Chixoy International Financial Institution Reparations Act of 2022
Bill: H.R.9620 | Sponsor: Rep. Garcia, Jesus G. "Chuy" (D-IL)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
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.

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.
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