Chixoy International Financial Institution Reparations Act of 2022
This bill directs U.S. representatives at international financial institutions to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to avoid providing financing to entities that violate human rights and to provide reparations for violations of human rights resulting from institution actions.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9620 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9620
To support reparations for victims of human rights violations
associated with projects financed by international financial
institutions.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 20, 2022
Mr. Garcia of Illinois (for himself, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Omar, Mr.
Pocan, and Mr. Grijalva) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Financial Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To support reparations for victims of human rights violations
associated with projects financed by international financial
institutions.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Chixoy International Financial
Institution Reparations Act of 2022''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Beginning in 1976, the World Bank and the Inter-
American Development Bank financed the construction of the
Chixoy Dam in Guatemala while the country was in the midst of a
civil war. The Armed Forces of the military Government of
Guatemala were broadly and credibly accused of having committed
gross violations of internationally recognized human rights
during the civil war, which led the United States Government to
suspend security assistance to the Government of Guatemala.
(2) The construction of the Chixoy Dam forcibly displaced
more than 3,500 members of the Maya Achi indigenous community
and disrupted the livelihoods of thousands more. When residents
of the Rio Negro community objected to leaving their homes,
which were to be flooded by the construction of the dam, they
were massacred, raped, and kidnapped by paramilitary and
military forces. In its analysis of the Rio Negro massacres,
the United Nations-sponsored Historical Clarification
Commission concluded that peaceful resistance to administrative
decisions related to the construction of the hydroelectric dam
were conceived a priori as instigated by the guerrillas and
were resolved through violent repression. Therefore, the army's
command responsibility and intent to destroy Rio Negro
constituted an act of genocide against the civilian population.
Between 1980 and 1982, an estimated 5,000 Maya Achi lost their
lives through extrajudicial killings.
(3) Effective resettlement measures were never provided for
communities displaced by the Chixoy Dam project. After enduring
decades of extreme poverty stemming from their displacement, in
2010, the communities and the Government of Guatemala agreed to
the Reparations Plan for Damages Suffered by the Communities
Affected by the Construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam in
Guatemala. In 2014, the President of Guatemala asked
forgiveness from the communities for the Government's role in
the harm caused by the project and signed the reparations
agreement into law. The Government has not allocated the funds
necessary to implement reparations.
(4) Senior management at the World Bank and the Inter-
American Development Bank knew of the atrocities that occurred
during the construction of the Chixoy Dam and of the lack of
resettlement. These institutions have assumed no direct
responsibility for atrocities resulting from the construction
of the dam.
(5) International financial institutions have repeatedly
financed projects that have contributed to human rights
violations, including extrajudicial killings, torture, forced
labor, forced displacement of indigenous peoples, forced labor,
arbitrary detention, loss of livelihood, and reduced access to
food and water. For example, from 2007 to 2013, the World Bank
funded a conservation program implemented by the Kenya Forest
Service (KFS), which regularly engaged in forced evictions of
forest communities. With financing from the World Bank, KFS
burned the homes of Sengwer indigenous peoples and violently
displaced them. Many Sengwer remain landless and impoverished,
struggling to have their rights to ancestral lands respected.
In 2013, the Accelerating Infrastructure Investment Facility in
India financed by the Asian Development Bank resulted in gross
labor violations of at least 116 workers in the construction of
the subproject of Kiratpur-Nerchowk Highway. The Asian
Development Bank's subcontractor, Infrastructure Leasing and
Financial Services, still owes the workers back wages and
unpaid benefits.
(6) International financial institutions, including the
World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, have an
obligation to comply with international law, including
international human rights law, in all of their activities.
(7) The United States Government has long used its voting
power to advocate for strengthened accountability in
international financial institutions.
(8) The International Financial Institutions Act requires
that the United States Government use its voice and role at the
international financial institutions in which it is a
shareholder to advance the cause of human rights and promote
mechanisms to strengthen the environmental performance of those
institutions, including strengthening organizational,
administrative, and procedural arrangements within the
institutions so as to ensure the sustainable use of natural
resources and protect indigenous peoples.
