By Saeed Baloch
MANILA: Activists and experts from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia came together for the People’s Tribunal, a gathering aimed at holding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank accountable for their policies. This session marked the third People’s Tribunal following previous hearings in Manila, Philippines, and Kolkata, India.
The Tribunal in Kathmandu was presided over by a panel of judges, including Dr. Bela Bhatia, a human rights activist from India, Dr. Ravi Sharma Aryal, a former High Court judge from Nepal, Dr. Amali Chamindika Wedagedara, a human rights activist from Sri Lanka, Mohammad Shahjahan Siddiqui, a legal economist from Bangladesh, Advocate Haider Ali Butt from Pakistan, and Mohna Ansari, a former member of Nepal’s Human Rights Commission. International judges also joined the proceedings virtually.
Before the two-day Tribunal, more than 200 people marched to the World Bank office in Nepal, where regional movement leaders handed over a “Letter of Demand against the IMF and World Bank” to an administrative officer in Kathmandu. The International People’s Tribunal against the World Bank and IMF is an initiative driven by grassroots movements, trade unions, peasant organizations, women’s groups, and civil society organizations from across the region.
Led by the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), the tribunal coincided with the 80th anniversary of what activists describe as “debt and destruction” inflicted by these financial institutions. In their key observations, the jury condemned the IMF and World Bank’s imposition of neoliberal policies, particularly privatization and trade liberalization, which they argued violate human rights, deepen inequality, promote false economic solutions, fuel the climate crisis, and drive corporate profits at the expense of the most vulnerable.
