A Welcome Conditionality. The role of investment banks and expert credit agencies in protecting land and resources rights

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that among the different instruments international law can offer today to stall the increasing number of violations of human rights over the use of land and resources caused by international investment transactions, a prominent role needs to be recognized in the conditionality mechanisms adopted by multilateral lending institutions and export credit agencies (MLIs and ECAs respectively). The reasons for a positive evaluation of the use of such conditionality schemes is explained. Attention focuses on the EU’s legal order, where conditionality mechanisms are already interwoven with strictly legal duties, and where enforcing the latter can exploit the implementation procedures inherent in conditionality schemes. Here an effective way to protect third-world and resources rights in danger of being impaired by European investors would be to set up a structure to oversee the compliance of EU investors with the EIB standards and procedures and the environmental and special standards required for financial support. It could be conducted either by the Commission via the network of Market Access teams or with EEAS. Outside the EU, too, the convergence of public and private lending institutions on environmental and human rights conditionality policies seems to open positive perspectives for a more responsible regulation of international investments.