World Bank increases extractives lending despite human rights abuses http://brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=567950

Civil society groups have accused the World Bank of failing to foresee or respond to human rights abuses in the Bank-sponsored Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline in the Caucasus and Turkey, just as the Bank announces a boost in investments in extractive industries.The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank’s private-sector arm, loaned $250 million for the BTC pipeline in 2003. In March, the UK National Contact Point - a government office that promotes compliance with OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises –

ruled that the BTC consortium, led by oil multinational BP, had failed to investigate and respond to complaints of intimidation by state security forces guarding the pipeline in Turkey. This violates OECD guidelines, and thus, according to civil society groups, the consortium's contract with financiers including the IFC.The complaint, submitted by a group of local and European NGOs including the Corner House and Kurdish Human Rights Project, argued that the intimidation deterred local people, particularly Kurdish minorities, from participating in consultations about the pipeline and compensation negotiations for loss of land and livelihoods.