9 February 2004
Mr. James Wolfensohn
President
World Bank Group
1818 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20433
Dear Mr. Wolfensohn :
We are writing to you regarding our mutual interest in fostering a more sustainable and equitable future for coming generations and the role of the World Bank in helping assure such a future. We commend you for having launched the independent review of the Bank Group’s support for oil, mining and gas operations, and are aware that Dr. Emil Salim has just completed the Final Report of the Extractive Industries Review (EIR). Your leadership in beginning this historic process more than three years ago, and in devoting significant World Bank Group (WBG) staff time and financial resources to the Review, has been critical to its initial success.
We are aware that civil society organizations around the world, including labor, environmental organizations, development agencies, human rights groups and indigenous peoples representatives, have welcomed the Report and we wish to add our voices to that welcome.
It is our hope that you will continue your key leadership in the coming months as the World Bank Group deliberates on how to respond to the Report’s findings. Charting a new course for the future will require your continued courage and vision.
The Review has produced an important and inter-connected set of recommendations, outlined in the Extractive Industries Review Final Report : Striking a Better Balance. It also validates many of the concerns that communities and civil society organizations have been raising with the Bank Group for more than two decades. It recommends, among other things, that the World Bank Group should :
One of the clear successes of the EIR is its integration of seemingly disparate environmental, human rights, social, economic, and development concerns. These strands are intertwined throughout the Report, as they are in reality. We urge you in the strongest possible terms to embrace the spirit of the report and accept the recommendations in their entirety when devising a strategy for moving forward.
War, poverty, climate change, greed, corruption, and ongoing violations of human rights - all of these scourges are all too often linked to the oil and mining industries. Your efforts to create a world without poverty need not exacerbate these problems. The Review provides you an extraordinary opportunity to direct the resources of the World Bank Group in a way that is truly oriented towards a better future for all humanity.
If you feel it would be helpful, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues with you in more detail.
Sincerely,
For Nobel Laureates for Peace Jody Williams, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Sir Joseph Rotblat, Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire.
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