The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group institution, has agreed to a settlement to end a case alleging that it is liable for financing a notorious palm oil company’s violent land-grabbing campaign in Honduras. This is the first time the IFC has ever been successfully brought to court by a community harmed by its investment and the first time it has ever provided a remedy. WGF Grantee EarthRights International brought the case to a federal court in the United States on behalf of campesino families in the Bajo Aguán Valley of Honduras in 2017. They allege that they were victimized by armed agents of Corporación Dinant, which terrorized local communities to expand its profitable palm oil operations. They also allege that the IFC, which financed Dinant’s expansion, knew or should have known that its money was abetting murder and other serious abuses.
