bank is alleged to have failed to comply with its operational policies and procedures. These operational policies and procedures currently include the operational policies (OPs),24 Bank procedures (BPs),25 the former operational directives (ODs),26 and similar documents. The mandate of the Panel does not extend to verifying that the Bank has complied with its “Guidelines and Best Practices and similar documents or statements.”27 The Panel cannot consider claims that extend to an evaluation of these policies or that are based on the domestic law of the borrowing country or on international law (such as international human rights law). However, in the application of the Pilot Program on the Use of Borrower Systems to Address Environmental and Social Safeguard Issues in Bank-Supported Projects, the Bank may, under certain circumstances, adopt a borrower’s own safeguards in place of its own.28 In this context, the borrower’s safeguards replace the Bank’s own safeguards as the frame of reference for the Panel’s mandate, but the Panel may also “examine Management’s assessment of the equivalence of the relevant Bank policies and procedures with the country system.”29 Therefore, the Panel not only can assert a project’s (non) 22

There have been two exceptions: the chair of the Panel was Alvaro Umaña-Quesada (Costa Rica) from 1997 to 1998, and Edward S. Ayensu (Ghana) from 2002 to 2003.

23

The 11 former Panel members are Richard E. Bissell, Alvaro Umaña-Quesada, Ernst Günther Bröder, Jim MacNeill, Edward S. Ayensu, Maartje van Pu en, Edith Brown Weiss, Tongroj Onchan, Werner Kiene, Roberto Lenton, and Alf Jerve.

24

Operational policies are short, focused statements that follow from the Bank’s Articles of Agreement, the general conditions, and policies approved by the Board. OPs establish the parameters for the conduct of operations; they also describe the circumstances under which exceptions to policy are admissible and spell out who authorizes exceptions.

25

Bank procedures explain how Bank staff carry out the policies set out in the OPs. They spell out the procedures and documentation required to ensure Bank-wide consistency and quality.

26

Operational directives contain a mixture of policies, procedures, and guidance. The ODs are gradually being replaced by OPs/BPs/GPs, which present policies, procedures, and guidance separately.

27

Resolution Establishing the Inspection Panel, supra note 21, at para. 12.

28

See OP 4.00, Piloting the Use of Borrower Systems to Address Environmental and Social Safeguard Issues in Bank-Supported Projects, March 2005.

29

Edith Brown Weiss and Roberto Danino, Joint Statement on the Use of the Country System,


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compliance with the borrower’s safeguards but also can decide on the validity of adopting those safeguards by Management itself. As of early June 2014, 94 cases had been brought before the Panel (see the annex). Most of these cases pertain to the Bank’s social and environmental safeguard policies or to procedural rules related to project supervision. The claims often allege violations of the Bank’s policies on involuntary rese lement (OP/BP 4.12), environmental assessment (OP/BP 4.01), natural habitats (OP/BP 4.04), pest management (OP 4.09), forestry (OP/BP 4.36), projects on international waterways (OP/BP 7.50), indigenous peoples (OD 4.10), poverty reduction (OP 1.00), and cultural property (OP/BP 4/11). More than a dozen cases concern hydroelectric projects.

Filing a Claim (Who Has Standing) The Resolution provides several options for filing a claim with the Inspection Panel: 1.

As affected parties, two or more individuals who are directly affected by the alleged violations of Bank policies and who allege that they have been or could be harmed by those violations can bring a claim on their own behalf.

2.

A local representative, such as a nongovernmental organization, can submit the claim on behalf of directly affected persons with proper proof of authorization.

3.

In exceptional circumstances where local representation is not available (which can include countries where local NGOs are not allowed to operate or where there is a risk of retaliation), a nonlocal representative with proper proof of authorization can file the claim on behalf of local affected parties. In this case, evidence must be provided that local representation is not available.

4.

An Executive Director may, “in special cases of serious alleged violations of such policies and procedures, ask the Panel for an investigation.”

5.

The “Executive Directors, acting as a Board, may at any time instruct the Panel to conduct an investigation.”30

Most of the cases were presented to the Panel by affected parties or local representatives. The identity of individual claimants was sometimes kept confidential at their request.31 Chairperson of the Inspection Panel and Senior Vice President and General Counsel, in Mexico Decentralized Infrastructure Reform and Development Project (R2004-0077, 0077/3) (Inspection Panel and World Bank, June 8, 2004). 30

Resolution Establishing the Inspection Panel, supra note 21, at para. 12.

31

For example, in case 84, Kenya: Natural Resource Management Project; case 83, Afghanistan: Sustainable Development of Natural Resources—Additional Financing, and Sustainable Development of Natural Resources II; and case 82, Ethiopia: Protection of Basic Services Program Phase II Additional Financing and Promoting Basic Services Phase III Project.


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A nonlocal representative, the U.S.-based NGO International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), once a empted to lodge a claim using option 3, in case 16, China: Western Poverty Reduction Project. Per option 3, if a nonlocal representative files a claim, the Board must agree that “appropriate representation is not locally available” at the time that it considers the request for the inspection. In case 16, China objected to ICT’s representational authority. However, the Board sidestepped this objection by utilizing option 5, adopting all the elements of ICT’s claim and requesting the Panel to investigate the alleged policy violations, thereby avoiding the need to evaluate the lack of locally available representation.32 The Panel’s use of option 5 was applauded by some commentators, who saw it as an indication that the Board was dedicated to ensuring access to the Panel by the largest possible number of potential claimants and to using option 5 where the risk of reprisals against vulnerable complainants was high.33 Option 4 (request by an individual executive director) has apparently never been implemented.

Eligibility of a Claim Eligibility of a claim necessitates that specific conditions be met with regard to I.

standing (as described above);

II. object: it is alleged that the Bank has violated its policies and procedures, and that the rights or interests of specific individuals have been consequently affected; III. consultation: individual claimants have a empted to raise their concerns with Bank Management without satisfaction; IV. cause: the project is under consideration or has been approved by the Bank, and the loan has not yet been substantially disbursed.34 The Panel is specifically prohibited from hearing complaints about a.

actions that do not involve any action or omission on the part of the Bank;35

b. claims by suppliers (actual or potential) of products or services relating to procurement;36 32

Friends of the Earth Intl. & Intl. Acctg. Project, Strategic Guide for Filing Complaints with International Financial Institutions, 7 (Apr. 2004) [hereinafter Friends of the Earth], h p:// www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/strategic_guide.pdf.

33

Stefanie Ricarda Roos, The World Bank Inspection Panel in Its Seventh Year: An Analysis of Its Process, Mandate, and Desirability, with Special Reference to the China (Tibet) Case vol. 5, 493–94 (Max Planck Y.B. U.N. L. 2001).

34

See, in particular, 1999 Clarification of the Board’s Second Review of the Inspection Panel, para. 9, h p://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/1999Clarification oftheBoard.pdf.

35

Resolution Establishing the Inspection Panel, supra note 21, at cl. 14(a).

36

Id., at cl. 14(b); 1996 Clarifications (Eligibility and Access), h p://ewebapps.worldbank.org


504 c.

The World Bank Legal Review requests filed after the closing date of the loan financing the project or after the loan financing the project has been 95 percent disbursed;37

d. claims into ma ers that have already come before the Panel if no evidence of changed circumstances has been presented;38 and e.

claims involving projects financed by the IFC or the MIGA.

The Panel Process The Panel process starts at the reception of a request. The process consists of seven stages, as follows: 1.

The Panel receives a request and registers it, unless the request is considered ineligible.

2.

Management (those persons responsible for the design, appraisal, planning, and implementation of the project) responds to the claim, either by disputing the alleged policy violations or by acknowledging the concerns raised by the requesters and proposing appropriate measures.

3.

The Panel reports to the Board on eligibility and recommends either the initiation of an investigation of all or part of the request or the rejection of the request. The operating procedures establish clearly that the Panel “may decide not to recommend an investigation even if it confirms that the technical eligibility criteria for an investigation are met,”39 particularly with regard to the seriousness of the harm alleged.

4.

The Board decides whether to request an investigation by the Panel.40

5.

If an investigation is initiated, the Panel investigates and reports to the Board and Management.

6.

Management proposes appropriate measures in response to the investigation findings.

7.

The Board makes a final decision on whether to take action, and both the Panel’s report and Management’s response are made public.

Practice Relatively few cases make it all the way from registration to investigation. Out of 77 cases or joint cases completed by early June 2014,41 66 were registered, but only 27 were investigated by the Panel. Several reasons can be identified for cases that do not make it through the entire process. Some cases

/apps/ip/PanelMandateDocuments/ReviewResolution1966.pdf. 37

Id., at cl. 14(c).

38

Id., at cl. 14(d).

39

2014 Updated Operating Procedures, para. 41.

40

Id., at para. 49.

41

Ten other cases are still pending: cases 65, 81, 82, 84, 87, 89, 91–94. Some cases were joined: 72/75; 54/55/63; 53/56; 42/43; 32/33.


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appear as inadmissible; thus, 10 cases were not registered (stage 1),42 and 10 others were dismissed by the Board on the recommendation of the Panel’s eligibility report (stage 4)43 on the ground of eligibility criteria. The causes of ineligibility are diverse. One request was not registered because it was submitted by a single person (eligibility criterion I: standing, requiring at least two individuals).44 Eight cases were dismissed on the ground of eligibility criterion II (object), including five cases where there was no apparent nexus between a Bank project and the harm alleged45 and one case regarding a project funded by the International Financial Corporation, hence beyond the mandate of the Panel.46 Five cases were dismissed following an eligibility report based on eligibility criterion III (consultation), because the requesters failed to raise their concerns to Management.47 Eligibility criterion IV (cause) also justified the rejection of six cases: four decisions not to register requests related to projects that had been closed or where funds had been almost entirely disbursed,48 one decision by the Board on the recommendation of the Panel regarding a program that had not yet been adopted, and one request regarding a ma er that had already been investigated in a previous case.49 Lastly, the registration of a request concerning procurement was refused in application of exclusion b.50 Other cases were discontinued by the Board, at stage 4, on the grounds of possibility for resolution between Management and requesters. In 12 cases (nine times during the Panel’s second decade), the Panel recommended not investigating despite recognizing that all eligibility criteria had been met.51 These recommendations were based on a large range of considerations, including the goodwill and reactivity of Management, the engagement of a fruitful dialogue between Management and the requesters, the seriousness of the harm alleged, the likelihood of a violation of the Bank’s policies, and the clarity of the causal link between the violation and the harm alleged. Moreover, political considerations were sometimes put forward, for example, when the Panel recommended against initiating investigations on a delicate project involving the cooperation of Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza, on the

42

Cases 88, 86, 77, 68, 59, 50, 35, 21, 5, 2.

43

Cases 70, 52, 42/43, 29, 28, 25, 18, 15, 12, 3.

44

Case 29.

45

Cases 68, 25, 15, 12, 3.

46

Case 5.

47

Cases 52, 42/43, 29, 28, 18.

48

Cases 88, 50, 21 (project closed); case 77 (more than 95 percent disbursed).

49

Respectively, cases 86 & 29.

50

Case 35.

51

Cases 85, 83, 80, 79, 78, 76, 73, 72/75, 45, 17, 14, 13. In other cases during the first decade, eligibility reports did not clearly distinguish considerations on the eligibility criteria and other considerations on the opportunity of an investigation.


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basis of the “special circumstances surrounding this unprecedented regional collaborative effort.”52 The Panel has consistently preferred negotiated solutions agreed on by Management and the requesters of investigations, in line with the reputational interests of the Bank and, arguably, the interest of the claimants in a speedy resolution of the case. Thus, no formal investigation was initiated in the last 21 cases completed by the Panel.53 In cases that became more frequent during its second decade, the Panel postponed a recommendation after finding that a case was eligible to allow an opportunity for Management to adopt corrective measures.54 In ,more recent cases, the Panel favored consultations between Management and the requesters before the registration of the request. Case 90, Nepal: Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project, was not registered because Management could quickly reach an agreement with the requesters. Likewise, registration of case 91, Nigeria: Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project, was postponed to allow consultation. A pilot approach to support early solutions in the Inspection Panel process, adopted as part of new operating procedures, aims at encouraging negotiations between Management and requesters by deferring registration of complaints. This pilot program seeks rapid remediation for the benefit of requesters and avoids the dismissal of requests on the ground of eligibility criterion III (requesters have not previously communicated their concerns to Management). Investigations were initiated only in cases where the eligibility report clearly highlighted problematic elements. As a consequence, all investigations have identified some violations of an operational policy or procedure. Yet less emphasis has been put on the remedial measures, and the Board of Executive Directors has generally accepted the action plan proposed by Management. In some cases, however, the Board has called either for more mitigating measures (e.g., case 24, Uganda: Third Power Project, Fourth Power Project, and Proposed Bujagali Hydropower Project) or for a more detailed action plan (e.g., case 37, Democratic Republic of Congo: Transitional Support for Economic Recovery and Emergency Economic and Social Reunification Support Project), or has directly added some measures to the action plan (e.g., case 34, Pakistan: National Drainage Program Project).55 The legal framework of the Panel’s process does not require any follow-up after the decision of the Board on an action plan or any prior arrangement by Management. Such follow-up was nevertheless requested by the Board in certain cases, requiring Management to report on the implementation of the action plan (21 cases)56 and the 52

Inspection Panel, Report and Recommendation, in case 76, Israel / Jordan / West Bank and Gaza: Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance Study Program, Feb. 15, 2012, para. 92.

53

Cases 90, 88, 86, 85, 83, 80, 79, 78, 77, 76, 74, 73, 72/75, 71, 70, 69, 68, 67, 66, 64.

54

E.g., cases 89, 71, 67, 60, 57, 54/55/63, 41, 40.

55

World Bank, Accountability at the World Bank: The Inspection Panel at 15 Years 43 (World Bank 2009) [hereinafter Inspection Panel at 15 Years].

56

Cases 62, 60, 53/56, 51, 49, 47/48, 46, 44, 40, 38, 37, 36, 34, 32/33, 31, 27, 26, 23, 8, 7, 4.


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Panel to assess effective compliance (five cases).57 It is not clear what the real consequences of noncompliance are, though they seem limited to the project, and perhaps the employment prospects of Bank administrators. The Panel has also developed a practice of visiting the project location one last time, following the final decision of the Board or any other form of arrangement with Management, in order to explain the remedy to the requesters. During its second decade, the Panel developed the practice of deferring its decision on eligibility as a way to exert pressure on Management and to ensure the effective implementation of remedial measures. In such cases, a first eligibility report confirms the eligibility of a request but postpones the recommendation to the Board; a second or third eligibility report, taking into account Management’s actions, adopts a recommendation as to the opportunity of investigation. Going forward, the pilot program on a new approach to support early solutions adopted in April 2014 indicates that the Panel may also defer registration in order to promote an early constructive dialogue between Management and requesters. In one recent case, a request was withdrawn before registration because an early agreement could be reached between Management and the requesters.58

Impediments to Access: Why Claims May Not Be Filed The Inspection Panel has received 94 requests in 20 years of operation. Given the scope of the Bank’s activities, this might be considered relatively few compared with the number and scope of projects approved by the Bank every year. The Panel’s limited mandate may contribute to explaining why such a small number of cases have been filed to date. Several other obstacles can also be identified.

Insufficient Awareness Although the Panel’s purpose is to be a forum in which aggrieved individuals may bring their complaints regarding the Bank’s failure to conform to its own policies, in reality the Panel may be underutilized because individuals affected by Bank projects remain unaware of the availability of this mechanism. Civil society actors may lack information about the Panel and even fail to realize that the project adversely affecting them receives financial support from the Bank. Bank investment projects blend easily with nation-state projects. The advent of the Panel might incentivize governments to conceal the role of the Bank so as to avoid review. Even when affected individuals are aware that a specific project implemented by their government is funded by the Bank, and that they may request an inspection by the Panel, these individuals may not be sufficiently aware of the Bank’s operational policies and procedures, particularly its social and 57

Cases 32/33, 26, 8, 7, 4.

58

Case 90, Nepal: Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project.


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environmental safeguard policies, to identify issues of compliance.59 Development projects often affect vulnerable individuals with limited education and li le political resources. This, compounded by the fact that information is usually not readily disseminated, means that affected groups are unlikely to know whether and how the Bank’s safeguard policies can help them. The Panel has, however, evidenced some flexibility when claimants did not specify any particular policy. The Panel itself verifies whether a policy that appears contrary to principles of justice indeed infringes on some of the Bank’s operational policies and procedures, thus assuming “the responsibility to identify all policies relevant to the investigated cases and examine the issues in their light.”60 Yet, for requesters to make the decision to utilize the Panel at all, they need to have a broad understanding of the Bank’s operational policies and procedures, technical documents that remain relatively unknown outside the specialist community.

