SIDE EVENT
On the occasion of the 40th session of the Human Rights Council, the Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples′ sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and stop impunity has the pleasure to invite you to a side event on:
Vale in Brumadinho: another crime in the account of the big transnationals
Shell in Nigeria: violations of labour rights continue
The need for a Binding Treaty to protect human rights from the corporate logic
Thursday 7 March 2019, 13.00-14.00
Palais des Nations, Room XXIV
Panelists:
Moisés Borges – Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens, Brazil
Glen Mpufane – IndustriALL Global Union
Diana Junquera Curiel – IndustriALL Global Union
Manoela Roland – HOMA / UFJF, Brazil
Melik Özden – CETIM
Moderator: Brid Brennan, Transnational Institute
Interpretation towards Spanish and English
The breaking of another dam in Brumadinho, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which caused the confirmed death of 160 people and the disappearance of so many others, defies common sense and questions us about the criminal nature of the operation of many companies that, far from being “irrational”, operate with commercial reason and put at risk the integrity of people’s lives, the central dimension of human rights.
On the other hand, Shell’s violations of workers’ human rights in Nigeria have continued for decades. How can the Shell case in Nigeria help us understand and address other criminal cases, such as Brumadinho? The presence of trade unionists on the ground will allow us to reflect together on these elements.
The need not only for strong and clear standards for the protection of human rights but also for strong enforcement mechanisms are key to the effectiveness and efficiency of the control of transnational corporations. Insisting on voluntary logics of control of corporate behaviour is a naïve attitude that does not allow us to deal with the violations caused by these entities.
Denouncing these crimes, as well as the logic in which they operate, is the only way to explain to the public and to the agents of the member states of the UN, the urgency of seriously moving towards a Treaty that creates firm rules and enforcement mechanisms for the protection of human rights throughout the world.
