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When nomadic camel herders in Mongolia’s South Gobi Desert filed a complaint about the impacts of two large mines on their way of life, they thought they knew what to expect from the complaint office that received their case. Known as the Project Complaint Mechanism (PCM), it accepts complaints from communities harmed by projects financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and investigates whether those projects have met the bank’s social and environmental standards. The herders expected a thorough investigation: one that would document the harm they had experienced and draw conclusions about compliance with international standards based on that evidence. Four years later, their experience has fallen far short of these expectations.

Affected communities. Civil society organizations. World Bank staff and Executive Directors. Governments. Private sector companies. The World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, and the accompanying Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF), are an avenue where all of these actors can get together to discuss pressing issues in international development financing. Accountability Counsel actively participated in this year’s Spring Meetings and CSPF, held in April, and pushed our message that accountability must be a priority for everyone involved in order for development to be effective.

At the heart of all of Accountability Counsel’s cases are community members who were denied their basic right to participate in decisions that critically impact their lives. We have cases all over the world, representing diverse communities with vastly different life experiences, yet all of Accountability Counsel’s cases present this…

All too often, community voices are excluded from decisions that affect their lives and their environment. And so they were in Haiti, when the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provided funding to build the Caracol Industrial Park – a large garment factory complex, including a heavy oil power plant – a short distance inland from Caracol Bay, a US $3.2 trillion mangrove and coral reef ecosystem that is now part of Haiti’s Three Bays National Park.

Our attorneys, Lani and Stephanie, recently returned from Caracol, Haiti where they supported the Kolektif Peyizan Viktim Tè Chabè, a collective of hundreds of Haitian farmers, in their complaint against the Inter-American Development Bank. As we have previously reported, in 2011, more than 400 farmers and their families were forced…

Accountability Counsel’s Policy Director, Kindra Mohr, led a discussion with partners from the Bank Information Center (BIC), the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, and the International Accountability Project (IAP) for the Amazon Watch lunch event on “Challenges and Opportunities in Development Finance.”…

Communities in the Fontibón locality of Bogotá, Colombia have been fighting for years to protect their health and their families from the extreme noise pollution generated by El Dorado International Airport. They organized as Comunidades Unidas to engage with airport operators, authorities, and investors to seek improved noise mitigation in…

On International Women’s Day 2017, Accountability Counsel is celebrating women around the world who are fighting to protect their human rights and their environment. Women like Marie Marthe Rocksaint, Ilna St Jean, and Vigénise Bien Aimé – smallholder farmers displaced from their land in Haiti to make way for the…

In response to years of advocacy by Accountability Counsel and our partners, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has made significant improvements to its Environmental and Social Policy Statement (ESPS), its main human rights and environmental safeguard policy. OPIC has been the subject of two Accountability Counsel community-led complaints about…

Nearly 40 advocates from around the world gathered last week to share lessons learned, find ways to contribute to each other’s work, and to support each other in the difficult labor of defending environmental and human rights. This year’s International Advocates Working Group retreat, hosted by Accountability Counsel in the…

By Natalie Bridgeman Fields, Founder & Executive Director The Trump administration has taken so many steps to undermine protections for human rights and the environment in the past week that it’s hard to keep up, let alone challenge these affronts to justice. We all have a job to do to…

On December 16, 2016, the Obama Administration released a National Action Plan (NAP) to promote responsible business conduct abroad. The NAP was two years in the making and aims to be consistent with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,…

On January 12, 2017, the Kolektif Peyizan Viktim Tè Chabè, a collective of Haitian farmers displaced from land some had farmed for decades, filed a complaint to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) about its role in this land grab. January 12 was the seventh anniversary of the 2010 earthquake that…

Today, the Kolektif Peyizan Viktim Tè Chabè, a collective representing hundreds of Haitian farmers, filed a complaint to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) about its role in a case of land grabbing. In 2011, approximately 3,500 people the lost their livelihoods when they were forced off their land to make…

This month, we have experienced the immense satisfaction of seeing Gloria Molina, one of our community partners, present her experiences and “lessons learned” to three major international accountability mechanisms, as well as a diverse civil society audience, at a workshop in Bogotá, Colombia. Gloria is the spokesperson for Comunidades Unidas,…

Accountability Counsel is pleased to share our Fiscal Year 2015 – 2016 Impact Report, highlighting our work with communities to defend their environmental and human rights. We invite you to learn more by clicking through the links in the report to find details on our cases and policy initiatives.

While Lani Inverarity, our Strategic Support Associate, was busy writing about her work in Colombia, Mongolia and Liberia, Yale Law School was writing about it too! Lani is the recipient of a Robina Foundation International Human Rights Fellowship, administered by Yale Law School. She joins a host of other fellows doing amazing work on…

By Lani Inverarity, Global Communities Associate While working with dramatically different communities in Mongolia and Colombia this past year, I was struck by what they have in common. Despite the serious harms they are each suffering as a result of internationally-financed development projects, both communities repeatedly expressed their desire to build…

On November 23, 2016, Accountability Counsel and 17 partner organizations submitted comments to improve the practices of a U.S. federal agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). OPIC has been the subject of two Accountability Counsel community-led complaints about abusive projects supported by the agency. The comments, which are part…

Accountability Counsel is very pleased to be participating in #GivingTuesday, now in its 5th year!  In the spirit of this charitable season, we invite you to make an online contribution or mail your tax-deductible donation to: Accountability Counsel 244 Kearny Street, Floor 6 San Francisco, CA 94108 We greatly appreciate your continued support!