Linguistic and Cultural Barriers Understanding the Panel’s procedures and the Bank’s policy language requires a command of English. Although requests can be addressed in the language of the requesters, acquiring access to Bank policies is often difficult for locally affected people because the Bank does not provide copies of Bank policies in local languages.61 At most, the Inspection Panel’s website (which is available only in English) contains an eight-page brochure titled “Panel in Brief,” translated into 12 languages other than English. Nevertheless, a large majority of cases come from countries where English is not the main language. In addition to language, culture can also be an impediment to understanding Panel procedures. In some borrowing countries, filing a complaint may be at odds with local cultural norms and perspectives. Requesting an investigation to remedy a project requires a certain degree of internalization of Western legal and political values, including that of political participation. If formally filing a claim against a public authority is not accepted within a certain culture, requests are unlikely to be sent to the Panel. While many requests were sent from Africa (28), Latin America (23), and South Asia (20), only three requests have originated from Southeast Asia (two in Cambodia and one in the Philippines), and one from Northeast Asia. Also, the Panel members are composed of three different nationalities, and mostly educated in Western institutions, usually in either the United Kingdom or the United States. The passing of time may contribute to increased awareness. Encouraging media a ention for current and past claims will be useful in this regard, although it may also be at odds with the World Bank’s reputational strategy.

59

Fox, supra note 18.

60

Inspection Panel at 15 Years, supra note 55, at 40.

61

Dana L. Clark, A Citizen’s Guide to the World Bank Inspection Panel, 2d ed., 12 (Ctr. Intl. Envtl. L. Oct. 1999), h p://www.ciel.org/Publications/citizensguide.pdf.


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To address these issues, the Panel and Management are encouraged to disseminate information regarding the existence and accessibility of the Panel.62 Knowing that claimants are at times unable to recognize Bank-financed projects, international NGOs and Bank staff can communicate with local civil society actors regarding where Bank projects are taking place. The diffusion of information on the existence of the Panel mechanism should be a component of any Bank project. NGOs can be instrumental in helping disseminate Bank policies and providing translations to locally affected communities. The translation of Panel documents into local languages is also an indispensable step for the dissemination of information. Further, the Panel members themselves, with their diverse nationalities, work experience, and academic connections, can facilitate the marketing and advertising of the Panel by writing and publishing widely in respect of the Panel process. This not only spreads news of the Panel but also highlights the diversity and expertise of the Panel members for potential claimants. This enhanced communication can help build trust in the Panel and thereby increase its use.

Costs (Financial and Other) Even in cases where affected people are informed about the Panel and the Bank’s safeguard policies, and their concerns fit the Panel’s mandate, the costs and risks of filing a claim can be prohibitive. Specifically, the claim process is highly technical, expensive, and time consuming. For a claim to be valid, it must include a description of the project; an explanation of how Bank policies, procedures, or contractual documents were violated; a description of the claimant’s interests harmed by the violation of the policies; and a description of the steps taken to have Bank staff resolve the violations. The office of the Inspection Panel offers advice on the preparation of requests, and the Panel may ask for additional information before deciding on registration. The length and depth of analysis varies based on the request; some requests are wri en by domestic lawyers but generally do not involve specialist lawyers. Requests represent a certain investment of time and monies, resources that could be invested in other political or legal strategies. The Panel procedure is free of charge, but there is no financial assistance provided for requesters to meet their costs. Even more than the financial costs, requesters may fear reprisal for filing a claim. For instance, in the China Western case, the risk of reprisal was so intense that outside representation was required for a claim to be made. Indeed, when the Panel traveled to the project area, its members recognized a “climate of fear” among local affected people.63 Likewise, in case 10, India: NTPC Power Generation Project in Singrauli, the representative of the claimants was a acked by contracting agents working for the borrower, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), in the presence of the company’s 62

See, in particular, 2014 Updated Operating Procedures, supra note 39, at para. 76.

63

Friends of the Earth, supra note 32, at 9.


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officials.64 Pressure was also evidenced in other cases, particularly in case 69, Liberia: Development Forestry Sector Management Project, where the Panel’s eligibility report noted, as “a ma er of serious concern,” that it had received information indicating that claimants had “been put under pressure and intimidation since bringing their complaint to the Panel.” The Panel duly recognized the “potentially deterring effect on the ability of people to bring their concerns to the Inspection Panel without fear of reprisal, thus undermining the integrity of the Inspection Panel process and ultimately the Bank’s accountability.”65 Similar concerns arose in several other cases.66 With such risks of reprisals, it is no wonder that some claims never make it to the Panel. While the Panel allows a claim to be filed by a nonlocal representative to avoid the fear of reprisals from hindering the claim’s relevance, the operating procedures of the Panel require that the representative demonstrate that it has explicit authorization to act as the agent of the adversely affected people. This calls for specific affected individuals to authorize representatives and, although their identities can be kept confidential at their requests, authorization to do so is contingent on a certain degree of trust of the Panel. This condition should perhaps be put aside, at least when large international NGOs submit a claim that appears very plausibly to reflect the concern of an affected community, a condition that Panel members could confirm through a field visit and informal consultation with this community.

Rejection of the Panel Although the Panel seeks to provide a forum for individuals affected by Bank projects, and for greater transparency and accountability, the motivation to use an institutional mechanism like the Panel cannot be taken for granted. Some people may find the Panel an inappropriate tool because it requires a certain amount of engagement with the World Bank. Located within the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC, the Inspection Panel certainly does not appear as a forum where requesters and Management are on equal footing.67 It arguably serves as a legitimized channel of dissent, bringing outsiders’ critiques within the World Bank’s own structure. Despite the guarantees of independence of the members, the Panel remains largely dependent on the support of the Board of Executive Directors. Some potential claimants may view the system as so fundamentally flawed as to feel politically uncomfortable with proceeding in the Panel process. Similarly, where individual grievances are 64

Id.

65

Inspection Panel, Eligibility Report, in case 69, Liberia: Development Forestry Sector Management Project, Feb. 7, 2011, para. 116.

66

E.g., cases 41 (Brazil: Parana Biodiversity Project), 32/33 (India: Mumbai Urban Transport Project), 24 (Uganda: Third Power Project, Fourth Power Project, and proposed Bujagali Hydropower Project). See also Inspection Panel at 15 Years, supra note 55, at 49.

67

See, for example, the recount of Pacifique Mukumbu-Isumbisho as to how his community has decided to address the Inspection Panel, even though it “was divided: some thought the Panel could not be independent because it was a part of the Bank” (Inspection Panel at 15 Years, supra note 55, at 48).


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primarily with the government rather than with the Bank, potential claimants may view the Panel as an inappropriate forum in which to express themselves.

The Attractiveness of the Panel Process In addition to obstacles that limit access to the Panel, other elements reduce its a ractiveness for possible requesters. This section identifies some of the issues affecting the transparency, independence, and accountability of the Panel process, as well as its ability to remedy the violations that it identifies.

The Control of the Board of Executive Directors The Panel makes a recommendation as to whether an investigation should take place, but the decision is ultimately that of the Board of Executive Directors. The Board also decides on appropriate remedial measures, if any are to be taken. This process has been criticized for being unduly restrictive on the Panel and for obstructing its independence. In practice, the Board has historically used this mechanism to prevent inspections in borrowing countries on the basis of political considerations. The 1999 Clarification sought to remedy this situation by providing guidelines as to when the Board should approve a recommendation for inspection by the Panel. Specifically, this document aims to avoid confrontation between the Panel and the borrowing government before the Board’s decision by insisting that the Board approve the conduct of an investigation “without making a judgment on the merits of the claimants’ request, and without discussion” except as to technical eligibility criteria.68 It is interesting to note that the 1999 Clarification also prohibits the Panel from doing preliminary in-country investigations of any depth. It also restricts the Panel’s right to comment on a borrowing government’s responsibility for problems related to a project. Not surprisingly, the 1999 Clarification a empts to curb the politicization of the Panel process prior to Board approval of a Panel recommendation for investigation. A review of the cases before the Panel to date shows that the 1999 Clarification has been favorable in relation to Board approval for Panel recommendations for inspections. Prior to the 1999 Clarification, of the six investigations recommended by the Panel, only two were approved by the Board: in the first case, Nepal: Arun III Hydroelectric Project, the Board approved a full inspection; in case 10, India: NTPC Power Generation Project in Singrauli, it approved only a desk review (a report not based on direct field research), given the tense situation in the project area.69 In four other cases, the Board rejected the Panel’s recommendation for an investigation. Thus, in case 4, Brazil: Rondonia Natural Resources Management Project, the requesters argued that the demarcation and protection of lands for indigenous peoples and rubber tappers were being impeded by the Bank project, which was designed to allow 68

1999 Clarification, supra note 34, at para. 9.

69

Clark, supra note 61, at 16.


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some extension of roads into the Amazon region. While the Panel recommended a full investigation, the Board was not satisfied with the evidence of harm, even in the face of detailed evidence from the Panel, and rejected an investigation in favor of a Management-generated action plan.70 Likewise, in case 7, Argentina/ Paraguay: Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project, the executive director representing Brazil objected to the Panel recommendation and continuously challenged the eligibility of the claimants. The process became highly politicized, and the Board denied the Panel’s recommendation for an investigation, accepting instead Brazil’s assurances that it had developed an action plan and would implement it; the Board approved the action plan without seeing or evaluating it.71 Following the 1999 Clarification, however, the Board has never directly rejected a Panel’s recommendation for investigation, and 21 investigations have been carried out since then.72 However, this does not mean that the Board has ceased all pressure on the Panel. While this greater independence of the Panel is encouraging, the fact remains that under the formal framework, the Board maintains the ability to reject the Panel’s recommendations for inspection. In order to fulfill its role, the Panel requires a high degree of independence from the Board. If the Board has any capacity to short-circuit the Panel’s information-gathering process, the Panel clearly cannot function as effectively as if it were free from any Board interventions. A be er approach may be to modify the Resolution so as to eliminate the Board’s authority to approve an investigation altogether. This would avoid the risk of intervention from the Board and reduce the politicization of the Panel process. Such a procedure would ensure the Panel’s full ability to report completely and independently about Bank policy failures.

Input from Requesters Another serious defect in the Panel process is the lack of participation by the claimants and the lack of transparency in the recommendations by Management to the Board. Without adequate participation and transparency, Management recommendations for remedial actions may fail to address the concerns of the claimants. Thus, Management has an opportunity to consult and respond to the investigation report before the final decision of the Board. However, this report is not communicated to requesters before the Board

70

In January 1997, the Inspection Panel was asked to review the 18-month progress on Management’s action plan and in April 1997 submi ed the report to the Board. The Panel’s report found that deforestation continues at an alarming rate, nearly 450,000 hectares annually, and emphasized the need for stronger mechanisms to protect the borders of protected areas. The report also found li le progress in the implementation of the promised health program for the indigenous people.

71

Clark, supra note 61, at 16. The Panel was asked to assist the Board in evaluating implementation of the action plan in 12 months, although this Board evaluation never took place.

72

In case 71, Lebanon: Greater Beirut Water Supply Project, the Board postponed a recommended decision to initiate an investigation into the outcome of a study commissioned by Management; a second eligibility report, based on the result of this study, did not recommend further investigation.


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decision has been made, which deprives requesters the opportunity to communicate their observations. The requesters are similarly unable to make any observations on the plan of action that Management proposes in response to any breaches identified in the investigation report. While there is nothing preventing Management from consulting with requesters, there may be li le incentive to do so. There is consequently a risk that the plan of action does not fully address the concerns raised by the requesters. The 1999 Clarification partly addresses this issue. In particular, Management must now consult with the requesters when conceiving the Management Report and Recommendation in Response to the Inspection Panel (MRR), and, under the 2014 operating procedures, it must “communicate to the Panel the nature and the outcomes of the consultations with the affected parties on the action plan.”73 Moreover, the Panel may report “on the adequacy of these consultations,” including on the basis of a field visit.74 These measures constitute an important step forward from the previous operating procedure, where claimants’ views were represented in the approved action plan only if Management approved. However, more work may be required. In particular, “the possibility of a constructive dialogue is hampered by the fact that the Panel’s Resolution does not allow the disclosure of its Investigation Report at this stage,” which limits the ability of the requesters “to engage meaningfully with Management in the preparation of remedial steps.”75 Thus, the Panel recognizes that, “in several cases, . . . Requesters have expressed to the Panel strong concerns about the lack of consultations during this phase of the process, or that the consultation[s] have been far from adequate.”76

No Appeals Mechanism Furthermore, the Panel process does not include a mechanism for the claimants to appeal the Panel’s or the Board’s approved action plans. Consequently, where Panel reports or action plans do not align with claimants’ concerns, there seems to be li le that the claimants can do. This was the scenario in case 25, Papua New Guinea: Governance Promotion Adjustment Loan, where the requesters felt that their process rights were not fully respected by the Panel, but had no legal recourse available.77

Panel Composition It is recognized that the Panel does not achieve the degree of independence expected from a juridical mechanism, so a empts to enhance its independence can only promote its credibility and effectiveness. It follows that reforms directed toward greater independence of the Panel vis-à-vis the Board and 73

2014 Updated Operating Procedures, supra note 39, at para. 70.

74

Id.

75

Inspection Panel at 15 Years, supra note 55, at 41.

76

Id., at 56.

77

Friends of the Earth, supra note 32, at 8.


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Management should be pursued. This reasoning underlies the provisions in the Resolution that a empt to safeguard the independence and integrity of the Panel members from Management influence through sanctions or safeguards. The provisions exclude the nomination of anyone who has worked for the World Bank Group as a staff member, an executive director, or an alternate or adviser to an executive director for at least two years after the person’s term of service has ended.78 The provisions also specify that Panel members “may be removed from office only by decision of the Executive Directors for cause,”79 and that Panel members may not be employed by the Bank Group following the end of their service on the Panel.80 Yet Panel members are elected by the Executive Directors on the recommendation of the Bank’s President. This method does not reflect the principles of transparency, public participation, and public accountability that are at the core of the Panel’s mandate.

Nature of the Panel Fundamentally, the very nature of the Panel—as essentially a fact-finding mechanism—falls short of what many actual or potential requesters expect: a reparation. The function of the Panel is to bring Bank projects into compliance with the internal rules of the Bank, not to repair the wrongs caused by violations of international law (e.g., human rights and environmental protection). Thus, the dismissal of four cases on projects that were completed or near completion suggests that some requesters had broader expectations of the Panel (including a more restorative function);81 and many other cases with similar expectations do not file a request in the first place. Some of the remedies provided as a result of Panel investigations evidencing clear cases of noncompliance do not provide answers to requesters; “a significant number of findings of non-compliance still go unanswered in action plans.”82 The lack of follow-up on remedial actions has been identified by requesters as “[o]ne of the main concerns expressed by affected people and civil society organizations about the Panel process.”83 If the Panel does not overcome the image that it works largely for the benefit of the Bank itself, it may be seen as more akin to an internal audit procedure than a legal process. This view will remain as long as compensation is not provided for past damage (as opposed to a plan of action to avoid future damage) and as long as the costs suffered by the requesters are not covered by the Panel where a breach has been identified.

78

Resolution Establishing the Inspection Panel, supra note 21, at cl. 4.

79

Id., at cl. 8.

80

Id., at cl. 10.

81

Supra note 48.

82

Natalie Bridgeman & David Hunter, Narrowing the Accountability Gap: Toward a New Foreign Investor Accountability Mechanism, 20 Geo. Intl. Envtl. L. Rev. 187–236 (2007).

83

Inspection Panel at 15 Years, supra note 55, at 44.


