From 6 to 10 July 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will convene an unprecedented process that has the potential of providing new avenues for access to justice for communities affected by human rights violations committed by Transnational Corporations (TNCs) worldwide. This process could also represent a landmark in reversing the parallel forces that – for over 40 years of neoliberal globalization – have been increasingly favoring private interest over peoples’ sovereignty.
Join us in the Peoples Mobilizations for a UN Treaty on TNCs inside and outside the UNHRC!
The need for greater control over TNCs has never been more critical. Everywhere in the planet, the advance of TNCs over the commons and territories through a global resource grab offensive has relied largely on human rights violations and the certainty of impunity inherent to corporate operations. Furthermore, processes of corporate capture of the public interest are visible in the UN – where TNCs have infiltrated the climate negotiations and many other processes – and in several bilateral trade agreements negotiations, such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Transpacific Trade Partnership (TTP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), all of which seek to consolidate and deepen corporate power.
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Version française du programme
The recent history of this process
In June 2014, social movements and organizations from all over the world gathered in Geneva to denounce these processes, to demand access to justice and to pressure the UNHRC to establish a legally binding instrument to enforce rules on TNCs regarding human rights. As a result of concerted efforts and pressure by more than 600 social movements and organizations, twenty country members of the UNHRC, representing nearly 3.8 billion people, voted to create an intergovernmental working group (IGWG) to begin the process of negotiation for a UN Treaty on TNCs. While the resolution is about to complete its first anniversary, people have been demanding such a binding instrument within the UN for decades. Now, it’s time has come.
Who we are
The Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (stopcorporateimpunity.org)– a coalition of 190 social movements, networks and organizations from all over the world – in partnership with the Treaty Alliance (http://www.treatymovement.com/) and Swiss movements are organizing a week of activities in Geneva to give visibility to peoples resisting corporate violations and crimes worldwide, as well as to human right defenders and to show the member states of the UNHRC that there is a broad base of international support for the process to build this treaty.
What we will do
The Peoples Mobilization will coincide with the first meeting of the intergovernmental working group that will begin debating and discussing the contents of a binding treaty on TNCs. One year after the historic vote, social movements return to Geneva from 6 to 10 July 2015 for mobilization to show UNHRC member states and the world that people will continue to pressure governments to keep the process of building a TNC treaty moving forward.
The inside dimension of the mobilizations is a series of activities in the Palais des Nations, including side events and press conferences, in addition to following negotiations closely and direct advocacy to member states to ensure that they hear the voices from impacted communities loud and clear.
The outside mobilizations will occupy the square of the broken chair in front of the Palais des Nations. See the draft program for the week below.
The Peoples Mobilization will also take place at the same time as social movements are countering the TISA negotiations occurring in Geneva and as the Alternatiba (www.alternatiba.eu) movements for climate justice arrive in the city. These mobilizations will be interconnected.
If your movement/organization would like to be included as a Co-convenor of the Peoples Mobilizations, please write Diana Aguiar and Richard Girard by Friday, June 19.
dianaguiar@gmail.com, richard@polarisinstitute.org
More information: stopcorporateimpunity.org
