A/78/213 66. The World Bank has also included the free, prior and informed consent standards in its policies, a major development, but several cases have been reported in which these standards were not implemented. For example, the case in 2018 involving Santhal people in Jharkhand, India, where the World Bank acknowledged its failure to apply the Bank’s policy on physical cultural resources and free, prior and informed consent, but could not stop the construction and repair the damage. 71 More attention will hopefully be given to the World Bank’s community-driven development projects, which implement a bottom-up approach and can therefore better ensure the cultural adequacy of the objectives, methodologies and results. For such projects, systematically integrating human rights principles, inc luding cultural rights, would help orient the projects, avoid any cultural relativism and ensure coherence between development and human rights objectives. 67. WIPO has institutionalized specific avenues for stakeholder participation in its work on traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources. Accredited civil society organizations representing Indigenous Peoples and local communities have been granted observer status and can participate in the sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore. 72 Ad hoc expert groups are also appointed by States and the Indigenous Caucus 73 to address, in their personal capacities, legal, policy and technical issues in relation to the work of the Intergovernmental Committee. The draft texts of the Committee are reviewed by Indigenous experts. 74 Fellowship opportunities for Indigenous persons are offered and a voluntary fund has been established to support the participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the intergovernmental discussions. These are remarkable steps that must be extended to other marginalized groups and civil society in general. F. Strengthening accountability mechanisms 68. An additional pillar of a human rights approach is accountability. The World Bank’s accountability mechanism is twofold: an Inspection Panel (since 1993) and the newly created Dispute Resolution Service (operationalized in 2023). Since its creation, the Inspection Panel has adjudicated nearly 250 human rights complaints in more than 60 countries. 69. Although there has been no holistic assessment, several of the cases included alleged violations of cultural rights. Studies across multilateral development banks show that not all development banks have adopted policies that include heritage in their policies. This neglects the right to access and enjoy heritage. Accordingly, the treatment of the impact of multilateral development bank projects on heritage resources is often unsatisfactory, with failures to carry out adequate consultations resulting in adverse consequences for the affected communities, and/or for the projects themselves. 75 To date, the punishment of perpetrators is exceedingly rare, even when the harm to the affected communities is formally acknowledged. Studies suggest that complaints alleging involuntary resettlement, which causes a huge loss of cultural resources, are more likely to result in an order for compensation, rather __________________ 71 72 73 74 75 23-14310 World Bank Inspection Panel, cases 128 and 129, 21 Se ptember and 12 December 2018. For more on the participation mechanisms, see www.wipo.int/tk/en/engagement.html. The collective representation of Indigenous Peoples in that organization. The Caucus can select Indigenous representatives to participate in expert groups and advisory committees. See WIPO/GRTKF/IC/46/INF/8 (2022). See also WIPO/GRTKF/IC/32/INF/8 (2016) , annex, paras. 4–6. Contributions of British Institute for International and Comparative Law (2022) and Interarts. 19/24