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The Consequences of Inspection Panel Investigations and Recommendations Regardless of the Panel’s problems, the fact that 94 claims have been filed reflects the growing relevance of the Panel process over the last 20 years. What, then, has been the practical experience of claimants who have engaged the Panel? Has the Panel met its objective of improving the Bank’s compliance with its operational policies and procedures, particularly its safeguard policies, and alleviating harm associated with policy violations? Has the Panel process improved project quality, given the important lessons learned about why projects fail, and provided a measure of accountability? According to its constituting documents, the Panel is neither an enforcement nor a judicial mechanism. It cannot provide compensation, nor can it issue an injunction against further work on a project or rule that the project should be canceled. The Panel has an investigatory and advisory role: it reports its findings to the Board, which ultimately must make a determination of how to respond to the Panel’s report. Claimants can generally expect an action plan leading to improvements over the long term, even though it is often difficult to assess the impact of these action plans. There have been instances where action plans have clearly failed to provide the remedial action that requesters expected. For instance, the action plan developed in response to a Panel claim challenging violations of environmental and social policies in case 10, India: NTPC Power Generation Project in Singrauli, resulted in increased compensation for about 1,200 families affected by forced evictions, but this payment did not succeed in restoring livelihoods, left unresolved the plight of thousands of other families, and ignored the devastating environmental, health, and food security issues at stake in the region.84 In some cases, the Panel proceedings led to the cancellation of or withdrawal from an offer of funding. The cancellation of the Bank support to Arun III Hydroelectric Project (Nepal) as a result of the first case before the Panel was largely celebrated as “an extraordinary success which illustrated both the significance and the necessity of the Panel.”85 The consequences of the Bank’s withdrawal were not only financial but also symbolic, bringing international opprobrium on the project of the borrowing state. As Handl argues, this withdrawal “may well, and indeed should, discourage other potential lenders, be they private or public entities, from going ahead with an investment project that has been found wanting in light of the environmental and social development criteria that the bank is obliged to follow as a ma er of public international law and policy.”86 Indeed, Nepal’s project was halted for good.

84

Friends of the Earth, supra note 32, at 8.

85

Roos, supra note 33, at 516.

86

G. Handl, The Legal Mandate of Multilateral Development Banks as Agents for Change toward Sustainable Development, 92 Am. J. Intl. L. 642, 665 (1998).


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By contrast, other states have been able to carry out their projects after the World Bank withdrew its support on the basis of Panel proceedings. For example, in case 16, China: Western Poverty Reduction Project, the opposition of the Panel did not “discourage other potential lenders . . . from going ahead with the investment project.”87 The government of China withdrew its loan application and carried out the project, essentially unaltered, with purely domestic funds. In this case at least, the withdrawal of the Bank did not prevent the project but may have even further reduced the degree of international oversight on the project. Without funding, the Bank is unable to provide input on the design or implementation of a project, and affected individuals lose an avenue to advance the protection of their rights and interests. The China: Western Poverty Reduction Project case highlights an important dilemma for the Bank: should it continue funding projects and try to mitigate their important unintended consequences, or should it withdraw from such projects and run the risk that the state carries it out with unmitigated social or environmental costs? In other cases, without discontinuing the involvement of the Bank, the Panel has been able to trigger action by Management. Some results have been obtained without investigation and, in at least one case, even before the registration of the case.88 Thus, the success of the Panel mechanism should perhaps be measured not in terms of whether an investigation is initiated but in terms of whether the requesters recognize that their grievances have been addressed. The Panel’s eligibility report in case 74, Kazakhstan: South-West Roads, noted that “the Requesters, who highlighted to the Panel team that the engagement of the Panel has brought more a ention to their grievances, are satisfied with the fact that their concerns were either resolved or about to be resolved.”89 Management had taken or promised remedial action before the Panel could make any recommendation on an investigation. Nevertheless, given the relatively small number of cases (compared with the number of Bank projects) and their sometimes ambivalent outcomes, the Panel’s greatest overall impact to date has perhaps been indirect and diffuse, although this impact is naturally more difficult to measure. The Panel itself highlights, as part of its outcomes, its possible “influences on projects similar to those subject to a request for inspection,” its “influence at the broader institutional level,” and, last but not least, its role as a “model for similar institutions in other organizations.”90 The very existence of the Panel puts pressure on the Bank’s staff to be more conscious in complying with the safeguard policies and to supervise 87

Id.

88

Case 90, Nepal: Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project.

89

Inspection Panel, Report and Recommendation, case 74, Kazakhstan: South-West Roads Western Europe–Western China International Transit Corridor (CAREC 1b & 6b) (IBRD Loan No. 7681-KZ), Oct. 18, 2011, para. 66.

90

Inspection Panel at 15 Years, supra note 55, at 90–92.


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projects more closely. The Panel may have fostered a cultural change within the Bank’s Management, from the long-criticized “culture of approval” to greater consideration of the negative consequences of its projects—although the Panel does face, at times, the hostility of the Bank’s staff.91 As one commentator noted, “[T]he panel clearly has had some impact on promoting a sustainable development agenda with the Bank, but the degree of its impact remains a ma er of speculation.”92 Although not perfect, the Panel process envisages a forum where individuals affected by Bank projects can raise concerns that have in many cases remained unaddressed for years. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the Panel process, this forum raises awareness of the problems at the highest levels in the Bank and in the borrowing country. This agenda-se ing dimension is one of the greatest benefits of the Panel process, because an international organization such as the World Bank, leading the way for other multilateral development banks and development agencies, may finally become more systematically a entive to the unintended impacts of its projects. Another indirect effect is the increased media a ention and support from international NGOs interested in Bank activities. International a ention has so far played a critical role in pressuring the Board of Executive Directors to take action. In addition, the time and effort involved in launching an Inspection Panel claim may increase solidarity among claimants, empower them to have a dialogue with government officials and project authorities, increase awareness within the country, and strengthen the networks of support at the local, national, and international levels.93

Concluding Remarks The struggle for accountability and responsibility continues. At present, the World Bank Inspection Panel is the only platform through which people can raise their concerns with the Bank and have them evaluated by a somewhat independent institution, thus initiating a process that may trigger a remedy or contribute to a policy change. The Panel is not yet mature. It must continue its efforts to increase awareness of its role and to ensure that its light caseload is not due to claimant access issues. Yet, if claimants go into the process aware of the Panel’s limitations and pursue an Inspection Panel claim as part of a broader strategy for voicing their discontent, the Panel can be a useful tool to help increase accountability at the World Bank and promote more sustainable aid to development. The Panel process can contribute to drawing a ention to the problems generated by lending decisions and to promoting respect for human rights and environmental protection. By allowing individuals to play a role in international 91

Id., at 37.

92

Fox, supra note 18.

93

Clark, supra note 61, at 47.


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relations mechanisms, the Panel can also help empower and organize local communities, giving them valuable mechanisms to advance their rights under the emerging normative framework applicable to Bank projects. This can have real impacts, both in particular projects and in promoting institutional learning for sustainable development. The Panel’s creation signifies a door opening, if only a crack, to the accountability of international financial institutions vis-à-vis the individuals adversely affected by aid’s unintended consequences. The Panel reflects a growing recognition of participation rights as well as a march toward the responsibilities of international organizations.94 While the door is far from being wide open, at least it is no longer locked. The challenge, going forward, is to remove the door from its hinges, so it stays open and can never be closed again. While this may constitute a dramatic shift in power in respect to states and their citizens, the growth of the Bank’s public decision-making power, and therefore its ability to affect individuals’ livelihoods, makes this shift not only justifiable but also clearly necessary. Traditional roles ascribed to international organizations, states, and individuals no longer make sense when international organizations such as the Bank wield so much influence over states and their citizens. It seems unlikely that the influence of the Bank will diminish in the foreseeable future, so the Panel is a necessary first step toward greater accountability of multilateral development banks.

94

See Mayer, supra note 4.


519

Annex: Summary of Requests for Inspection (as of June 2014) No.

Name of Case

Date Received

Registration

Panel Recommendation

Approved by Board

Panel’s Activity

Final Outcome

94

Armenia: Education Improvement Project

16 May 2014

Pending

Case pending

93

Tajikistan / Kyrgyz Republic / Afghanistan / Pakistan: Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000)

21 Apr. 2014

Pending

Case pending

92

Sri Lanka: Road Sector Assistance Project–Second Additional Financing

24 Mar. 2014

Pending

Case pending

91

Nigeria: Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project

30 Sept. 2013

Deferred decision, in implementation of the pilot approach to support early solutions in the Inspection Panel process

Case pending

90

Nepal: Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project

25 Sept. 2013

No

Management immediately agreed to take action

89

Uzbekistan: Second Rural Enterprise Support Project

5 Sept. 2013

Yes

88

Romania: Mine Closure, Environment and Socio-Economic Regeneration Project

2 July 2013

No

87

Nepal: Power Development Project

20 July 2013

Yes

Case pending

Deferred its decision, pending

Ineligibility (IV)

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Investigation pending


520

86

Malawi: Second National Water Development Project–Additional Financing

22 May 2013

No

Ineligibility (IV)

85

Arab Republic of Egypt: Giza North Power Project

21 Feb. 2013

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

84

Kenya: Natural Resource Management Project

14 Jan. and 28 June 2013

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Initial Investigation Plan

83

Afghanistan: Sustainable Development of Natural Resources–Additional Financing, and Sustainable Development of Natural Resources II

3 and 6 Dec. 2012

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

82

Ethiopia: Protection of Basic Services Program Phase II Additional Financing and Promoting Basic Services Phase III Project

24 Sept. 2012

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Plan

Investigation pending

81

India: Vishnugad Pipalkoti Hydro Electric Project

23 July 2012

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Initial Investigation Plan

Investigation pending

80

India: Improving Rural Livelihoods through Carbon Sequestration Project

23 Apr. 2012

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

79

Kenya: Energy Sector Recovery Project

10 May 2012

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

78

Kosovo: Kosovo Power Project (Proposed)

29 Mar. 2012

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Investigation pending


521

77

Argentina: Santa Fe Infrastructure Project and Provincial Road Infrastructure Project

2 Sept. 2011

No

Ineligibility (IV)

76

Israel / Jordan / West Bank and Gaza: Red Sea– Dead Sea Water Conveyance Study Program

24 June 2011

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

74

Kazakhstan: South-West Roads: Western Europe– Western China International Transit Corridor (CAREC-1b & 6b) (2011) (Second Request)

15 June 2011

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

73

Argentina: Second Norte Grande Water Infrastructure Project

4 May 2011

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

72/ 75

India: Madhya Pradesh Water Sector Restructuring Project (2010) (First Request)

31 Aug. 2010

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

71

Lebanon: Greater Beirut Water Supply Project

4 Nov. 2010 and 16 July 2011

Yes

Investigation (first eligibility report), no investigation (second eligibility report)

No (calls for additional consideration of a study commissioned by Management)

Two Eligibility Reports

Additional actions by Management following the first Eligibility Report

70

Tajikistan: Energy Loss Reduction Project (Request from Uzbekistan)

8 Oct. 2010

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Ineligibility (II)

69

Liberia: Development Forestry Sector Management Project

24 Sept. 2010

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Arrangement between Management and the requesters

Arrangement between Management and the requesters


522

68

Poland: Third Employment, Entrepreneurship and Human Capital Development Policy Loan

14 June 2010

No

Ineligibility (II)

67

Chile: Quilleco Hydropower Project

21 Apr. 2010

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Two Eligibility Reports

Management revised its program

66

Kazakhstan: South-West Roads: Western Europe– Western China International Transit Corridor (CAREC-1b & 6b) (2010) (First Request)

24 Apr. 2010

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

The initial program was slightly modified

65

South Africa: Eskom Investment Support Project

6 Apr. 2010

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves a set of measures agreed to by Management and the borrowing government, case pending

64

Pakistan: Tax Administration Reform Project

22 Dec. 2009

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Arrangement between Management and the requesters (19 March 2010)

62

Papua New Guinea: Smallholder Agriculture Development Project

8 Dec. 2009

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (13 Dec. 2011)

61

Peru: Lima Urban Transport Project

1 Oct. 2009

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (16 June 2011)


523

Investigation

Yes

Two Eligibility Reports and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (8 March 2011)

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Arrangement between Management and the requesters (27 June 2009)

13 Apr. 2009

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Two Eligibility Reports and Statement of the Panel Chairman to the Board

Management revises its program (consultations)

Democratic Republic of Congo: Private Sector Development and Competitiveness Project

25 Feb., 13 March, and 15 Dec. 2009

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Three Eligibility Reports

Management revises its program

53/ 56

Panama: Land Administration Project

25 Feb. and 17 March 2009

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (3 Feb. 2011)

52

Colombia: Bogota Urban Services Project

30 Oct. 2007

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Ineligibility (III)

51

Argentina: Santa Fe Road Infrastructure Project and Provincial Road Infrastructure Project (Third Request)

13 Sept. 2007

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (20 Oct. 2009)

60

Cambodia: Land Management and Administration Project

4 Sept. 2009

Yes

59

Kenya: Export Development Project

21 Apr. 2009

No

58

India: Mumbai Urban Transport Project (Third Request)

29 May 2009

57

Republic of Yemen: Institutional Reform Development Policy Financing

54/ 55/ 63


524

50

Cameroon: Urban Development Project and Douala Infrastructure Development Project

5 Sept. 2007

No

Ineligibility (IV)

49

Ghana: Second Urban Environment Sanitation Project

16 Aug. 2007

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (18 June 2009)

47 /48

Albania: Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean-Up Project

30 July and 13 Aug. 2007

Yes

Investigation on the ma ers raised by the first request

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (17 Feb. 2009)

46

Albania: Power Sector Generation and Restructuring Project

30 Apr. 2007

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Revised set of Management actions (19 Nov. 2009)

45

India: U aranchal Decentralized Watershed Development Project

7 Mar. 2007

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

44

Uganda: Private Power Generation Project

5 Mar. 2007

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

42/ 43

Argentina: Santa Fe Road Infrastructure Project (Proposed) and Provincial Road Infrastructure Project

28 Aug. and 21 Sept. 2006

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

41

Brazil: Parana Biodiversity Project (2006)

10 July 2006

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Two Eligibility Reports

Amendment of the Grant Agreement (2 Feb. 2007)

40

Nigeria: West African Gas Pipeline Project (2006)

27 Apr. 2006

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Two Eligibility Reports and Investigation Report

An action plan is implemented by the Bank with several local actors (5 Aug. 2008)

Board approves Management Action Plan (4 Dec. 2008)


525

39

Romania: Mine Closure and Social Mitigation Project (2006)

6 Jan. 2006

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

An action plan is implemented by the Bank with several local actors (26 Jan. 2006)

38

Honduras: Land Administration Project (2006)

3 Jan. 2006

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (4 Oct. 2007)

37

Democratic Republic of Congo: Transitional Support for Economic Recovery and Emergency Economic and Social Reunification Support Project

19 Nov. 2005

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (9 Jan. 2008)

36

Cambodia: Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project

28 Jan. 2005

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (30 June 2006)

35

Burundi: Public Works and Employment Creation Project

17 Sept. 2004

No

34

Pakistan: National Drainage Program Project

10 Sept. 2004

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (31 Oct. 2006)

32/ 33

India: Mumbai Urban Transport Project

28 Apr. and 29 June 2004

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report, Investigation Report, and Progress Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (28 March 2006)

31

Colombia: Cartagena Water Supply, Sewerage and Environmental Management Project

20 Apr. 2004

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approves Management Action Plan (Nov. 2005)


526

30

Mexico: Indigenous and Community Biodiversity Project (COINBIO)

26 Jan. 2006

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

29

Cameroon: Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project

26 Nov. 2003

No

28

Philippines: Manila Second Sewerage Project (MSSP)

26 Sept. 2003

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Ineligibility (III)

27

Cameroon: Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project, and Petroleum Environment Capacity Enhancement Project

25 Sept. 2003

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approved Management Report and Recommendation in response to the Panel Investigation Report (May 2004)

26

Paraguay/ Argentina: Reform Project for the Water and Telecommunication Sectors, SEGBA V Power Distribution Project (Yacyretå 2002—second request)

17 May 2002

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report, Investigation Report, and Progress Report

Board approved Management Report and Recommendation in response to the Panel Investigation Report

25

Papua New Guinea: Governance Promotion Adjustment Loan

6 Dec. 2001

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Ineligibility (II)

24

Uganda: Third Power Project, Fourth Power Project, and proposed Bujagali Hydropower Project

27 July 2001

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board received Management Report and Recommendation in response to the Panel Investigation Report (June 2002)

Ineligibility (I, III, IV)


527

23

India: Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project and Coal Sector Rehabilitation Project

21 June 2001

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approved Management Report and Recommendation in response to the Panel Investigation Report (July 2003)

22

Chad: Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project, Management of the Petroleum Economy Project, and Petroleum Sector Management Capacity Building Project

22 March 2001

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board received Management Report and Recommendation in response to the Panel Investigation Report (Aug. 2002)

21

India: NTPC Power Generation Project in Singrauli (Second Request)

27 Nov. 2000

No

20

Ecuador: Mining Development and Environmental Control Technical Assistance Project

13 Dec. 1999

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approved Management Report and Recommendation in response to the Panel Investigation Report (Apr. 2001)

