Seinforma
Organización Latino-Canadiense de Derechos Humanos y Libertad de Expresión / The Latin-Canadian Organization of Human Rights and Freedom of Expression
Specialized Journalistic Sevices (SJS)
Servicios Especializados de Información
Servicios Especializados de Información
. English
. Español
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Godfather PLAN
This year we will be supporting the caring of hundreds of Bolivian children who live in misery near La Paz.
More...
This year we will be supporting the caring of hundreds of Bolivian children who live in misery near La Paz.
More...
Jorge SILVA:
“After going for the first time, you don't know if it is worth risking your life"
Exclusive Interview
More...
“After going for the first time, you don't know if it is worth risking your life"
Exclusive Interview
More...
All Rights Reserved © Specialized Journalistic Services Copyright 2008 Canada
Todos los Derechos Reservados © Seinforma Canada Copyright 2008
Todos los Derechos Reservados © Seinforma Canada Copyright 2008
Videos
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Contest
____________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
The history of domination in Latin America. MONROE: Let's reformulate!
Erosión y desabastecimiento,
los beneficios del biodiesel
los beneficios del biodiesel
__________________
. English
. Español
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Special REPORTS
The civilization crisis and the end of the neoliberal model
World Social Forum 2008: "another world is possible".
More...
The civilization crisis and the end of the neoliberal model
World Social Forum 2008: "another world is possible".
More...
______________________________________
__________________
______________
______________
______________
______________
(Photo resisters.ca /Seinforma)
Special correspondent/ Seinforma Canada
Bogotá.- The PPT held a public trial in Bogotá, Colombia against multinational corporations operating in Colombia that engaged in “human rights violations” 1 through connections with violence networks “that are based in State strategies, boosted and promoted by policies under the guise of protecting their investments and ensuring security.” The session was held in the Auditorium León de Greiff of the National University of Colombia, after more than 2 years of trial and having held 6 public hearings, and a preliminary hearing on the Swiss multinational corporation Nestle held in Berna on 2005:
1. Ruling of the permanent peoples’ tribunal, July 23, 2008 [Online] <http://www.redcolombia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=196&Itemid=54>
Transnational corporations judged:
The tribunal was composed by the Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980, who presided the hearing, and the French Philippe Texier, president of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
During the hearing, between July 21 and July 23, victims of human rights violations and trade union representatives described the modus operandi of big multinational corporations, their corporate capital, the high profitability rates, the mechanisms with which they disguise their lack of responsibility, the damages caused to the environment, the harassment and destruction of trade unions (almost 4000 unionists were murdered during the last 20 years), the decrease in the workforce, indirect hiring (temporary hiring and outsourcing) with the subsequent precarization of workers (32% of the Colombian workers are not subject to any labor agreement, 60% work in the informal market and 44% do not have any kind of social security) and the illegal hiring of paramilitary groups.
Expert opinions were also heard, enabling to decode “the policy of the corporations and of the Colombian State, at many times pressed by multilateral organizations” such as the World Bank, the IMF, the IDB and the WTO to favor capital over human and social values, including life itself, evidencing that the international law has adjusted to the needs of multinational corporations.
During the hearings, witnesses reminded the victims of the multinational corporations who were murdered, disappeared or were displaced: “unionists of Coca Cola, Nestle and Drummond; 80 countrymen, of African and Indigenous origin, and country communities murdered by paramilitaries who were serving oil and mining corporations, such as Anglo Gold Ashanti, Kdhada, B.P., in the South of Bolivar, Casanare, in Putumayo, in the Macizo Colombiano, in the Coffee-Growers’ Axis; the innumerable victims of the Urabá of low Atrato and of Magdalena, who were murdered by paramilitaries, financed with money from Chiquita Brands and other multinational corporations”; the communities whose “quality of life has deteriorated since corporations such as Unión Fenosa, Canal Isabel II, Endesa and Aguas de Barcelona began to operate the public utilities, privileging their profitability logic over the right to receive such services”.
The tribunal made a moral and ethical accusation against the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization for increasing inequalities between a limited number of powerful people and an extraordinary majority who suffer the negative consequences of globalization, under the excuse of promoting growth and economic development, in order to fight poverty and achieve a sustainable growth; such organizations promote and enable corporations’ “invisibility”, thus making it difficult to determine liabilities in international law. Moreover, the tribunal condemned the State for implementing economic, political, industrial and judicial practices that benefit powerful minorities in detriment of the impoverished majorities’ quality of life. It also condemns multinational corporations for “gross, clear and persistent violation of general principles and laws of international treaties protecting civil, political, social, economic, cultural and environmental rights of communities, nations, peoples, families and persons from Latin American populations”.
After describing Colombia from the Tribunal’s point of view, the Tribunal concluded that such country is an “institutional political laboratory where the interests of national and international economic actors are fully defended through the state’s abandonment of its functions and its constitutional duty to protect the dignity and life of the population, to which instead the state applies the Colombian version of the doctrine of national security, in its Colombian version". Considering the aforementioned, the Colombian government was condemned for establishing a legal system that enabled the violation of workers’ rights and the generalized violation of civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Moreover, Colombia was also condemned for violating environmental protection regulations established in its Political Constitution of 1991, as well as laws protecting community land, natural resources, self-government, rights of participation and self development of native peoples.
