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In late June, a leaked draft resolution revealed that the Board of Peace – whose executive board includes World Bank president, Ajay Banga – is seeking legal immunity for its members, forces and contractors. This kind of sovereign immunity is straight out of the World Bank’s playbook, which cannot be sued in its countries of operation, and consistently tries to resist accountability. The leaked draft also included a proposal to seize public property in Gaza without offering any compensation, again building on the World Bank’s long legacy of landgrabbing across the Global South.

As South Africa approaches its 2030 development commitments, the continued exclusion of the Black majority from equitable access to land exposes a structural failure to redress the legacy of apartheid. ESCR-Net member, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), is challenging this inertia. Researchers Thuto Gabaphethe and Lulama Madyaka argue that the government’s inaction is not a delay, but a breach of binding constitutional and human rights obligations. Through a proposed amicus curiae intervention, CALS calls for transformative, redistributive land reform—underscoring that without it, justice, dignity, and equality cannot be realized.