19

Kenya: Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project

12 Oct. 1999

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

Board approved Management Report and Recommendation in response to the Panel Investigation Report (May 2001)

Ineligibility (IV)


528

18

Brazil: Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation Project (Second Request)

14 Sept. 1999

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Ineligibility (III)

17

Argentina: Special Structural Adjustment Loan

26 July 1999

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

16

China: Western Poverty Reduction Project

18 June 1999

Yes

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

The beneficiary state continues the project with its own resources (July 2000)

15

Lesotho: Lesotho Highlands Water Project

26 Apr. 1999

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Ineligibility (II)

14

Brazil: Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation Pilot Project

14 Dec. 1998

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

13

Nigeria: Lagos Drainage and Sanitation Project

17 June 1998

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

12

Lesotho–South Africa: Proposed Phase 1B of Lesotho Highlands Water Project

6 May 1998

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

11

India: Ecodevelopment Project

2 Apr. 1998

Yes

Investigation

No

Eligibility Report

10

India: NTPC Power Generation Project in Singrauli

1 May 1997

Yes

Investigation

Partly approved a limited investigation (a desk study in Wash., DC) after reviewing a remedial Action Plan submi ed by Management

Eligibility Report and Report on Desk Investigation

Ineligibility (II)

Management Action Plan approved by the Board


529

9

Brazil: Itaparica Rese lement and Irrigation Project

12 Mar. 1997

Yes

Investigation

No

Eligibility Report

Approval of Government of Brazil Action Plan (to complete project with its own funding with continued Bank supervision for two more years)

8

Bangladesh: Jute Sector Adjustment Credit

13 Nov. 1996

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Progress Report

Project revised

7

Argentina / Paraguay: Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project

30 Sept. 1996

Yes

Investigation

No

Eligibility Report and Progress Report

The Board approved two Action Plans agreed to between the Borrowers and the Bank Management (Feb. 1997)

6

Bangladesh: Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project

23 Aug. 1996

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Project revised to respond to claim

5

Chile: Financing of Hydroelectric Dams in the Bio Bio River

17 Nov. 1995

No (project financed by IFC–outside of Panel’s mandate)

4

Brazil: Rondonia Natural Resources Management Project

16 June 1995

Yes

Investigation

No

Eligibility Report, Additional Review Report, and Progress Report

Partial concession to affected people; limited Panel role in monitoring implementation

3

Tanzania: Power VI Project

16 May 1995

Yes

No investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report

Ineligibility (II)

Ineligibility (II). Bank’s President appointed external consultant to review the project


530

2

Ethiopia: Compensation for Expropriation and Extension of IDA Credits to Ethiopia

2 May 1995

No

1

Nepal: Arun III Hydroelectric Project

24 Oct. 1994

Yes

Ineligibility (II)

Investigation

Yes

Eligibility Report and Investigation Report

On the basis of a study commissioned to independent experts, the Bank’s President decides to withdraw financing for the Project (Aug. 1995)

Source: World Bank Inspection Panel website, h p://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/Pages/Panel_Cases.aspx (accessed June 6, 2014).


24

The Inspection Panel of the World Bank An Effective Extrajudicial Complaint Mechanism? KARIN LUKAS The World Bank’s Inspection Panel was established by a resolution of the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors in 19991 in response to external demands for greater transparency and accountability, as well as Bank Management’s efforts to improve the efficiency of World Bank projects.2 The Inspection Panel’s mandate is to carry out independent investigations of Bank-financed projects3 to verify that the projects comply with the Bank’s policies and procedures. These investigations are triggered by requests of claimants that demonstrate that the claimants have been, or are likely to be, harmed as a result of noncompliance. The Inspection Panel (hereafter “the Panel”) is an investigatory body without decision-making powers. Thus, its “decisions” are not binding for the parties involved and must be seen as recommendations. For a complaint to be eligible for an investigation, it must demonstrate that the claimant’s rights or interests have been or are likely to be directly affected by an action or omission of the Bank resulting from a failure to follow its policies and procedures, that the failure has or is likely to have material adverse effects on the claimant, and that no more than 95 percent of the project’s funding has been disbursed. Other than persons affected by Bank operations, only an Executive Director or the Board may file a complaint. To investigate the ma er, the Panel may visit the project site, conduct public hearings, and hire independent experts. However, an on-site visit requires the consent of the government concerned, which, in some cases, has been an obstacle.4 The Panel investigates the case based on relevant policies and procedures,5 and presents its findings in a 1

Intl. Bank Reconstruction & Dev. & Intl. Dev. Assn., The World Bank Inspection Panel (IBRD Res. No. 93-10; IDA Res. 93-6, adopted by the World Bank Board Exec. Directors, Sept. 22, 1993) [hereinafter Inspection Panel Resolution].

2

Ibrahim Shihata, The World Bank Inspection Panel 5 (World Bank 1994); Inspection Panel Resolution, supra note 1.

3

These are projects supported by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBDR), the International Development Association (IDA), or the Global Environment Facility.

4

See, for example, the NTPC Power Generation Project, Singrauli, where the Indian government refused consent, and the Panel was restricted to a desk study (Inspection Panel Report and Recommendation, July 24, 1997).

5

These include the following (which are relevant from a human rights perspective): operational policy (OP) & bank procedure (BP) on development cooperation and conflict; operational directive (OD) on indigenous peoples; OD 4.15, on poverty reduction; OD 4.30, on involuntary rese lement; OP 4.20 & BP 4.20, on gender and development. For a complete list, see h p:// web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/PROJECTS/EXTPOLICIES/EXTOPMANUAL/0,, menuPK:64701637~pagePK:51628525~piPK:64857279~theSitePK:502184,00.html.

531


532

The World Bank Legal Review

report presented to the Board, the president, and Management. The report includes the Panel’s conclusion as to whether the Bank was in compliance with its policies and procedures. The Board makes the final decision on any action to be taken. When the Panel was established, it was a unique complaint mechanism among international organizations; since its creation, other development banks have installed similar mechanisms.6 The Panel complaint procedure is a three-phase process. It is set into motion by a decision of the Panel on the admissibility of the request (the admissibility phase). Next, Bank Management responds, for example, by proposing an action plan (the Management phase). Last, the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors either approves or rejects the request (the Board phase). Approval authorizes the Panel to conduct an investigation. Each of these phases is discussed in the following section.

The Complaint Process Requests made to the Panel are accepted only when they are filed by “two or more persons who share some common interests or concerns.”7 Only in exceptional cases and with prior consent of the Board may an international NGO file a complaint as a representative of an individual or community. In such cases, formal proof of representation is mandatory. Requests are submi ed to the World Bank office in the country where the requester resides or to the office nearest the country of residence. If the Bank office response does not meet the concerns of the requester, a “request for inspection”8 may be submi ed to the Panel. These requests are accepted by the Panel only if an adverse effect (material or imminent) has arisen directly through an action of the Bank or an omission on the part of the Bank to follow its operational policies and procedures; examples might include environmental damage, involuntary rese lement, or impinging on the rights of indigenous peoples.9 A request can be submi ed before or after a project has been approved by the Bank.

6

See, for example, the Accountability Mechanism of the Asian Development Bank, the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Independent Review Mechanism of the African Development Bank, and the Project Complaint Mechanism of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. On the la er, see h p://www.ebrd.com/pages/project/pcm.shtml.

7

Review of the Resolution Establishing the Inspection Panel, 1996 Clarification of Certain Aspects of the Resolution (World Bank 1996), h p://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/PanelMandate Documents/ReviewResolution1966.pdf.

8

World Bank Inspection Panel, Suggested Format for a Request for Inspection (brochure), h p://site resources.worldbank.org/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/BrochureEnglishwhole.pdf.

9

World Bank, Processing a Request (Inspection Panel page at the World Bank’s website), h p:// web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/0,,contentMDK:20173 251~menuPK:64129467~pagePK:64129751~piPK:64128378~theSitePK:380794,00.html (March 8, 2013).


The Inspection Panel of the World Bank

533

There are three possible outcomes of a request for inspection. First, before submi ing a request, affected persons must approach the Bank’s Management to see if the parties can resolve their concerns directly. When a resolution is not reached, the Panel registers the request and encourages dialogue between the requester and Bank Management. Second, Bank Management responds to “some of the Requester’s concerns” with proposed action.10 In such cases, the Panel postpones its recommendations to give Management and the requester more time to resolve their differences.11 If a dialogue is established, the Panel may act as a mediator and facilitate a resolution. Third, a full investigation by the Panel is granted to the requesters. During an investigation, Bank Management can develop “action plans” to address any findings of noncompliance by the Panel.12 As soon as the Panel determines the eligibility of a request, Bank Management responds to the Panel’s initial assessment. At this stage, the Panel may decide whether to collect additional facts with a field visit. By doing so, the Panel may recommend that the Board open the investigation process. The Board is the only body that can authorize this phase. When donor-country directors support a recommendation but the borrower country opposes it, decisions about authorization are postponed or denied.13 If the Board does not approve an investigation phase, it may authorize the Panel to undertake a review of the existing problems.14 By doing so, the Panel can decide to collect additional facts with a field visit, which usually includes meetings with affected persons and their organization(s). When no investigation is approved, only an eligibility report (or a final eligibility report, in cases where field visits were conducted) is issued.15 In the event of an investigation, the Panel reviews relevant documents, conducts interviews with Bank staff, and visits the borrowing country (which includes having meetings with the requester and other relevant stakeholders). Once the investigation has been completed, the Panel sends an investigation report to the Board and to Bank Management. Management then has six weeks to submit to the Board its own report and recommendations in response to the Panel’s findings. The Board makes the final decision on whether to approve Management’s and/or the Panel’s recommendations. Management 10

World Bank, Message from the Panel, in The Inspection Panel Annual Report July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 xiv (World Bank 2010).

11

See World Bank, supra note 9.

12

Id., at xiv.

13

That was the case in the Yacyreta Hydroelectric Project in Argentina and Paraguay in 1996. See Kay Treakle & Elías Díaz Peña, Accountability at the World Bank: What Does It Take? Lessons from the Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project, Argentina/Paraguay, in Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel 75 (Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, & Kay Treakle eds., Rowman & Li lefield 2003).

14

Id., at 76.

15

The eligibility report consists of the registration of the request, its eligibility and a case description, and Panel recommendations and annexes.


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recommendations are intended to bring the project into compliance with the Bank’s policies and procedures. At this stage, the Board may ask the Panel whether the consultations between Management and the requester, as well as other affected persons, were conducted appropriately prior to approving Management’s recommendations for remedial measures.16 It should be noted here that once a request has been filed, the requester largely loses any option to participate in further dialogue. Nor can the requester comment on Management’s response or have access to information before decisions are made about the claim.17 The Panel procedure does not include an appeals mechanism or a followup mechanism.18 The reports do not contain information on monitoring or on follow-up activities concerning the Panel’s recommendations. There have been instances where the Board has endorsed Management’s suggestion to monitor a project to ensure that outstanding issues relating to rese lement are substantially resolved and to report to the Board on these issues at regular intervals;19 however, the Panel does not participate in this monitoring phase.20 Hence, in the author’s view, the likelihood that remedial actions or action plans may fall short of successful and effective implementation is increased. Moreover, the Panel does not have the power to impose any sanctions to enforce Bank policies. It is the Board’s role to consider the findings and to decide what actions should be taken to enforce Bank policies.

Reforming the Bank’s Safeguard Policies In response to the changing global context, the Bank has undertaken a review of its environmental and social safeguard policies. The Bank’s review is part of an operational policy reform process that will affect the future design of development projects. Following the October 2012 release of an “approach paper”21 for the safeguard policies review process, the Bank began a three-

16

See World Bank, supra note 9.

17

See Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, & Kay Treakle, Lessons Learned, in Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel 267 (Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, & Kay Treakle eds., Rowman & Li lefield 2003).

18

On very rare occasions, the Board has invited the Panel to review Management’s action plan, usually instead of endorsing a full investigation, but this can certainly not be seen as a regular follow-up procedure. See, for example, the case of Argentina/Paraguay, Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project, INSP/R96-2).

19

This was, for example, the case in the Coal Sector Mitigation Project and Coal Sector Rehabilitation Project, India, in 2001. See Elvira Nurmukhametova, Problems in Connection with the Efficiency of the World Bank Inspection Panel vol. 10, 405 (Max Planck Y.B. U.N. L. 2006).

20

For a list of Management follow-up measures after Panel investigations as of April 2011, see Status of Follow-up Progress Reports by Management to Panel Investigations (Apr. 2011) at the Bank’s website, h p://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/Post _Investigation_IPN_Cases_April_2011.pdf.

21

H p://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTSAFEPOL/Resources/584434-1306431390058/Safe guardsReviewApproachPaper.pdf.


The Inspection Panel of the World Bank

535

stage consultation process that will run at least through early 2015.22 Civil society organizations (CSOs) from various countries and regions will participate in the review.23 In 2010, the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) undertook an evaluation of the Bank’s safeguard policies.24 According to this evaluation, the safeguard policies have been effective in avoiding or mitigating adverse impacts, particularly in high-risk projects. The IEG also found that the quality of the safeguards during design and appraisal improved during the review period (1999–2008). However, the IEG also identified a need to adapt the safeguard policies to reflect the changing context in which the Bank operates, including a rapidly changing business environment, new lending modalities and financing instruments, and evolving best practices and borrower needs. Also recommended was a stronger focus on using the safeguard polices to support environmentally and socially sustainable development and to assess a wider range of potential social risks and impacts. Some stakeholders have requested that the Bank consider in the review process a number of areas that are not addressed under the current set of safeguard policies. These include human rights; occupational health and safety; gender; disability; the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples; land tenure; natural resources; and climate change. The examination of these areas, and if and how they can best be addressed by the Bank, will be part of the review process. The Bank will undertake an internal dialogue on these issues, followed by consultations with shareholders and external experts. The core policies under review are the eight environmental and social safeguard policies: Operational Policy (OP) 4.01, Environmental Assessment; OP 4.04, Natural Habitats; OP 4.09, Pest Management; OP 4.10, Indigenous Peoples; OP 4.11, Physical Cultural Resources; OP 4.12, Involuntary Rese lement; OP 4.36, Forests; and OP 4.37, Safety of Dams. Also under review is OP 4.00, the Policy on Piloting the Use of Borrower Systems for Environmental and Social Safeguards (“Use of Country Systems”), which is more processand less content-oriented. CSOs demand that the safeguard policies must continue to be based on mandatory, enforceable, time-bound requirements and that the Bank must maintain its responsibility to ensure that the borrower complies with these policies. The same CSOs criticize the approach of the International Finance 22

For more information on the review process, see World Bank, The World Bank Safeguard Policies: Proposed Review and Update 14 (approach paper, World Bank 2012), h p://consultations .worldbank.org/Data/hub/files/consultation-template/review-and-update-world-bank-safe guard-policies/en/phases/safeguardsreviewapproachpaper.pdf.

23

Bank Info. Ctr., World Bank Safeguards Review, h p://www.bicusa.org/issues/safeguards/.

24

World Bank, Safeguards and Sustainability in a Changing World: An Independent Evaluation of World Bank Group Experience (IEG Study Series, World Bank 2010), h p://go.worldbank.org /ZA4YFV9OL0.


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Corporation, which relies on self-reporting by borrowers, and the Bank’s recent Investment Lending Reform, which relegated many requirements to nonbinding guidance.25 This safeguard policies reform process is likely to have a decisive impact on social and environmental considerations in future Bank projects.26 Its outcome is still unclear, but the Bank is aware of the risk that a change of the current system might be viewed by CSOs as a dilution of the existing standards. The review process envisaged by the Bank therefore includes broad external stakeholder consultations. A first draft of the revised safeguard framework is under way and planned for submission to the Executive Board’s Commi ee on Development Effectiveness.27

The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Complaint Mechanism: A Review of Relevant Cases This section analyzes Inspection Panel cases that include both the eligibility and the investigation phase, and touch on issues with human rights relevance. These issues are involuntary rese lement, consultations with project-affected persons, rights of indigenous people, compensation, and poverty reduction. In total, 26 cases28 were analyzed. The section does not discuss each case in detail, but the chapter’s concluding remarks are based on the case analyses,29 outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the Panel process. 25

See, for example, Forest Peoples, Forwards or Backwards? The World Bank’s Safeguard Review and Update (Apr. 29, 2013), h p://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/safeguard-accountablility -issues/news/2013/04/forwards-or-backwards-world-bank-s-safeguard--0.

