16 January 2008 | Washington, DC
Close to fifty people representing social movements in India and other parts of South Asia delivered a boycott statement to Asian Development Bank officials in New Delhi on January 16th, at the start of the Bank's consultations on its Draft Safeguard Policy Statement. The organised protest consisted of slogans and plackards, one of which read: "End to Lending."
The open letter states:
The ADB’s draft safeguard policy is not only a step backward from its own existing policies, but it also sabotages on-going efforts by peoples’ movements against their own governments’ inadequate policies on rehabilitation & resettlement, environment and indigenous and tribal communities.
South Asian NGOs boycott ADB consultation at Hyatt Hotel, New Delhi, India.
Read the full text of the boycott letter:
A Call to Boycott the ADB’s South Asia Consultation on its Draft Safeguard Policy January 16, 2007. (Acrobat pdf, 22 KB)
Read the recent press release pertaining to the South Asian boycott:
ADB faces boycott as it subverts environment, resettlement, and indigenous safeguard policies Press Release, January 15, 2007. (BIC website)
Resources
For more information please visit BIC's webpage on the ADB Safeguard Policy Update process (BIC website)
Consultation Draft-ADB Safeguard Policy Statement October 12, 2007. (Acrobat pdf, 654 KB) (ADB website)
Press
NGOs cease talks with ADB on SPU, Times of India, February 8, 2008. (Times of India website)
NGOs to boycott ADB’s South Asia Consultation, The Hindu, January 12, 2008. (The Hindu website)
ADB FACES BOYCOTT AS IT SUBVERTS ENVIRONMENT, RESETTLEMENT AND INDIGENOUS SAFEGUARD POLICIES Press Release, January 15, 2008 (BIC website)