(9) The International Development and Finance Act requires
the United States Government not to vote in favor of any
international financial institution-financed project that would
result or be likely to result in a significant effect on the
human environment, unless the assessment or a comprehensive
summary of the assessment has been made available to affected
groups and local nongovernmental organizations. This has led
directly to stronger environmental assessment policies at the
international financial institutions.
(10) The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (Public Law
113-76), requires the United States Government to use its voice
and vote at international financial institutions to ensure that
each such institution responds to the recommendations of its
accountability mechanisms, and provides redress to individuals
and communities that have suffered human rights violations.
That Act also instructs the United States Executive Directors
at the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to
report to the Committees on Appropriations on steps being taken
to support the implementation of the 2010 Reparations Plan for
Damages Suffered by the Communities Affected by the
Construction of the Chixoy Dam Hydroelectric Dam in Guatemala.
(11) In Jam v. International Finance Corporation, the
Supreme Court ruled that international organizations are not
absolutely immune from lawsuits in United States courts and can
be sued in connection to their commercial activity.
SEC. 3. PROMOTION OF MEASURES TO PROVIDE REPARATIONS FOR COMMUNITIES
DAMAGED BY PROJECTS FINANCED BY INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL
INSTITUTIONS OF WHICH THE UNITED STATES IS A SHAREHOLDER.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the United States
Executive Director at each international financial institution to use
the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to vigorously
promote--
(1) the adoption and implementation of policies that ensure
that the institution does not support activities that are
likely to cause or contribute to human rights violations or
abuses, including by undertaking adequate, publicly available
human rights assessments to become aware of and prevent
potential adverse effects on human rights from any proposed
projects;
(2) the adoption and implementation of procedures under
which individuals or communities that suffer violations of
human rights resulting from any loan, grant, strategy, or
policy of the institution may initiate a reparations process,
outlined in a negotiated, mutually acceptable, and publicly
available reparations plan; and
(3) the creation of a reparations fund at the institution--
(A) to which international financial institutions
shall contribute a fixed percentage of the revenue
earned on all lending and other investments by the
institution;
(B) which shall be managed by a board of directors
and operated transparently and independently from the
institution; and
(C) which shall be dedicated to providing financial
resources--
(i) to support the full and effective
participation of the individuals and
communities in negotiations for the reparations
plan referred to in paragraph (2), including
technical and legal support;
(ii) for the full implementation of any
reparations plan negotiated by the parties; and
(iii) for establishing and operating
monitoring panels to review and issue
independent periodic reports detailing progress
and challenges encountered in implementing the
reparations plan referred to in paragraph (2)
and clause (ii) of this subparagraph.
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON FAVORABLE VOTE FOR PROPOSAL UNTIL RECEIPT OF
REPORT ON ITS EFFECT ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND CORRUPTION.
(a) The United States Executive Director at each international
financial institution should request a report from the institution that
contains--
(1) an assessment, in line with international best
practices, of human rights and corruption risks associated with
the project, including relevant legacy issues that existed
before the involvement of the institution;
(2) details describing how the implementers of the project
will avoid, directly or indirectly, contributing to adverse
effects on local communities; and
(3) plans detailing how the institution will avoid
participating in corrupt practices throughout the life cycle of
the project.
(b) The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the United States
Executive Director at each international financial institution to not
vote in favor of a proposal to provide financial support for a project
to be implemented in a country or sector if--
(1) the United States Executive Director has not received
the report described in subsection (a);
(2) the government of the country has refused to accept or
renew the mandate of a group or person acting under the
authority of the United Nations or a regional intergovernmental
human rights treaty body to which the country is party; or
(3) the government of the country is obstructing the
implementation of a reparations plan.
SEC. 5. OPPOSITION TO INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION FINANCING FOR
CORPORATION INVOLVED IN A PROJECT THAT VIOLATES HUMAN
RIGHTS.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the United States
Executive Director at each international financial institution to use
the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to oppose the
provision of financing, indefinitely or for a limited period of time,
for a project of a corporation that has been involved in another
project that violates internationally recognized human rights, until an
independent investigation finds that the involvement of the corporation
in the other project did not violate such rights or that the
corporation has made full reparations or remedy.
SEC. 6. DEFINITION OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.
In this Act, the term ``international financial institution'' has
the meaning given the term in section 1701(c)(2) of the International
Financial Institutions Act.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
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