CULTURAL RIGHTS staff and the project funds have not yet been substantially disbursed.34 As a consequence of the last condition, the Panel may not evaluate Bank projects that are closed. After a claim has been received, the Panel assesses its eligibility, conducts a preliminary evaluation and makes recommendations to the Board of the World Bank as to whether a full investigation is required. If the Board approves, a full investigation is conducted, the Panel presents its findings, Bank management proposes a plan to remedy violations and, finally, the Board announces an action plan to resolve the policy violations. The Panel’s recommendations however are advisory only and it cannot order compensation or issue interim relief. In practice, the effectiveness of the Panel as a remedy for violations of Bank policies (and the cultural rights implicit therein) has been extremely limited: processing of claims has been unduly complicated and drawn out, often highly politicized, and the Bank’s Board has not agreed to full investigations in many cases.35 For more information, see the case study on Holding the World Bank to account in Tibet in the chapter on ‘Housing Rights’. Guidelines for successful advocacy Advocacy on cultural rights may take many forms across the local, national and international levels. One of the most important is concerted action by indigenous peoples and minorities to reassert control over the means by which culture is transmitted at the local level, particularly in the education system. Early childhood education programmes, such as the Mãori language nest system (Te Kohanga Reo) employed in Aotearoa New Zealand,36 developed and controlled by indigenous peoples and minorities, are critical components of asserting cultural rights; in this case through exercising them and institutionalizing them in the education system. At the national level, given the interconnections between cultural rights and other rights, recognition of the right to culture often paves the way for addressing other rights, such as land and resource rights and protection of cultural and intellectual heritage. In Guyana, for instance, sustained advocacy by indigenous peoples succeeded in obtaining constitutional recognition for the rights of indigenous peoples to protection and preservation of their cultural heritage, ways of life and languages. This provision is in turn now being used to challenge state activities in relation to unwanted encroachments on traditional lands, the failure to adopt bilingual and intercultural education programmes, definitions of indigenous peoples and communities that fail to account for traditional rules pertaining to membership, and environmental pollution. Cultural rights can also be asserted in relation to projects financed by international financial or development institutions to seek modifications to project design. In this sense, it is important to be proactive in asserting these rights, especially at early stages of project design. It is 87