PERMANENT PEOPLES’ TRIBUNAL

Founder: Lelio Basso
President: Salvatore Senese

Hearing on
Neo-liberal Policies and European Transnational Corporations in Latin America and the Caribbean

Vienna May 10-12, 2006

INDICTMENT

Members of the Panel:
Elmar Altvater (President, Germany), Miren Etxezarreta (Spain), Susan George (France), Lilian Manzella (United States), Francesco Martone (Italy), Freda Meissner-Blau (Austria), Sandra Quintela (Brazil), Roberto Schiattarella (Italy), Gianni Tognoni (Secretary-General, Italy)

ENLAZANDO ALTERNATIVAS 2
www.alternativas.at

FONDAZIONE LELIO BASSO – SEZIONE INTERNAZIONALE
www.internazionaleleliobasso.it

1. Why a Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on European Transnationals?

The Enlazando Alternativas 2 (EA2) officially requested to convene a session of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) on Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in Latin America on 2 February 2006. According to the Statutes of the PPT they requested an investigation of the increasingly dominant role of European TNCs in strategic areas, such as services, infrastructure, petroleum, water, finance and telecommunications. They particularly asked for an examination of the threats thereby posed to political sovereignty, development policy, economic autonomy and democratisation in Latin America. The network of organisations represented in EA2 requested a hearing of many cases from Latin American countries on aspects of life and work, rather than a formal judgment. The PPT accepted the request, which appeared specifically relevant for the institutional role of the PPT for two main reasons:

1. The peoples, the movements, the spectrum of actors participating in the EA2 represent one of the most important expressions of the ongoing struggle for the rights of peoples, which is the justification of the existence of the PPT, based on the Universal Declaration of the Right of Peoples in Algiers, 1976.

2. The themes of the request are an important opportunity for continuing and expanding the research role of the PPT with respect to the relationship between economic laws and human and peoples’ rights. This work is ongoing since the beginning of the Tribunal in the second half of the 1970s in a series of judgments, which include sessions on:

- the role of transnational corporations in the Latin American dictatorships (Brussels, 1975)

- the causes of impunity of those who committed crimes in Latin American countries (Bogota’ 1991);

- the conquest of Latin America and the origins of International Law (Venice, 1992);

- Transnational Corporations in the Textile, Garment and Sportswear industries and their impact on labour rights and the environment (Brussels, 1998)

- the case of the Bhopal-disaster and corporate irresponsibility (Bhopal, 1991- London, 1994);

- the wrong-doings of TNCs (Warwick, 2001)

- the role of TNCs in Colombia (Berne, 2005; Bogota’, 2006).

2. The Procedure

The hearings of the PPT took place in three sessions following an opening session, each lasting around 4 hours. A detailed dossier of case studies and complaints was submitted to the jury. Witnesses and experts presented orally the documented cases and also answered questions posed by members of the jury. The cases covered several areas of TNC activities and their impact on: natural resources, labour rights, public services with particular emphasis on water provision, sewage and electricity, the role of global finance and the role of TNCs active in financial services in Latin America, the food chain and agricultural diversity, the oil and gas industry. (Full documentation will be available on .)

3. General Indictment

The members of the jury of the PPT thank the organisers of this important event, commend the thoroughness and high quality of the research and documentation presented in the course of the hearings and salute the commitment of the witnesses to achieving justice for their communities and their countries.

We have heard testimony and case studies concerning several dozen TNCs and banks headquartered in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and one non-EU country, Norway. We have been presented with overwhelming evidence concerning European TNCs abuses of human, social, cultural and workers’ rights, their irresponsible and sometimes irreversible actions towards the environment and their complete disregard for the welfare of local communities.

We have heard, in particular, of the complicity of European governments that aid and abet their own TNCs. Furthermore, international public institutions including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the European Investment Bank, Export Credit and national development agencies, as well as European bilateral free trade agreements, pave the way for the exploitative activities of TNCs.

We were presented with cases of corporate-led public service privatisation (notably water, sanitation and energy), use and extraction of natural resources, oil exploration, land use and agribusiness practices, expansion of monocultural plantations for pulp, liberalisation of financial services and the role of European Banks in various Latin American countries.

