Re: Thursday’s Board Meeting and the World Bank Inspection Panel

A February 2011 letter to World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick warns that allowing the Bank's General Counsel to opine on specific Inspection Panel eligibility findings creates a conflict of interest and undermines the independence of the Bank's accountability mechanism.

• The authors argue that allowing the World Bank's General Counsel to opine on specific Panel recommendations regarding eligibility disrupts a long-standing political compromise and contradicts established practice since the Panel's creation.
• The involvement of the General Counsel in judging specific Panel reports is viewed as a conflict of interest because the Office of the General Counsel provides legal support to Bank Management when preparing responses to claims.
• The authors cite former General Counsel Ibrahim Shihata, who stated that it is inappropriate for the General Counsel to pass judgment on specific Panel recommendations, as only the Board of Executive Directors is authorized to do so.
• The authors request that any submission from the General Counsel be treated as part of Management's response rather than a formal Legal Opinion, warning that treating it as the latter would undermine the Panel's independence and potentially damage international support for the World Bank Group's accountability.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2011). Re: Thursday’s Board Meeting and the World Bank Inspection Panel. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Zoellick_2Feb11.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Re: Thursday’s Board Meeting and the World Bank Inspection Panel. 2011. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Zoellick_2Feb11.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Re: Thursday’s Board Meeting and the World Bank Inspection Panel |date=1 February 2011 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Zoellick_2Feb11.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2011thursdays, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Re: Thursday’s Board Meeting and the World Bank Inspection Panel}}, publisher = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2011}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Zoellick_2Feb11.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }