151. Memorandum From the Deputy Secretary of State (Christopher) to the President’s Assistant
for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski)1
SUBJECT
Pursuant to our telephone conversation this morning, I am attaching a copy of
the arrangements we worked out with OPIC
in early June for bringing human rights considerations to bear on OPIC programs. These procedures were designed
to be responsive to the spirit and letter of the new human rights provisions
in the OPIC legislation (copy also
attached),2 while at the same time
preserving flexibility and permitting us to avoid publicly identifying other
countries as gross and consistent human rights violators.
You will be particularly interested in the last three sentences of the
procedures.
Since agreeing upon these arrangements, we have reviewed a number of OPIC programs. We have recommended approval
of a total of 18 programs involving 13 countries, and have thus far not
recommended disapproval of any programs.
Attachment
Memorandum Prepared in the Department of
State3
Informal Procedures For Bringing Human Rights
Considerations To Bear on OPIC
Programs
(Not for Distribution)
1. OPIC support of a private investment
in a country will be withheld when the Interagency Group on Human Rights
and Foreign As
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sistance (chaired
by the Deputy Secretary of State) recommends, and the OPIC Board of Directors agrees, that
OPIC should not provide the
proposed support because the host government is engaged in extensive and
extremely serious violations of human rights. OPIC will include in its Annual Report to Congress
appropriate information on projects for which OPIC assistance is refused on account of human rights
considerations or provided despite such considerations, with appropriate
general explanations.
2. In order to give the Interagency Group an opportunity to make its
recommendation, OPIC will submit to
HA [the Bureau of Human Rights and
Humanitarian Affairs] a summary of each project which OPIC proposes to assist. If HA has reservations about a project, it
will refer it to the Interagency Group. In addition to human rights
conditions in the country involved, there are a variety of important
relevant factors to be considered in determining what recommendation to
make concerning OPIC support. They
include the relationship between the project and the government of the
host country. (This relationship might be gauged by such factors as host
government involvement as a lender or equity holder; fiscal impact of
the project; size or political symbolism of the project.)