26

See also Jochen von Bernstorff & Philipp Dann, Reforming the World Bank’s Safeguards: A Comparative Legal Analysis (report, German Fed. Ministry Econ. Cooperation Dev., 2013), h p:// www.jura.uni-tuebingen.de/professoren_und_dozenten/vonbernstorff/projekte /World Banks Safeguardsacomparativelegalanalysis.pdf.

27

See h p://www.bicusa.org/world-bank-spring-meeting-safeguards-se ing-standards-for -sustainable-development/.

28

These are Nepal, Arun III: India, NTPC Power Project; China, Western Poverty Reduction Project; Kenya, Lake Victoria Environmental Project; Ecuador, Mining Development and Environmental Control Technical Assistance Project; Chad, Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project; India, Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project; Uganda, Third Power Project, Paraguay/Argentina, Reform Project for the Water and Telecommunication Sectors (Yacyretá 2002); Cameroon, Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project; Colombia, Cartagena Water Supply Project; India, Mumbai Urban Transport Project; Cambodia, Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project; Democratic Republic of Congo, Transitional Support for Economic Recovery Grant Project; Honduras, Land Administration Project; Nigeria, West African Gas Pipeline Project; Uganda, Private Power Generation Project; Albania, Power Sector Generation and Restructuring Project; Albania, Integrated Coastal Zone Project; Ghana, Second Urban Environment Sanitation Project (UESP II); Argentina, Santa Fe Infrastructure Project; Panama, Land Administration Project; Cambodia, Management and Administration Project; Papua New Guinea, Smallholder Agriculture Development Project; South Africa, Eskom Investment Support Project.

29

The detailed case analysis is part of a broader research project of the Ludwig Bol mann Institute of Human Rights on extrajudicial complaint mechanisms, which will be completed in 2015. A pilot study was conducted in 2013. See Barbara Linder, Karin Lukas, & Astrid


The Inspection Panel of the World Bank

537

Transparency of the Process and Enhanced Accountability A major strength of the Inspection Panel procedure is its transparency. All Panel reports concerning eligibility and investigation (including recommendations) are publicly disclosed and accessible on the Panel’s website. Similarly, all Bank Management’s responses to the requests are publicly available. Rejected cases are also made public. This feature is indispensable in the “tracking” of requests received by the Panel, the number of cases accepted and rejected, and, to a lesser extent, the impacts made by the investigations. The cases reviewed, particularly those regarding the concerns of indigenous groups and rese lement issues, show that the Panel process provided the opportunity to raise issues that seemed difficult to solve in the local or national (legal) context.30 The complaint mechanism was at times used to draw a ention to human rights–related issues that may have been ignored in the past by the respective authorities. According to the Panel itself, its work indirectly triggered the establishment of the Bank’s Quality Assurance Group, which led to increased accountability and improved Bank performance.31 However, the mechanism also faces a number of impediments. Many projects reviewed suffered from insufficient assessment of the project situation and lack of integration of sociocultural aspects prior to and during project implementation by Bank Management.32 The difficulties in planning and implementing projects in former areas of conflict and/or developing countries require comprehensive baseline studies prior to project planning. Most negative effects linked to the Bank’s projects were rooted in insufficient knowledge about indigenous cultures;33 existing conflicts with the national authorities, especially in connection with land rights;34 or informal structures in the borrowing country.35 Steinkellner, The Right to Remedy (Ludwig Bol mann Inst. Hum. Rights 2013). 30

See, for example, the West African Gas Pipeline Project in Nigeria, the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, and the Land Administration Project in Honduras.

31

World Bank, Accountability at the World Bank: The Inspection Panel 10 Years On 79 (World Bank 2003).

32

See, for example, Inspection Panel Investigation Report (IPIR) Nepal Arun III (1995), 29; IPIR Ecuador Mining Project (2001), 13; IPIR Colombia Water Project (2005), 18; IPIR Private Power Generation (Bujagali) Project, Uganda (2001), 76; IPIR Paraguay/Argentina Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project (2004), xxv; IPIR Mumbai Urban Transport Project, India (2005), xi, xiii; Argentina Santa Fe Road Infrastructure Project (2009), xii.

33

IPIR Private Power Generation (Bujagali) Project, Uganda (2002), lii; IPIR Emergency Economic and Social Reunification Support Project & Transnational Support for Economic Recovery Grant Operation Democratic Republic of Congo [hereinafter DRC Reunification Project] (2007), iii, ix.

34

Inspection Panel Eligibility Report (IPER) Nepal Arun III (1994), 12; IPIR China Western Poverty Reduction Project (1999), xvii, para. 23; IPIR Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project, India (2002), xii; IPIR Land Management and Administration Project, Cambodia (2010), xviii; IPIR Panama Land Administration Project (2010), xxi.

35

IPIR Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Clean-up Project, Albania (2007), xii.


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Communication and access to information is another critical issue. Illiteracy as well as geographical distance to information and cultural centers are factors to be taken into account when devising information strategies. These factors were sometimes either not given due regard or neglected, which led to misunderstandings and flawed decisions.36 The cultural aspects of communication are a critical element for successful World Bank project planning and implementation.37 Recurrent issues of controversy included land rights and compensation for rese lement, inadequate consultation, and indigenous rights. Land rights and rese lement were quantitatively the most contested issues.38 Here, several factors culminate: the project logic that requires that areas be “cleared” of people to install required infrastructure, the communities’ dependence on land as a critical income source, and the difficulties of rese lement as such. This problem area is further exacerbated by inadequate information and communication with project-affected persons.39 Context-specific and culturally sensitive approaches in such complex se ings are critical to comply with Bank policies and procedures on consultation with affected groups. More a ention seems to be paid to the assessment of the projects’ ecological and environmental impacts than to their social impacts where more technical than contextualized approaches can be applied.40

The Significance of Human Rights for the Bank Another fundamental issue influencing the Panel’s mandate and activities is the Bank’s position on human rights in general. According to the Bank’s Articles of Agreement, “only economic considerations shall be relevant to [the Bank’s] decisions.”41 Two legal opinions by the Bank’s general counsel at the time explain that the prohibition of political activities of the Bank has to be interpreted as noninterference into a state’s affairs regarding “political rights,” as long as this has no demonstrable effect on the country’s economy.42 In recent years, however, there has been growing recognition by the Bank of the need to address human rights in a more explicit way. A legal opinion by the former Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, Roberto Dañino, indicates that human rights may constitute legitimate considerations for the Bank 36

IPER Ecuador Mining Development Project (2000), 9, 18; IPIR Colombia Cartagena Water Supply, Sewerage and Environmental Management Project (2004), 20.

37

See, in particular, IPIR Smallholder Agriculture Development Project, Independent State of Papua New Guinea (2011), xvi.

38

Of the 25 cases identified as relating to human rights issues, 19 dealt with land issues and/or rese lement.

39

India Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project; Cambodia Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project; Chad Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project.

40

See, for example, the IPIR Smallholder Agriculture Development Project, Independent State of Papua New Guinea (2011), xvi.

41

IBRD, Articles of Agreement, art. IV (Operations), sec. 10; IDA, Articles of Agreement, Article V (Operations), sec. 6.

42

See World Bank, supra note 31, at 96.


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where they have economic ramifications or impacts, and confirms the facilitative role the Bank may play in supporting its member-states to fulfill their human rights obligations.43 This legal opinion represents a considerable step farther; however, the Bank has not yet instituted a comprehensive approach to human rights at the policy and operational levels.44 While there are a growing number of human rights– related safeguard policies, several gaps in human rights coverage remain. The Panel dealt with human rights for the first time in the Chad Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project,45 where a requester alleged that he had been tortured because of his opposition to the project. The Panel took the approach of finding “human rights implicitly embedded in various policies of the Bank,” and thus within the “Panel’s jurisdiction.”46 Bank Management “by and large” agreed with this approach.47 In this case, the Panel concluded that the Bank should be “more forthcoming about articulating its role in promoting rights within the countries in which it operates . . . [and] perhaps this case should lead . . . to study [of] the wider ramifications of human rights violations as these relate to the overall success or failure of policy compliance in future Bank-financed projects.”48 Since then, steps in this direction have been made, and it remains to be seen whether the Bank safeguard policies review will further develop the current position.

The Bank’s Policies and Procedures Another decisive issue is the application of Bank policies and procedures by Bank Management and whether there is a certain margin of appreciation in their application. In some cases—such as the India Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project, the Cambodia Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project, and the Chad Petroleum Development Project— Bank Management applied policies inaccurately or gave no information or misinformation. According to Elvira Nurmukhametova, one reason could lie in the Bank’s view that the policies and procedures are more or less flexible rules that allow for a certain margin of appreciation.49 The Panel, in contrast, is of the opinion that these norms, particularly environmental standards, require 43

Roberto Dañino, Legal Opinion on Human Rights and the Work of the World Bank, Jan. 27, 2006. This document is not publicly available but is referred to in several documents; see, for example, World Bank, FAQ Human Rights, h p://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTSITE TOOLS/0,,contentMDK:20749693~pagePK:98400~piPK:98424~theSitePK:95474,00.html.

44

Adam McBeth, A Right by Any Other Name: The Evasive Engagement of International Financial Institutions with Human Rights 40 (5) Geo. Wash. Intl. L. Rev. 1101, 1103 (2009).

45

Inspection Panel, Chad: Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project (2001), Mar. 22, 2001.

46

Edward Ayensu, Remarks of the Chairman of the Inspection Panel to the Board of Executive Directors on the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Projects (World Bank website, The Inspection Panel, Sept. 2002); World Bank, supra note 31, at 97.

47

World Bank, supra note 31, at 97.

48

Id., at 98.

49

Nurmukhametova, supra note 19, at 419.


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uniform application and are not subject to discretion. They are binding documents and should be treated as such.50 According to Benedict Kingsbury, the operational directives have been understood to be obligatory to Bank staff within the Management structure but have been applied and enforced “flexibly” with the objective of “ameliorating project failures and learning for the future.”51 To get a more precise view of binding Bank norms and mere guidelines, the Bank has engaged in the process of developing operating policies and bank procedures (both mandatory) and good practices. The Panel has taken the approach that Bank policies are mandatory for Bank staff and hence give the margin of appreciation only when explicitly indicated.52 Still, the exact nature and application of Bank policies are ambiguous and cause tension between the Panel and Bank Management. A former chairman of the Inspection Panel has also pointed out that the nonbinding guidelines are not subject to review by the Panel, a situation that has been seen as problematic when Bank Management and Panel interpretations of the guidelines differ in substance.53 The analysis of the cases reviewed shows some antagonism between the Panel’s findings and Bank Management’s position on whether a violation of Bank policies has occurred, particularly in the earlier years of cooperation.54 The author observes that these conflicting views sometimes continued to exist even after the investigation had ended. An example of this can be found in the Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project case, when the Bank apparently misinterpreted the Panel’s findings.55 In a le er to a Paraguayan newspaper, the Bank’s Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean stated: “The Bank is satisfied with the conclusions of the [Inspection Panel’s] report which confirm[s] that the Bank policies on rese lement, the environment, community participation and all other areas were fully met and implemented in the Yacyretá case.”56 This consequently led to an NGO campaign with the involvement of several interna50

A. G. Gualtieri, The Environmental Accountability of the World Bank to Non-state Actors 72 (1) British Y.B. Intl. L. 213, 245 (2001).

51

Benedict Kingsbury, Operational Policies of International Institutions as Part of the Law-Making Process: The World Bank and Indigenous Peoples, ch. 14 in The Reality of International Law (Guy S. Goodwin-Gill & Stefan Talmon eds., Clarendon 2001), cited in Stefanie Ricarda Roos, The World Bank Inspection Panel in Its Seventh Year: An Analysis of Its Process, Mandate, and Desirability, with Special Reference to the China (Tibet) Case vol. 5, 503 (Max Planck Y.B. U.N. L. 2001).

52

For details on the Panel’s approach, see Roos, supra note 51, at 506.

53

Interview with Werner Kiene, former chair of the Inspection Panel (Apr. 25, 2012).

54

The tendency was for Management to deny that there had been a violation of policies. Sometimes Management would even challenge the eligibility of a case to prevent the Panel from examining it. For example, in Argentina’s Garden Program, Management doubted the eligibility of the case, maintaining that no supervisory errors had been made and that the participants lacked standing to make a complaint. See Victor Abramovich, Social Protection Conditionality in World Bank Structural Adjustment Loans: The Case of Argentina’s Garden Program (Pro-Huerta), in Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel 204 (Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, & Kay Treakle eds., Rowman & Li lefield 2003).

55

Id.

56

World Bank, supra note 31, at 67.


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tional newspapers. Finally, the Bank’s president, James Wolfensohn, formally apologized and made press statements expressing the “erroneous description of the findings” released.57

Procedural Issues By the establishment of a two-step procedure in response to requests regarding eligibility criteria, Panel intervention is delayed in cases where serious social and environmental harm takes place. Consequently, there is no possibility for taking procedural measures in cases of imminent danger, a possibility that courts and some human rights mechanisms provide for.58 The requirement to request the opinion of the responsible Management office can be seen as a barrier for requesters seeking a prompt solution or a timely action from the Panel. This limitation was addressed in the review of the resolution in 1996, after the creation of the Panel. In that review, the Panel clearly stated that the resolution limited the first phase of the inspection process, which ascertains the eligibility of the request, and proposed instead a “preliminary assessment” that could lead to a quick resolution without the need to ask for approval of a full investigation. This would have narrowed the time frame for the acceptance of a request for inspection by the Panel, and it would have reduced the number of days needed for approval or rejection of an investigation process based on the Board’s decision. The Board, however, rejected this proposal in its clarification of 1999. As mentioned earlier, the Panel process foresees that the Panel can formulate two reports, one on eligibility and the other on the investigation. The eligibility report is by its nature less substantial than the investigation report; it contains the reasons why the case was filed, why it was accepted, and the recommendations of the Panel on how to proceed. The investigation report analyzes the compliance or noncompliance of the Bank and the linkages to the borrowers involved. Consequently, it portrays the violations and the lack of success of the policies and performances of both branches (IBDR and IDA) and, to a limited extent, of the borrower in a specific project. The Board is the only body that can authorize a Panel investigation. In circumstances where the Board has not approved an investigation phase, only an eligibility or final eligibility report is issued. Thus, the strongest and most substantial tool of the Panel can be used only if authorized by the Board. This rule can be seen as a considerable weakness of the procedure.59 However, in the author’s view, it is unlikely that this situation is going to change in the near 57

Id., at 68.

58

See, for example, Rule 39 of the Rules of the European Court of Human Rights, which provides for interim measures “where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm.“

59

For example, in the Singrauli, Itaparica, and Yacyretá cases, the Board rejected the Panel’s recommendation for a full investigation. This led to a high degree of tension. See Dana Clark, Singrauli: An Unfulfilled Struggle for Justice, in Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel 179 (Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, & Kay Treakle eds., Rowman & Li lefield 2003).


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future due to political reasons. Moreover, the creation of these two reports leaves a certain time gap between the Panel’s recommendations and their implementation by Bank Management. As mentioned above, an action plan, or a more elaborate action program, of Bank Management can be implemented before the Panel has formulated its recommendations. In the author‘s view, the fact that Management can implement action plans without full recognition of the Panel’s recommendations in the eligibility phase considerably weakens the mechanism at the moment that it could have the most effective impact. Some cases reviewed show that the Panel could not propose a final investigation because Bank Management had in the meantime decided to implement an action plan (or sometimes even an action program) in response to the request. Assuming that an action plan is being implemented to se le the differences between parties, it may be considered a foreclosure on the Panel’s decision on whether to conduct an investigation. In the case of NTCP India in 1997, the Panel did not fully agree with Management’s action plan proposals because they ignored Panel recommendations and the potential efforts of compliance by the IBRD and IDA and the borrowers. This problem is also highlighted by the NGO network International Accountability Project: Bank Management will propose an “action plan” in response to the Panel claim or the Panel’s report, and the Board will then authorise the Management to implement the plan, with very li le oversight or independent on-site verification of the outcomes of the action plans. These plans have been problematic in the past, as they have generally not been developed in consultation with the claimants or the Panel, nor are the claimants or the Panel consulted during its implementation, nor is there sufficient oversight by the Board.60

The approach of Bank Management in the earlier periods of cooperation with the Panel to provide remedial action plans prior to or even at the meeting where the Board dealt with the Panel’s recommendations for investigation prevented the Panel and the Board from assessing whether these plans fully addressed the requesters’ concerns and the Panel’s analysis. This problem is evident in the case of the Argentina/Paraguay Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project (1996),61 where the Executive Directors decided not to authorize an investigation that the Panel had recommended. Right before the Board’s meeting to discuss the Panel’s recommendation, Management presented two action plans. Hence, the Executive Directors based their decision on the argument that a number of elements had to be further defined. Serious doubts remained as to whether such speedily developed plans allowed for effective consultation as required by the Bank’s policies.62 60

Friends of the Earth Intl. & Intl. Acctg. Project, Strategic Guide for Filing Complaints with International Financial Institutions 17 (Apr. 2004).

