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Article

11 May 2016

Author:
313 NGOs including B&HRRC, Aida, COPINH

Open letter to Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank

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…We, the 313 undersigned organizations and 31 individuals wish to express our rejection of your statements made on April 6th, at the end of your speech at Union Theological Seminary in New York. As seen in a video made public when responding to a question about the impacts of large dam projects as illustrated by the murder of Berta Cáceres in Honduras, you state, among other things, that “you cannot do the work we´re trying to do and not have some of these „incidents‟ happen.” Regarding your unfortunate response, we would like to clarify the following...According to the World Bank´s internal policy, the Bank and other financial institutions must ensure respect of human rights in the projects they finance…The murder of Berta Cáceres is a brutal and unacceptable act, which cannot be considered an “incident”… In your statements you suggest that hydroelectric energy is the only alternative to coal and other controversial sources of energy…