4. The Findings of the Tribunal

On the basis of the above we have identified common elements and threats that the PPT considers deserving of further work:

a. Threats to the right to access essential services: Water has been transformed into a commodity rather than a common resource. Pricing and distribution policies implemented by TNC with the support of International Financial Institutions deprive broad sections of population (mostly the poor) from the enjoyment of this fundamental human right. Electricity privatisation and liberalisation has similar results;

b. Threats to the right to land: The expansion of monocultural plantations for export (notably for soya and wood pulp) is destroying small-scale farmers’ livelihoods, while preventing fair and equitable access to land;

c. Threat to the right to food sovereignty, safety and security: Industrial scale production of food for export, and the privatisation of biodiversity and seeds, driven by imbalanced international trade regimes and corporate interests, is destroying the capacity of Latin American countries to realize these rights;

d. Threats to labour rights: So-called labour “flexibility”, the push for high returns for private investment, the need to produce cheap goods for global markets, together with the repression of Latin American trade unions, undermine core labour standards. Furthermore, TNCs use cheap suppliers of labour in order to keep costs low, thereby expanding an already huge informal sector;

e. Threats to indigenous peoples’ rights: EU TNCs and Latin American governments collaborate in invading and exploiting indigenous peoples’ lands without their prior informed consent or participation, thereby violating their cultural identity and fundamental rights;

f. Threats to environmental rights: Negligence and abuse by EU TNCs of fragile ecosystems in hotspots of biodiversity and wildlife, as well as key bioregions for climate stabilisation augmented by deforestation for economic reasons, contamination of water, infrastructure expansion, result into a substantial ecological debt and contradict EU public commitments for sustainable development. Irresponsible exploitation of natural resources by European TNCs such as oil and gas result in widespread ecological impacts both at a local and ultimately global level;

g. Threats to civil and political rights: EU TNCs can proceed undisturbed thanks to the complicity and cooperation of local and national governments. All this can occur in spite of popular dissent since those same governments do not hesitate to repress dissent and often crackdown on environmental, social and labour movements.

All of these threats combined with the erratic behaviour of financial markets result in a major attack to economic and social rights to development, and hence represent a major challenge for the future work of the PPT.

TNCs are not solely responsible for this situation. The responsibility also extends to the host governments and the EU that allows enterprises to apply inferior standards to those practised in Europe. The EU, in its negotiations with Latin American countries, follows an agenda of trade and financial liberalisation and support for TNCs. Economic aid is often made conditional to the acceptance of EU criteria, while the EU maintains trade and preferential arrangements with certain countries even where they are in violation of international human rights norms, such as those established by the ILO.

The PPT has been unfortunately obliged to consider these cases due to the unavailability of any other forum for adequate recourse and redress as well as the absence of binding rules applicable to TNCs. Unless and until such norms are developed and properly implemented cases as the ones examined will recur again and again.

Therefore the PPT concludes that the complexity and seriousness of accusations and the corresponding threats require further investigation with a view to contribute to the development of international legal instruments that would make TNCs truly and effectively responsible and accountable for their practices.

Perspectives

The PPT purpose and modalities of action have always been intended to provide support and to empower social movements and responsible citizens in their different struggles for justice and human rights. Not incidentally, therefore, the preparation of this session has generated an unprecedented level of interest and expectation in Latin American and European movements, that created new networks and a basis for strengthening their struggles, resistance and search for alternatives to the dominant economic and social paradigm.

At the same time, the opportunities that Latin America is currently experiencing in its own way to social justice and self-determination can provide inspiration to movements in Europe, in their practices and proposals for an alternative of justice. The cross-fertilisation of action and analysis, that this Tribunal seeks to foster, makes its work more than a mere academic exercise, but rather a genuine effort to contribute with its experience to a common endeavour of social, environmental and labour movements in both regions. It is their determination and visionary action that encourage us to pursue our future initiatives dealing with the challenges that economic and financial globalisation pose on the affirmation of fundamental peoples’ rights. In view of the importance of the findings of this session, the Tribunal herewith states its intention to convene a formal session to judge the responsibilities and activities of European TNCs in Latin America.