61

Argentina/Paraguay: Yacyretá Hydroelectric Project (1996), IBRD Loan 2854-AR/IBRD Loan 3520-AR, P006036.

62

Nurmukhametova, supra note 19, at 420. See also World Bank, supra note 31, at 63.


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Such an approach affects the successful conclusion of complaints; one consequence of this has been the resubmission of complaints.63 Bank Management should include Panel recommendations when drafting and implementing an action plan, to increase the coherence and effectiveness of both the Panel and Management, and to avoid receiving repeated requests for the same problems. In recent years, the resubmission of cases has somewhat subsided. Similarly, in recent cases, Panel investigation reports have usually been followed up in subsequent remedial action plans of Bank Management.64 An additional issue arises in the rare cases where the Bank withdraws from a project because the problems analyzed by the Panel could not be resolved satisfactorily. In these cases of noncompliance with Bank policies and procedures, the loan was canceled, sometimes paralleled by the granting of compensation or the creation of protected areas.65 This situation mirrors a dilemma confronted by companies aware of human rights: Would it have been be er to have stayed? The “exit solution” may leave “burnt earth” behind. As has been shown in a number of cases, the companies that took over the activities from those leaving usually were less or not at all interested in improving the human rights situation.66 One case illustrating this dilemma is the China Western Poverty Reduction Project. The objective of this project was to reduce absolute poverty in three provinces of China, particularly through the rese lement of over 50,000 poor farmers to an irrigation project area.67 A complaint was brought by the International Campaign of Tibet, alleging that Tibetan and Mongolian ethnic peoples would be harmed by the project.68 The Panel found, among other things, breaches of Bank policies on rese lement and indigenous peoples. Eventually, China withdrew its request for financing from the Bank and decided to implement the project on its own.69 In case an exit of the Bank is unavoidable, a constructive outcome could be reached if the cancellation of the loan were linked with remedial measures 63

Clark, Fox, & Treakle speak about “one of the most significant weaknesses of the Inspection Panel Process.” See Clark, Fox, & Treakle, supra note 17, at 266.

64

Linder, Lukas, & Steinkellner, supra note 29, at 122–25.

65

See, for example, the result of the panel process in the Arun III Hydroelectric Project in Nepal, October 1994. An analysis of the case is provided by Richard Bissell, The Arun III Hydroelectric Project, Nepal, in Demanding Accountability: Civil-Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel 25–44 (Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, & Kay Treakle eds., Rowman & Li lefield 2003). A survey of possible impacts of the panel process can be found in Demanding Accountability, 259.

66

See, for example, the operations of the Canadian oil company Talisman in Sudan, whose assets were taken over by ONGC Videsh Ltd., an Indian company. See Human Rights Watch, Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights 16, 49 (2003), h p://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103 /sudanprint.pdf.

67

IPIR China Western Poverty Reduction Project (2000), xii, para. 2.

68

Id., at xiii, para. 5.

69

See Bank Info. Ctr., Summary of Events Leading to the Cancellation of the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, July 20, 2000, h p://www.tew.org/development/sum.china.pov.html.


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such as compensation or the creation of protected areas, depending on the situation at hand. As already mentioned, one final, considerable shortcoming is the lack of a follow-up procedure. The Board has explicitly prohibited the Panel from overseeing Management-generated action plans.70 Therefore, it is difficult to assess the impact of the Panel’s work on the actual cases as such. It would be useful and contribute immensely to the impact of the Panel mechanism if such follow-up procedures were introduced. However, the complaint mechanism itself seems to have adequate means of communication, in that requesters appear to feel confident in using the provided channels. This implies a certain degree of trust in the complaint mechanism by the target group.

Conclusions Overall, the Inspection Panel complaint mechanism appears to work well; the reports are impartial assessments of the Bank’s work; most are followed by on-site missions, and some by follow-up reports on the progress made on the respective action plans. Despite the shortcomings analyzed in the previous sections, the Panel process is an important extrajudicial complaint mechanism. The Inspection Panel does not have the power to take measures other than publishing a report; it is up to the Board to announce remedial measures. Nevertheless, a number of claims have had positive impacts for the requesters, such as the projects Arun, Planafloro, Jamuna, Yacyretá, Itapraica, Singrauli 1, Poverty Reduction China, and Structural Adjustment Argentina.71 Requesters claimed compensation for being forcibly displaced; demanded the implementation of environmental protection and mitigation measures and the restoration of their livelihoods; and sought to receive support for social programs.72 In these cases, the project was stopped, the claimants were provided with compensation, and protected areas or new project-level policies were created. It remains to be seen how the Bank reform on safeguard policies will impact the Panel’s work. Nevertheless, this reform and the work of the Panel itself are two signs of a growing human rights awareness on the part of the World Bank that may lead to a more systematic approach to addressing human rights issues in the future.

70

Clark, Fox, & Treakle, supra note 17, at 266.

71

Id., at 257. See also Roos, supra note 51, at 514.

72

Clark, Fox, & Treakle, supra note 17, at 258.


Concluding Remarks ALBERTO NINIO Our foremost priority is the removal of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, disease and illiteracy. All social welfare programmes must be implemented efficiently. Agencies involved in the delivery of services should have a strong sense of duty and work in a transparent, corruption-free, time-bound and accountable manner. – Pratibha Patil, former president of India November 15, 2014 The 20th century witnessed remarkable scientific progress in almost every aspect of human life. As more nations became democratic, and as low-cost access to telecommunications dramatically expanded, more people in developing countries started to press for enhanced access to the results of this scientific and technological progress. Achieving full-fledged development, however, requires overcoming great challenges. Over the years, development organizations have moved from a parceled approach to development to a more integrated one. More emphasis is placed on looking at the whole forest rather than at just a single tree. Decades of focusing on well-delineated and specific issues, such as agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure, have given way to a more cross-cu ing, or transversal, approach to development that generates results that in one way or another impact every development issue or area. A more cross-cu ing approach, for example, would involve an emphasis on broad-based themes, such as governance, the environment, human rights, and corruption, that span several discrete development areas. This volume examines the key development concepts of voice, social contract, and accountability, all of which must be understood and incorporated into development efforts if a transversal approach to development is to work in practice. The need to integrate these three elements into the design and implementation of social and economic development was often unacknowledged or ignored in the past, and is sometimes forgo en even in current development projects. This volume strives to correct this neglect. It is the collective effort of many seasoned development practitioners and scholars, who together bring to the table both the latest legal, social, and economic theories and a wealth of practical experience in order to address the perennial conundrum of how to make development work for all and in a sustainable manner. This succinct concluding chapter cannot hope to spotlight every chapter in this substantial, wide-ranging, and analytically rich volume. Instead, this 545


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chapter illuminates briefly some of the key issues that have a special or unique resonance in the book. “Human Rights and Service Delivery: A Review of Current Policies, Practices, and Challenges,” by Axel Marx, Siobhán McInerney-Lankford, Jan Wouters, and David D’Hollander, seems to reflect the authors’ awareness, based on extensive research, that the appropriate application and effective implementation of human rights principles in development are highly dependent on specific country contexts. The chapter also indirectly brings to the reader’s mind the reality that it is the particular team or persons tasked with implementing human rights principles in development, and their knowledge and experience, that fundamentally shape the effectiveness of development outcomes. A country or a region’s political, social, and economic context affects success, but a suitable team must be in place to interact with such contexts and solve real-world development problems. Rajeev Malhotra offers a unique perspective in “Delivering Development and Good Governance: Making Human Rights Count.” He presents a powerful case that human rights do indeed ma er for good governance, and then offers the reader a pragmatic framework for enabling human rights to feature in development efforts, and for those efforts to be measured effectively. Malhotra’s approach to development is fairly new in the field of development, and although it holds much promise, its continuing evolution must be observed and, where possible, its results measured in order to form a clearer idea of the approach’s effectiveness. Creating and employing methods to measure and evaluate such an approach’s effectiveness will require expertise from many disciplines that intersect with development efforts. The importance of voice is perhaps the most powerful message delivered by Emilio Viano in “The Curse of Riches: Sharing Nature’s Wealth Equitably?” Viano provides a straightforward account of how indigenous peoples are often “left behind” in large infrastructure projects when their needs and voice are not taken into account. By focusing on the accountability of states, multinationals, and international financial institutions, the author makes a convincing case for “rebalancing the scale.” Progress, Viano acknowledges, means bringing the voices of the dispossessed to the negotiating table of development initiatives, efforts, and discourse, such as those emanating from the Inter-American Human Rights System, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations, and the World Bank. But, crucially, Viano also calls for greater change on the part of multilateral institutions, the private sector, and state policy makers in recognizing indigenous peoples’ voice and rights in development. This volume comes out at a time when the world is anticipating the Paris climate conference, scheduled for December 2015, at which representatives will try to reach an essential compromise on climate change and replace the Kyoto Protocol. In “Fostering Accountability in Large-Scale Environmental Projects: Lessons from CDM and REDD+ Projects,” Damilola Olawuyi examines a number of critical questions regarding some of the more challenging


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aspects of projects designed to combat climate change. His comments make an interesting and valuable contribution to explaining how legal frameworks for large-scale projects can assist in increasing accountability and transparency. Two chapters, “Conceptualizing Regulatory Frameworks to Forge Citizen Roles to Deliver Sustainable Natural Resource Management in Kenya,” by Robert Kibugi, and “The Impact of the Legal Framework of Community Forestry on the Development of Rural Areas in Cameroon,” by Emmanuel D. Kam Yogo, examine governance in a fragile area of the world, Africa. Both chapters provide practical evidence that without some sort of agreement involving the local community, the private sector, and the government, no permanent development initiative can be successfully sustained over the long term. Kenya´s water resource management laws, designed to incorporate the people’s voice in decision making, and Kenya’s and Cameroon´s forest management agreements, initiated and managed by village communities or citizens themselves, give the reader some insight into how beneficiaries’ voices can be practically incorporated into legal structures that support long-term development efforts. Although many problems remain unresolved, real progress can be seen in the practical development efforts described by these two authors—efforts that work because they recognize the voice of beneficiaries in decision-making processes and are contextually sensitive. Urban issues are well represented in this volume. Three chapters examine voice, social contract, and accountability in relation to urban issues and contexts: “Urban Law: A Key to Accountable Urban Government and Effective Urban Service Delivery,” by Ma Glasser and Stephen Berrisford; “Confronting Complexity: Using Action-Research to Build Voice, Accountability, and Justice in Nairobi’s Muruku Informal Se lements,” by Jane Weru, Waikwa Wanyoike, and Adrian Di Giovanni; and “‘Good’ Legislation as a Means of Ensuring Voice, Accountability, and the Delivery of Results in Urban Development,” by Maria Mousmouti and Gianluca Crispi. While each of these chapters focuses on a different topic, they share several common themes, namely, the importance of community engagement, the necessity of incorporating local voices in decision-making processes, the need for early planning, the value of collecting useful and reliable data, and the importance of workable dispute-resolution strategies and measures. With the proportion of urban dwellers predicted to soar from one-half to two-thirds of the world’s population by 2050, not least because of rapid migration from rural areas to densely populated cities, these chapters spotlight critical current challenges and solutions as well as likely future needs. The challenging issue of sexual and gender based-violence is masterfully dealt with in “Justice Sector Delivery of Services in the Context of Fragility and Conflict: What Is Being Done to Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence?” by Waafas Ofosu-Amaah, Rea Abada Chiongson, and Camilla Gandini, and “Sexual Violence in Conflict: Can There Be Justice?” by Justice Teresa Doherty. These chapters demonstrate that long-standing historical and cultural challenges, as well as deep-seated institutional obstacles, must be tack-


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led to change mind-sets that tolerate violence against women and to counter gender inequality and patriarchal structures that entrench such inequalities. This situation is especially prevalent in contexts where traditional mind-sets that endorse or support gender inequality have not evolved sufficiently to recognize women’s rights. Ofosu-Amaah, Chiongson, and Gandini trace the international legal framework that protects women against sexual and genderbased violence, discussing measures that can be used in an integrated fashion to combat such violence. Doherty offers a superb “boots on the ground” account that focuses on her observations and experiences with the international tribunals established in the Former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone. Latin America receives special a ention in this volume. Two chapters focus on ways to deliver justice more efficiently. “The Ministério Público of the State of Minas Gerais and the ADR Experience,” by Danielle de Guimarães Germano Arlé and Luciano Luz Badini Martins, and “Courts and Regulatory Governance in Latin America: Improving Delivery in Development by Managing Institutional Interplay,” by Rene Urueña, present informative accounts of two contemporary issues very much at the forefront of developments in this part of the world. Arlé and Badini identify limitations in court resources, which fuel the pressing need to engage more deeply and professionally in alternative dispute resolution systems. Urueña’s chapter touches on the more visible emergence of regulatory agencies in Latin America, made possible by special support from courts, judges, judicial proceedings, and information offered by expert witnesses in such proceedings. The potential options and solutions discussed in these chapters offer an excellent starting point from which to develop further useful ideas and methods for addressing future challenges along the long developmental road that lies ahead for Latin American countries. Several chapters deal with an ongoing and long-standing problem that impedes development efforts throughout the world: corruption. No country is completely free from corruption. “Voice and Accountability: Improving the Delivery of Anticorruption and Anti–Money Laundering Strategies in Brazil,” by Fausto Martin De Sanctis, a federal Appellate Court judge, provides a critique of recent developments in anticorruption law and policy in Brazil, the most recent reforms of which are modeled on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. Two additional chapters, “Development-Oriented Alternatives to Debarment as an Anticorruption Accountability Tool,” by Frank A. Fariello, Jr., and Giovanni Bo, and “Making Delivery a Priority: A Philosophical Perspective on Corruption and a Strategy for Remedy,” by Morigiwa Yasutomo, both provide refreshingly unique approaches to addressing anticorruption issues. Fariello and Bo examine useful (but underused or unused) alternatives through which multilateral organizations can address corruption; Morigiwa offers a philosophical framework within which the problem of anticorruption can be considered and addressed. To sum up, this volume is not simply about development. It is about how to have a be er life through development efforts. As Oscar Wilde put it, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Those com-


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549

mi ed to development cannot be satisfied merely because children are surviving and people are living longer. The commitment must be to improving people’s quality of life—the quality of services, justice, economic goods, and other benefits that ultimately enhance that quality of life. When considering the key development themes of voice, social contract, and accountability in development, it is impossible not to reflect on the practical mechanisms by which these elements are incorporated into development efforts to generate effective, long-term outcomes. There is also the challenge to examine essential aspects of institutional development, shaped by cultural, legal, and historical factors that need to be harnessed or, in some cases, reshaped to cultivate an appropriate context in which these three themes can be smoothly integrated into development efforts, enhancing the delivery of positive outcomes. By intertwining the themes of voice, social contract, and accountability across several development areas, this volume provides a powerful analysis of issues critical to the developing world. The integrated approach to development challenges, it is hoped, may serve as a valuable blueprint, outlining complex development issues and practical methods to deal with them. The words of the former president of India, Pratibha Patil, with which this chapter began, reinforce the abiding sense that in order to fully realize our goals in delivering development—in other words, to make a real, tangible, and sustainable impact on poverty—commitment to the core values discussed in this volume should be approached as a nonnegotiable requirement by development practitioners and states. Such commitment will certainly enhance the quality of the development intended to be delivered.



