Corporations have stepped beyond lobbying governments. They are integrating in policy-making at the national and international levels. From agriculture to technology, decisions historically made by governments are increasingly made by secretive unaccountable bodies run by corporations.
From 2 to 11 December 2019, a caravan of international observers (#ToxiTourMexico) travelled from West to East along the neovolcanic belt in Mexico, crossing dense industrial corridors that have attracted capital from the US, Europe and other countries along the way. Members of the Caravan witnessed the alarming environmental and health emergency situations that the affected communities are experiencing and their impressive organising and mobilising capacity and dignity.
This article focusses on TNCs as global actors, the structures and mechanisms that grant them impunity for wrong doing, and the deepening and widespread popular resistance to TNC extractivism and destruction of the planet.
Forced to leave their homes to flee violence, war or poverty and invisible because they are vulnerable, large numbers of migrants disappear while travelling. This analysis of border control looks at the power and impunity of transnational corporations, militarisation, the externalisation of borders, Israel’s role as a laboratory for the wall industry and the criminalisation of international solidarity, among other issues.
For decades, affected communities around the globe have been resisting the modus operandi of transnational corporations (TNCs) in their territories and workplaces and documenting systemic human rights violations and the track record of corporate impunity with their lives and their deaths. Corporate impunity is embedded in and protected by an ‘architecture of impunity’ that legitimises and legalises the operations of TNCs. This architecture has been established through free trade and investment agreements, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other financial instruments and the aggressive push for public-private partnerships (PPPs). At the core of this architecture is the infamous investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, a private arbitration system that allows TNCs to sue states whenever they consider that their future profits are threatened by new measures or policies aiming at improving social and environmental protection. Thus, it neutralises the function of the state, whose primary responsibility is to defend public interest and protect the well-being of its citizens and the planet from corporate interests.
This debate on Thursday 25 October focusses on the impact of pollution on indigenous peoples as well as the working of national and international legal instruments, in particular The Hague Court of Arbitration. How does it operate? Who are the judges? Who benefits?
Geneva: March 16, 2018 – The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (Global Campaign) (1) welcomes the presentation and acceptance of the report on the 3rd session of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIGWG) on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (2) in the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council 37th session.
This week in Geneva, members of a United Nations intergovernmental working group are discussing a long-awaited, legally binding treaty to regulate the human rights impacts of transnational corporations.
Susan George joined an expert panel on the first day of a meeting of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council, tasked with developing a treaty on transnational corporations and human rights. She spoke with the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power about the history of UN action on transnational corporations, the potential pitfalls of the current treaty negotiations, and the range of tax abuses, wage evasion, and investor protection weapons that transnational corporations can use.
The Treaty Alliance, an alliance of committed networks and campaign groups from around the world, is in Geneva for advocacy activities in support of a binding international instrument to address human rights abuses committed by transnational corporations and other business enterprise
This report contains six points for consideration of the UN working group tasked with developing a treaty on transnational corporations and human rights (the “Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights”). The six points speak to the need for any such human rights instrument to end corporate impunity and address the systemic power of transnational corporations.
The historical first Permanent Peoples Tribunal Hearing in Southern Africa exposed the crimes of Transnational Corporations in the region and the growing peoples resistance.
The opening message from the presidency of The Southern Africa Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) focused on The Role of Transnational Corporations in Southern Africa. The PPT on Transnational Corporations takes place in Manzini, Swaziland on 16th and 17th August 2016. During the two-day session, 10 communities from Southern Africa will present their cases to a plenary of respected jurors.
TNI and the Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity were present at the World Social Forum to meet with partners and allies and develop analyses and strategies of mobilisation on Corporate Impunity, Public Alternatives, and Free Trade and Investment Agreements.
Real World Radio has interviewed Brid Brennan to discuss recent works of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) in Geneva, including side events of acknowledgement for Berta Caceres, and the proposals provided by the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power (GCDCP) and future plans.
The Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity & for Peoples Sovereignty, an international coalition of more than 200 organisations, social movements and networks convenes to a press conference Thursday 10th March 2016 12.30 pm Place des Nations, Geneva
In today's world transnational corporations (TNCs) have asserted themselves as global entities, which exercise their power without any accountability that matches their economic and political influence. The panelists will assess the impact of a 2014 UNHRC initiative that would bind TNCs in terms of human rights and explore alternatives to the current neoliberal system of corporate impunity.
