Civil society coalition calls for human rights respect by development banks worldwide

Increasingly, communities and civil society organisations who speak out about development activities are finding themselves under attack.

In this reality of criminalisation of human rights and environmental defenders and shrinking space for participation in development, development banks have a responsibility to ensure that their activities do not cause or contribute to human rights violations, including taking necessary measures to identify and address human rights risks.

Over one hundred civil society groups have joined the Coalition for Human Rights in Development in its call on international financial institutions to respect human rights and to do everything within their powers to support an enabling environment for public participation in which people are empowered to engage in crafting their own development agendas and in holding their governments, donors, businesses, and other actors to account.

In particular, Counter Balance and its members believe that the European Investment Bank (EIB) has the responsibility to ensure that the activities it finances respect human rights and that there is space for the involved people to participate in the development of EIB-financed activities and to hold the bank into account without risking their security, as underlined in a letter sent to the EIB President Werner Hoyer.

Read and sign the statement by the Coalition for Human Rights in Development.