Index Aarhus Convention, 143 Abacha, Sani, 458, 469–471 accountability, definition, 150, 495 adequate dispute treatment (ADT), 314, 317–318 Afghanistan, 283, 287–288 Dev. of Nat. Resources (IP case 83), 502n31, 520 Elec. & Trade Project (IP case 93), 519 Africa. See also specific countries ICT, 332, 340–341 Sub-Saharan urban law, 211–212, 224–227 transparency in development loans, 459–460 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 465 African Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, 464–467 African Development Bank, 501 African Union, 466 Akayesu, Jean-Paul, 304 Al Shabab, 226 Albania, 492, 524 Alexander the Great, 300 Algeria, 133, 149 alternative dispute resolution (ADR), 313–323, 326–327, 337–343. See also adequate dispute treatment American Convention on Human Rights (1978), 116–117 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (1948), 116–117 Anaya, James, 100 Angola, 149, 162, 166–167 anticorruption strategies, 25–30, 438–455 Arab Forum on Asset Recovery (organization), 465–466 Arab Spring, 63, 465 Areva (firm), 169 Argentina, 24–25, 289, 347–369, 521, 512, 526, 528–529 Autoridad de la Cuenca MatanzaRiachuelo (ACUMAR), 350–361 Matanza-Riachuelo River basin, 347, 349– 352, 355–357 Armenia, Education Project (IP case 94), 519 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), 466–467 Asian Development Bank, 114, 466–467 Asociación pro Derechos Humanos de España (NGO), 465

Asociación pro Derechos Humanos de España v. Equatorial Guinea, 465 asset recovery, 25–30, 457–474 Asset Recovery Expert Network. See under International Centre for Asset Recovery Asset Recovery Interagency Network of Asia and the Pacific, 466, 474 Asset Recovery Interagency Network of South Africa, 474 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 467 audi altera partem (legal principle), 377 Australia, 106, 118, 121, 285 Austria, 49–50, 464 Austrian Development Agency, 49 authority of law (definition), 29, 453 B20 summits, 463 Bahamas, asset recovery, 469 Bakri, Zeinab Bashir El, 501 Ban Ki-Moon, 393–394 Bangladesh, 63, 529 bankruptcy, subnational, 227–230 Baracho, J. A. de O., 367 Basel Institute of Governance, 463 Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA; 1995), 273, 279 Belgium, asset recovery policy, 464 Ben Ali, Zine al-Abidine, 465–466 Benevides, Marliza, 411 Bhu o family, 470 Blue Diamond Society (NGO), 483–484 Bolivia, 101, 136–137 Bonucci, Nicclola, 375 Botswana, 13–14, 333 Constitution, 13–14, 151–155, 161, 163, 166–169 Boutet, Pierre, 306 Brazil, 227, 314, 391, 399, 400 Administrative Council for Economic Defense, 313, 401 Anticorruption Law (2013), 25–27, 377–388, 378, 379–381, 395, 401–402, 550 A orney General, 366, 396 Bank Operations Investigation System, 398 Bidding and Public Procurement Law, 376–377 Bolsa Familia, 227 Brazilian Intelligence Agency, 396 Clean Record Complimentary Law (2010), 403

551


552

Index

Brazil (cont.) Clean Record Law, 369, 392 Code of Criminal Procedures, 397, 403, 413 Code of Penal Procedures, 367–370, 377 Comptroller General, 26, 365, 372–374, 380–385, 388, 396, 399, 401, 404 Conduct Adjustment Commitment, 385n49 Constituent Assembly, 383 Constitution (1988), 314–316, 318, 321, 365, 375, 403 Constitutional Amendment Bill (2011), 392 Corporate Pact for Integrity against Corruption, 387 Council for Financial Activities Control, 396 Council for Financial Intelligence Unit, 27, 406 Council of Federal Justice, 405 custos legis, 315, 322 Economic Law, 378 Federal Court of Accountability, 396 Federal District (Brasília), 367 Federal Justice Council, Studies Commi ee, 396 Federal Reserve, 396, 398 Federation of Banks, 396 Federation of Industries of São Paulo State, 372 Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, 409–410 Gérson’s Law, 394 Information Access Act (2011), 370, 382, 404 Internal Revenue Service, 399 Itaparica Rese lement & Irrig. Project (IP case 9), 529 Labor Party, 373n23 Laboratory for Technology against Money Laundering, 399 Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation Project (IP cases 14, 18), 528 Law of Ineligibilities, 369 Law on Administrative Probity (1992), 368–369, 377, 403 Manual for Law of Access to Information in States and Municipalities, 382 Mensalão case (no. 470), 373, 412 Ministério Público, 21–23, 313–323, 365, 380, 383–386, 388 (See also Brazil: public prosecutors) Ministério Público of the State of Minas Gerais, 21–23, 313–323, 550 Ministry of Justice, 314, 339–340, 381, 393, 399, 408, 410 Money Laundering Act (1998), 369–370, 398, 404

National Congress, 365, 372–374, 398 National Council of Justice, 314, 323, 398–400, 410 National Council of the Federal Prosecutor, 381 National Environmental Policy, 321 National Financial System, 377 National Group for Combating Criminal Organizations, 399 National Program for Capacitating to Combat Corruption and Money Laundering, 398 National Registry of Punished Companies, 378, 402 National Strategy for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering, 26–27, 374n25, 395– 400, 410–413 National System for Seized Goods, 399 Paraná Biodiversity Project (IP case 41), 524 Post Office bribing scandal, 373n23 Public Civil Action Law, 319 Public Ethics Commission, 381 Public Procurement Act (1993), 369, 377–378 public prosecutors, 315–317, 322, 383–385, 397–398 (See also Brazil: Ministério Público) Registry of Financial System Clients, 397–398 Registry of Nonreputable and Suspect Entities, 399 Rondonia Nat. Resources Mgt. Project (IP case 4), 511, 529 Secretariat for the Prevention of Corruption and Strategic Information, 381 Securities Commission, 396 State Judiciary Police, 381 Superintendence for Private Insurance, 396–397 Superintendence for Private Pensions, 396 System for Supplying Information to the Judicial Branch, 399 Tax Evasion Law (1965), 368 Technical Guidance for Municipalities’ Regulation of the Information Access Act, 382 terms for corruption, 391n2 Transparency Complimentary Act (2000), 403 transparency web portal, 383, 386, 404 “way of being” (jeitinho brasileiro), 394 WICCLA encyclopedia, 400 Workers’ Party, 373n23


Index Brazil Transparency (NGO), 395 Brazilian Spring, 315 buen vivir paradigm, 12, 92, 101–102 Bujagali Energy Ltd., 488 Burkina Faso, ICT, 333 Burundi, 333, 471, 525 C20 summits, 463 Calmon, Eliana, 394 Cambodia, 490–491, 523, 525, 539 Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia Prosecutor v. Nuon Chia et al., 307 Camden Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network, 466, 473–474 Cameroon, 196, 333, 524, 526 community forestry, 14–15, 195–207, 549 Forestry Law, 195–207 Ministry of Forestry, 196–199, 201–205 Canada, 117–118, 121 Quebec, 327 Consumer Protection Office, 334 Educaloi (nonprofit organization), 334 Ministry of Justice, 334 UNDRIP, 118 Cancun Agreements. See under Kyoto Protocol Cardozo, José Eduardo, 393 Castro de la Mata, Gonzalo, 501 Center for Legal and Court Technology Court 21 project, 327 Chad, 333, 527, 539 children, status of during war, 301, 305 Chile, 522, 529 Chiluba, Frederick, 469 China, 129, 212, 503 Western Poverty Reduction Project (IP case 16), 503, 509, 516, 521, 522, 528, 543 Chipalo, Geraldine, 222 Cities Alliance (organization), 224 civil society empowerment of, 370, 382, 385 organizations (CSOs), 65, 120, 338, 372, 465–467, 484–485, 515, 535–536 role of in asset recovery, 458, 461–467, 472–473 Clark, Leif, 230 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). See under Kyoto Protocol climate change and development projects, 549 codification of laws, 221–223, 265–266 Colombia, 24–25, 262, 275, 347–361, 418, 523, 525 Bogotá, 347, 353–360, 359 Constitutional Court, 347, 350, 353–354, 357–360

553

comfort women. See sexual and genderbased violence in conflict: forced prostitution Comitê Anticorrupçâo e Compliance do Instituto Brasileiro, 372 community forestry, 196, 199–207 Community of Practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution, 326, 339–343 computerization of judicial processes, 327, 340 Congo. See Republic of Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of, 309. See Democratic Republic of Congo constitutional democracy, 445–446, 453–455 rights, horizontal application of, 74, 150, 165, 170, 214–215, 244–248 constitutions, 149–170 consultation of citizens by legislators, 262 consumer dispute resolution, 326, 334–335 Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women. See United Nations: CEDAW corporate liability for corruption, 375–376 social responsibility, 108–110, 119–123 Corpus Juris Civilis, 438 corruption. See also entries beginning with anticorruption definition, 437 as a destroyer of equality, 438, 440, 446, 454–455 drivers of, 444 philosophical framework for, 550 rationality of, 28–29, 443–447 types of, 368, 371, 376–377 Côte d’Ivoire, political corruption, 458 Council of Europe, Criminal Law Convention, 467 Courtroom 21 project. See under Center for Legal and Court Technology Crispi, Gianluca, 219 Cunningham, Mirna, 101 cyberjustice, 325–343 initiatives (See ICT initiatives) Cyberjustice Laboratory, 326–343 Community of Practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution, 339–340 Dañino, Roberto, 538 Danish International Development Agency, 46, 50 De Angelis, Michael, 230 De Soto, Hernando, 215 debarment. See under World Bank: sanctions system Declaration of Brussels (1874), 301


554

Index

Declaration of the Elimination of Violence against Women. See United Nations: DEVAW deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), 367, 378–382, 385 delivery (definition), 5 Democratic Republic of Congo, 149, 168–169, 274–275, 289, 458, 460, 525 Denmark, human rights‒based approaches, 46, 50 development assistance (official), 459–460 transversal approach to, 547 Dili Declaration (2010; g7+), 281 direito de uso e aproveitamento dos terras (DUAT; Mozambique), 261, 263 doctrine of superior responsibility, 310 Drummond de Andrade, Carlos, 313, 389 Dubash, Navroz K., 346 Due Diligence Project, 291 Duvalier, Jean-Claude, 468 East African Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources Management, 174 East Asia, development and currency crisis, 59–60 Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), 310 Ecuador, 12, 101, 527 EG Justice (organization; U.S.), 465 Egypt, Arab Republic of, 266–267, 333, 469, 520 El Salvador, 337 environmental protection, 104, 109–111, 116–117, 121–123, 129–135, 142, 145, 150, 163–166 Equatorial Guinea, 465 Ethiopia, 226–227, 502n31, 520, 530, 533 European Commission, 41, 54, 396, 464, 467 European Union, 42, 107, 396, 417–418n12, 464, 474 extractive industries, 103–105, 110, 113–125 federalism, models of, 366–367, 381, 384 Finland, asset recovery policy, 464 first nation peoples. See indigenous peoples forced marriage, pregnancy, prostitution. See under sexual and gender-based violence in conflict foreign direct investment (FDI), 107–110, 122 foreign public official (definition), 370 Former Yugoslavia, 274, 304. See also International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), 308–309 fragile and conflict situations, SGBV in, 19,

273–277, 281–282, 285, 288–291, 294–298 France, 215, 327, 466, 470 France, Anatole, 220 Francis, Pope, 115 Fujimori, Alberto, 458 G20 summits, 463 g7+. See Dili Declaration (2010) G8 summits, 463 Deauville Partnership with Arab Countries in Transition, 465 Galliez, Lionel, 215–216 Geneva Conventions, 277, 302–303, 310 Genghis Khan, 300 Germany, 303, 375 Ghana, 129, 159–165, 333, 489–490, 524, Constitution (1992), 13–14, 149–151, 155– 165, 155–170 Ghana LoĴo Operators Assn. v. Natl. LoĴeries, 164 Gini coefficient, 72 Global Consultation on the Realization of the Right to Development as a Human Right, 95 Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development. See under World Bank Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, 472 Global Leadership for Women (GLOW), 309 Global Stolen Asset Recovery Fund, 29–30, 472–473 Global Witness (NGO), 463 Goldstone, Richard, 304 governance experimental, 348, 355–356 globalization and, 60–63 “good,” 10–11, 150, 548 public interest/private interest, 28–29, 437–455 regulatory, 24–25, 345, 348, 354–356 Greece, rape as a spoil of war, 300–301 Grotius, Hugo, 301 Guatemala, 337 Guinea, 168, 333 Gunningham, Neil, 111 Hage, Jorge, 404 Hague Convention (1907), 302 Hague, The, asset recovery, 473–474 Haiti, political corruption, 457, 468–470 Hamilton, Alexander, 366 Harvard negotiation program, 320n7 Head, John, 222 Hobbes, Thomas, 445, 451 Holder, Eric, 468


Index Honduras, 134, 140, 525 Houphouët-Boigny, Félix, 458 Hull doctrine of expropriation, 153–154 human rights indicators, 67–85 human rights–based approaches (HRBAs), 39–57, 62–77 ICT initiatives, 21–24, 328–343 independent regulatory agencies (IRAs), 24–25, 345–361 India, 11, 64–66, 75–77, 287–288, 293, 346, 418, 497, 509, 515, 520–528, 539 Aadhaar (identity instrument), 76 Sakshi (NGO), 293 indigenous peoples, 11–12, 97–125, 197–198, 203, 548 Indonesia, 136, 292, 346, 427, 460 information and communication technology. See ICT initiatives Instituto de Estudos Sócio Econômicos, 372 Instituto Ethos de Empresas e Responsabilidade Social, 372 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 116–117, 357–358 Inter-American Conv. on Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, 278–279 Inter-American Convention against Corruption, 369, 371, 400, 463–464, 467 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 116–117 Inter-American Development Bank, 114, 350 Inter-American Human Rights System, 548 International Anticorruption Day, 393 International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), 309 International Bar Association, Model Mining Development Agreement, 122 International Campaign for Tibet (NGO), 503, 543 International Center for Research on Women International Men and Gender Equality Survey, 291 International Centre for Asset Recovery Asset Recovery Expert Network, 463, 474 International Chamber of Commerce tribunal, 160 International Criminal Court (ICC), 279 Prosecutor v. Lubanga, 307 Rome Statute, 279, 301 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), 20, 279, 304, 306–307 Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, 279 International Criminal Tribunal for the

555

Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), 20, 279, 304, 306–307 International Development Research Center, 347 international financial institutions (IFIs), 103–115, 123 International Labour Organization (ILO), 91, 96, 116 Convention 11–12, 91, 169 International Men and Gender Equality Survey (Promundo), 291 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 110–113, 195 Internet in access to justice programs, 327, 332–333, 343 Interpol, in asset recovery, 463, 474 IP. See World Bank: Inspection Panel Iraq, political corruption, 457 Israel, 474, 505–506, 521 Italy, 375, 466 Ivory Coast, 226, 333 Jaramillo, Efraín, 102 Jay, John, 366 Jordan, 505–506, 521 Judicial Systems Monitoring Program (NGO), 290n88 jurisdictional immunity for international organizations, 498–499 Jurisprudence on the Ground (NGO; Tanzania), 293 Kagan, Robert, 121 Kant, Immanuel, 445, 451 Kazakhstan, 516, 521–522 Kenya, 13–16, 50, 151, 157, 160–165, 173–194, 233–254, 264–265, 294, 458, 473, 520, 523, 527 Akiba Mashinani Trust (organization), 234–235, 239 Constitution (2010), 13–14, 18, 151–168, 171–175, 234–249 Katiba Institute, 235, 239 Mitu-Bell v. Kenya Airport Authority, 238n, 243, 245, 250 Muungano wa Wanavijiji (organization), 234–240, 239, 253–254 Nairobi, 177, 226, 233–255, 264–265, 549 City Water and Sewage Company, 241 informal se lements, 17–18, 549 National Alliance of Community Forest Associations v. NEMA & Kenya Forest Service, 187 National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), 187–188


556

Index

Kenya (cont.) National Policy on Water Resource Management and Development (1999), 189 Orbit Chemicals Ltd. v. AĴorney General, 245, 248 Satrose Ayuma v. Kenya Railways, 238, 243– 245, 250–251 titleholders, 233–239, 242–245, 248, 253–254 Kenya African National Union (KANU), 173 Kenya GazeĴe, 176–177, 189, 191 Khubilai Khan, 300 Kilcullen, David, 225 Kim, Jim Yong, 3, 35 Kiribati, a itudes toward SGBV, 283 Kosovo, 520 Kyoto Protocol, 129, 137–138, 548–549 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), 13, 129–147 human rights, 129–147 Kyrgyz Republic, 519 Latin America, 287. See also specific countries delivery of public services, 345–361 judiciary, 332, 335, 347, 349 regulatory governance, 24–25 Lebanon, 465, 521 legal entities, liability of in corruption offenses, 370–375 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community, 483 Lesotho, 528 Liberia, 168, 283–286, 292–293, 510, 521 Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia (NGO), 290 Criminal Court E, 286 Women in the Peacebuilding Program (NGO), 290 Libya, 149, 275, 469 Liechtenstein, Constitutional Court, 469 Locke, John, 445, 451 Lo i Ingenieria S.p.A. (firm), 427 Lula da Silva, Luiz Inácio, 373n23, 412 Luxembourg, asset recovery, 469–470 Madison, James, 366 Malawi, 333, 520 Mali, forced displacements, 275 Management and Case Follow-up System (web-based access to justice platform), 336–337 Marcos, Ferdinand, 458, 471 marginalized and vulnerable groups, 246 McAuslan, Patrick, 225–226 mediation, transformative, 320 Mello, Fernando Collor de, 391

Mérida Convention. See United Nations: Convention against Corruption Mexico, 526 Meyer, Pierre, 341 mineral resources, 149, 153–156, 162–163, 165, 168–170 mobile technology in access to justice programs, 325–326, 337, 340–341, 343 Mobutu Sese Seko, 458 money laundering, 25–26, 457. See also corruption and anticorruption strategies Mongomo (ethnic group), 465 Monterrey Consensus (2002), 461 Morgan, Bronwen, 346 Morocco, ICT, 333 Morse Commission report, 497 Mousmouti, Maria, 219, 223 Mozambique, 213, 260–263 multilateral development banks, 420, 497, 517–518 anticorruption programs, 417n10, 420 globalization of, 12 Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, 120 multinational companies, 103–119, 122–125, 169–170 Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina, 444 municipal codes, 221–223, 226–227 Namibia, 152 Napoleonic Code, 215 nationalization of international contracts and industries, 169–170 natural resources exploitation of, 103–107, 118, 124–125 governance of, 13–14, 129, 136, 171–194, 195, 197 ownership of, 104–105, 166–167 regulation of, 149–170 Ndegwa, Irene, 251 neoliberal capitalism, 105, 124 Nepal, 483–484, 506, 511, 515, 519 Netherlands, 46, 264 New Zealand, 118, 121 Niger, 169, 333 Nigeria, 134–137, 149, 162, 260, 333, 418, 487, 506, 519, 524, 528 political corruption, 458–460, 469–471, 473 Northern Ireland, civil war, 299 Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, 302–303 Nyanja Declaration on the Recovery and Repatriation of Africa’s Wealth, 465 Obama, Barack, 400 Obiang Nguema, Teodoro, 465


Index OECD anticorruption programs, 463 Convention on Combating Bribery, 365, 369, 371, 374–375, 380, 383, 400, 467 Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, 119–120 national contact point network, 119–120 negotiations with indigenous peoples, 548 Working Group on Bribery, 365, 370–371, 379 oil industry, 149, 152, 162–163, 167, 170 Olympic Games (2016; Brazil), 386, 397 Open Society Foundations, 463 open-source code software, 330–331 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. See OECD Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), 200, 331 Organization of American States (OAS), 116, 278–279, 370, 374, 400, 413, 463–467, 474 Ostrom, Elinor, 216 Oxford Manual of 1880, 301 Pacific Islands Forum, 467 Pakistan, 470–471, 473, 506, 519, 522, 525 Panama, 129, 134, 523 Papua New Guinea, 293, 299, 309, 513, 522, 526 Paraguay, 337, 512, 526, 529, 539, 542 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, 50 PARLe (online dispute resolution platform), 334–335, 337, 343 Patil, Pratibha, 551 PATRI Políticas Públicas e Relaçoes Institucionais & Comerciais, 372 payment for environmental services (PES), 321 Peace Research Center of Oslo (PRIO), 282 Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal, 160 Peru, 114, 274, 287, 458, 522 Philippines, 114, 293–294, 458, 460, 469, 471, 526 Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), 309 Pillay, Navenethem, 304 Poland, 522 political authority, in governance, 441–447 liberalism, 438–439, 443, 445, 451 machine (concept), 445 power, 438–440, 443–445, 450–451 will, in asset recovery, 472 politically exposed people (definition), 400 prisoner’s dilemma, 448–449, 453 privatization of public utilities, 345, 354

557

Programme of Work on Forest Biodiversity. See United Nations: Convention on Biological Diversity property rights, 152–157 public administration, 367–368 domain, 152–157 institutions, 439, 446–447 office, 437–439, 446, 450 participation, 132–133, 149 reason, 440–447, 452–455 trust, 438 public-private collaboration, 110–111, 123 distinction, 440–454 Rajack, Robin, 216 rape. See sexual and gender-based violence in conflict: rape Rawls, John, 445 REDD+ development projects, 13, 129–147. See also United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change regulatory space, 348–352, 357–358 Regulatory State of the South project, 346–347, 351, 359 Report Concerning the Debarment Processes of the World Bank, 416n3, 418–419, 421n27, 427 Republic of Congo, 149, 471 right of preemption and ownership, 197–199 right to development, 66, 91–97, 100, 102 rights, collective and inalienable, 315–321 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Principle 10, 171, 193 Romania, 519, 525 Rothstein, Bo, 444, 451 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 172, 445, 451 Rousseff, Dilma, 372 Roxin, Claus, 406 rule of law access to justice and, 264–265 as a governing norm, 438 human rights and, 65–66 significance of in anticorruption policy, 452–455 transparency and, 48–50 Russian Federation, 223, 474 Rwanda. 263–264, 274, 333. See also International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Sangor Osman v. Minister of State, 238n Saracen war code, 300 Sarre, Allistair, 180 Schwebel, Stephen, 160


558

Index

science of delivery, 325–329, 335–339, 343 Sengupta, Arjun, 66 sexual and gender-based violence in conflict, 19–21, 274–277, 282–291, 298–310, 549–550 forced marriage, 300, 305, 307 forced pregnancy, 306 forced prostitution, 302–306 rape, 20, 79, 84–85, 236, 273–293, 300–310 sexual slavery, 306 Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict-Africa (dataset), 282 Seychelles, ICT, 333 SGBV. See sexual and gender-based violence in conflict Shah, Anwar, 367 Shell Canada (firm), 137 Shell-Gazprom REDD+ project (Nigeria), 136–137 Sierra Leone, 299, 303, 305, 308, 310, 333, 550. See also Special Court for Sierra Leone Simoes, Joao, 213 situational rationality of corruption, 28, 444, 446 Slaughter, Anne Marie, 121–122 SMS (short message service). See text messages social accountability initiatives, 49–50, 57 Social and Econonomic Rights Action Center, 487 social contract, 6n12, 103–104, 110–111, 116, 120–124, 150–151, 163–170 Social Contract or Principles of Political Right (Rousseau), 172 social media, 63 Somalia, 226, 333 Somaliland, mobile courts, 292 South Africa, 149, 212–213, 220–228, 333, 474, 522, 528 Constitution, 149, 151, 166, 245–247, 255 Port Elizabeth Municipality v. Various Occupiers, 245–246, 252 property rights, 152, 245–247 socioeconomic rights, 248 South Africa v. Modderklip Boerdery, 247, 249 University of Cape Town (African Centre for Cities), 224 South Sudan Constitution, 13–14, 151–152, 157, 161–163, 166–168, 170 natural resources governance, 13–14, 151–152, 157, 161–163 Southeast Asia, socioeconomic transformation, 61 Soweto, Thuthuzela Care Centre, 289

Spain, 286, 465–466 Special Court for Sierra Leone, 20–21, 279, 299, 301, 303–308 Prosecutor v. Brima et al., 307–308 Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara, and Kanu, 305 Prosecutor v. Charles Taylor, 303, 305, 310 Sri Lanka, 292, 519 Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, 463, 472 Strengthening Medico-Legal Services for Sexual Violence Cases in Conflict Se ings program, 291 strict liability (definition), 375 Study Center for Justice in the Americas, 332 Sudan, 151–152, 157, 161–163, 274, 501 Sweden, human rights‒based approaches, 42, 46 Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), 42, 46 Swi erland, 465, 468–469, 471 Syria, forced displacements, 275 Tajikistan, 519, 521 Tanzania, 168, 226, 293, 333, 418, 529, 277n19 Taylor, Charles, 303, 305, 308 terra nullius (concept), 97 terroir (definition), 232 text messages (SMS) in web-based access to justice systems, 337 Thailand, social mobilization, 63 Thornburgh, Dick, 416n3, 418–419, 421n7, 427 Thornton, Dorothy, 121 Tibet, 503, 543 Timor-Leste, 288, 290 Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, 303 Totila the Goth, 300 transparency bureaucratic, 263–264, 269 in management, 200 in official development assistance, 459 in project approval, 135 Transparency International (organization), 387, 437, 462 Corruption Perceptions Index, 365, 380 Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1785), 301 Trinidad and Tobago, 216–218 Tunisia, 333, 465–466, 469 Turks, prohibition of rape in war, 300 Uganda, 136–137, 227, 266, 294, 488, 490, 506, 524, 526 UN-Habitat, 224 UNICEF, 46 Uniform Act on Commercial Companies and Economic Interest Groups (Africa), 200


Index United Kingdom, 285, 383 asset recovery, 469–470 Department for International Development, 47, 54 New Forests Company, 136–137 Participatory Rights Assessment Methodologies, 47 United Nations, 29 Agenda 21, 195, 198 Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 283n47, 287, 288 CEDAW, 273, 278 Commission on Human Rights, 143, 278 Commi ee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 98 Common Understanding, 41, 44, 51, 55–56 Conference of the States Parties (See UN: Convention against Corruption) Conference on Environment and Development, 171, 195 Convention against Corruption, 29, 369, 374, 457, 460–463, 473 Convention on Biological Diversity, Programme of Work on Forest Biodiversity, 180 Declaration on Environment and Development, 198 Declaration on the Right to Development, 11–12, 91–97, 102 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 11–12, 91, 97–101, 99–100, 117–119 DEVAW, 273, 278 Development Group, 41 Development Programme (UNDP), 48–49, 387, 489 Bureau for Development Policy, 501 Human Development Index, 380 Water Governance Facility program, 50 Economic and Social Council, 171, 461 Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), 352, 356–357 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 179–180 Forest Principles, 180–181, 195 Framework Convention on Climate Change, 137–140 General Assembly, Investing in the UN (Res. 60/260), 143 Resolution 55/61, 460–461 Resolution 56/181, 461 Global Compact, 386 Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, 120 Human Rights Council, 120 Implementation Review Mechanism,

559

461–462 Independent Expert on the Right to Development, 66 Millennium Development Goals, 45–46, 80, 82, 84, 88, 98 Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), 286 mutual legal assistance, 462, 465–467 Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 42, 45, 48, 51, 68, 98 Office on Drugs and Crime, 291, 387, 394, 457, 459, 462, 474 Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, 463 Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues, 101–102 Resolution on Accountability, 143 Security Council Resolutions on SGBV, 280–281 Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 100 Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, 277–278 Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Women, 280n31 Statement on Forest Principles, 195 Strengthening Medico-Legal Services for Sexual Violence Cases, 291 Toward Global Partnerships resolution, 110 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 41–42, 78–89 Women (organization), 285 women protection advisers (WPAs), 280 Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, 78–79 United States, 117, 167, 169, 229–230, 400, 417–418, 468 Alien Tort Statute, 117 Department of Justice, 465 Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, 468 Export-Import Bank of the United States, 501 federal model, 366 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (1977), 371– 372, 401, 421–422, 468, 550 Lieber Instructions (1863), 277, 302 Rules and Articles of War for the United States of America (1847), 301 United States Institute of Peace, 296 University of Montreal, 326 Cyberjustice Laboratory (See Cyberjustice Laboratory) Until Debt Do Us Part (Canuto & Liu), 229–230 uranium industry, 169


560

Index

urban governance, 211–232, 549 infrastructure financing, 214, 227–228, 231 land titling, 214–218 land use regulation, 219–221 law, 16–19, 211–227 populations, 257–258 sustainable development, 257–259 Urban LandMark (organization), 224 Urban Legal Guide (draft), 224 Uruguay, 337 Uzbekistan, 519 Vargas, Getúlio, 367 Vermeys, Nicolas, 331 Vienna Convention (1988), 369–370 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, 96 Visser, Jaap de, 226 voice (concept), 6n11 Volcker, Paul, 429 Walmart, 424 Wapenhans, Willi, 497 Watanabe, Eimi, 501 web-based access to justice platforms Management and Case Follow-up System, 336–337 PARLe, 334–335, 337, 343 West Africa 129, 136–137 West Bank, 505–506, 521 Wilde, Oscar, 550 Wolfensohn, James, 415, 541 women’s rights, 20–21, 273–298, 300–306, 550 World Bank, 110, 195, 211, 224 access to information, 538–539 accountability mechanisms, 30–33 anticorruption mechanisms deterrence-based, 419–422, 426, 429 Articles of Agreement, 415, 417, 483, 498, 538 asset recovery, 457–458, 470, 472, 474 Autoridad de la Cuenca MatanzaRiachuelo (ACUMAR), 361 Bank Procedures (BPs), 501–502 Board of Executive Directors, 31, 416, 486, 488, 497–530, 531–536, 541–544 1999 Clarification on approving IP requests, 511–513 Commi ee on Development Effectiveness, 536 concept of “science of delivery,” 328 culture of approval, 497, 517 delivery systems, 3, 35 development mandate, 416–417, 421–422 Doing Business Report, 263

General Conditions Applicable to Loans and Guarantee Regulations, 498 Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development, 313, 326, 337–339, 343 Handbook for Evaluating Infrastructure Regulatory Systems, 354–355, 358 Independent Evaluation Group, 281, 535 Inspection Panel, 30–33, 57, 120, 496 accessibility to civil society, 496, 507–511 accountability of, 145–146, 482, 487– 493, 496, 514 cases, 536–544 complaint process, 531–534 composition of, 500–501 creation of, 496–497 cultural barriers, 508–509 debarment, 27–28 decision-making authority, 531 eligibility for inspection, 503–507, 510, 512, 516 environmental assessments, 490 independence of, 496, 510–514 investigations, 533, 543–544 legal framework, 496, 500–507 members, 501n23 Operating Procedures, 479, 486–488, 493, 497, 500, 504–510, 513, 535 recommendations, 533 requests for inspection, 502–514, 532 Resolution, 497, 500–506, 512–514 safeguard policies, 496–502, 508–509, 514–517 as a social contract with civil society, 479–481 Integrity Compliance Officer (ICO), 424, 434 Integrity Vice Presidency (INT), 428 Investment Lending Reform, 536 jurisdictional immunity, 498 Law, Justice and Development Week conference, 16, 211, 214–215, 219, 224–225, 231–232 Learning on Gender in Conflict in Africa (LOGICA) project, 291 Management, 31–32, 478–479, 482–492, 501–529, 531–534, 537–544 action plans, 488–489, 506, 533–534, 542–544 control of, 511–512 Guidelines for Environmental Screening and Classification, 491 Interim Guidance Note on Land Use Planning, 493


Index Interim Guidelines for Addressing Legacy Issues in World Bank Projects, 490 Report and Recommendation in Response to IP, 513 Rese lement and Community Development Action Plan, 488–489 Operational Directives (ODs), 501–502, 540 Operational Policies (OPs), 501–502, 507–508, 515 operational policy framework, 478–482 Pilot Program on the Use of Borrower Systems Safeguard Issues, 501 Quality Assurance Group, 537 rese lement projects, 479, 484–493, 497, 502, 515, 529, 535, 538 resource extraction projects, 104, 113 safeguard policies, 30–31, 478–479, 491– 492, 531, 534–535, 544 Sanctioning Guidelines, 416n4, 427 sanctions system, 27–28 baseline (default) sanction, 416, 429 community service, 429–435 debarment, 27–28 alternatives to, 423–429, 435 Sanctions Board, 416, 428, 434 Sanctions Commi ee, 428 Suspension and Disbarment Officer (SDO), 428, 434 Voluntary Disclosure Program, 423, 428–429

561

Southern Coastal Development Plan, 492 Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative, 371, 463, 472 technical assistance projects, 490–491 World Development Reports, 39, 281n35 Worldwide Governance Indicators, 365 World Bank Group, 120–122, 419–420, 514 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 541–542 International Bank of Reconstruction and Development, 495, 498, 500, 516 International Development Association, 488–489, 495, 498, 500, 530, 541–542 International Finance Corporation, 120, 495n2, 500, 504–505, 529, 535–536 Multilateral International Guarantee Agency, 495n2, 500, 504 World Conference on Human Rights (1993), 95–96 World Cup (2014; Brazil), 372–373, 397 World Health Organization (WHO) Strengthening Medico-Legal Services for Sexual Violence Cases, 291 Yemen, Republic of, 485, 523 Yugoslavia, Former. See Former Yugoslavia Zambia, 168, 222, 333, 469 Zardari, Asif, 470 Zimbabwe, 152, 226


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