The ruling condemns both the Colombian state and the transnational companies for its direct and indirect participation, either due to action or omission, in genocide practices against 28 indigenous peoples, against trade unions and the slaughter of the Political Movement of the Patriotic Union (Movimiento Político de la Unión Patriótica). Besides the war crimes and the crimes against humanity, the State was condemned for not fulfilling its obligations in prosecuting and punishing such crimes.
Multinational corporations were condemned for its direct and active participation or, in some cases, for incitement or complicity, “in all cases, at least, receiving a financial benefit from the existence and the characteristics of the armed conflict in Colombia and of the human rights violations produced in that context”; the ruling states that such corporations did not dissociate nor had seriously claimed before “the competent authorities that have engaged them in assassinating their own workers”.
Transnational corporations were also accused of: gross and massive violations of labor laws, specifically the rights of trade union freedom “for fraud to shareholders and consumers due to entering into social responsibility commitments that are flagrantly not complied with in Colombia” and its participation in the environment degradation.
The PPT recommends the United Nations Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Reporter to present a report with a proposal to give binding effect to the laws regarding the liability of transnational and other commercial corporations in the context of human rights, proposed in the United Nations Human Rights Committee on August 26, 2003; international organizations (World Bank, IMF, WTO and IDB) to modify its neoliberal policies and institute in its financing policies for the private sector the obligation of performing independent follow-up assessments of its projects, taking into account the economic, social and environmental impact in the context of biodiversity loss and climate change. The tribunal also made a recommendation to the European Union to perform an efficient control on its financial aids to Latin American governments, demanding full respect for human rights and to punish any human rights violation; finally, the tribunal requested to the United Nations the formation of a Truth Commission, impartial and independent, to clarify the events of these last decades regarding Human rights violations in Colombia.
The Colombian government was asked to comply with the ruling of the Constitutional Court C-370, dated May 18, 2006, about law 975 of the year 2005, known as the Justice and Peace law, to amend it in accordance with international human rights standards; to withdraw the country’s reservation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to denounce the bilateral agreement between Colombia and the United States signed on September 13, 2003, regarding the referral of US citizens to the ICC; to apply the United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples; to revoke the permits for the exploitation of natural resources in indigenous territories without the consent of the affected populations; to investigate and punish those who are responsible for human rights violations; to implement appropriate mechanisms for victims of human rights violations to satisfy their needs for truth, justice and indemnification; to develop an independent, efficient and effective judicial system, and to promote and support “the judicial system with all its resources to perform clarifying processes” and, finally, to favor humanitarian negotiations and peace.
The tribunal also made recommendations to all governments, asking them to relate its international relations, its economic policies and international cooperation to the guarantee and respect for human rights, human development, democracy and the protection of the environment, “demanding multinational corporations and international, commercial and private financial institutions the abandonment of their double morale” and respecting human rights, controlling their compliance with the law in any place of the world in which they operate.
The tribunal asked the international community to take distance from the information received by official and traditional sources, since “sources that enabled to silence crimes” committed against the Colombian population cannot be considered reliable. The shareholders of multinational corporations were asked to inform about the operation of their branches and to submit them to an ethical supervision.
The Colombian justice was exhorted to find a true justice that gives adequate response to citizens’ claims, maintaining the division of powers in the understanding that the judicial power has a primary role, again with the legislative power and the executive power.
Finally, the PPT also exhorts the “insurgent” groups to conform to all circumstances in the humanitarian international law “that protects the civil population”; and to free the kidnapped civilians and favor humanitarian negotiations and peace.
The PPT, established in 1979, is a non-governmental international organization, an opinion tribunal created to judge war crimes committed by the United States during the Vietnam War (1966-1967) and the Latin American dictatorships (1974-1976): Its first hearing in Colombia was held in 2006, condemning the Multinational Corporation Chiquita Brands.
Bogotá.- The PPT held a public trial in Bogotá, Colombia against multinational corporations operating in Colombia that engaged in “human rights violations” 1 through connections with violence networks “that are based in State strategies, boosted and promoted by policies under the guise of protecting their investments and ensuring security.” The session was held in the Auditorium León de Greiff of the National University of Colombia, after more than 2 years of trial and having held 6 public hearings, and a preliminary hearing on the Swiss multinational corporation Nestle held in Berna on 2005:
1. Ruling of the permanent peoples’ tribunal, July 23, 2008 [Online] <http://www.redcolombia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=196&Itemid=54>
Transnational corporations judged:
The tribunal was composed by the Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980, who presided the hearing, and the French Philippe Texier, president of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
During the hearing, between July 21 and July 23, victims of human rights violations and trade union representatives described the modus operandi of big multinational corporations, their corporate capital, the high profitability rates, the mechanisms with which they disguise their lack of responsibility, the damages caused to the environment, the harassment and destruction of trade unions (almost 4000 unionists were murdered during the last 20 years), the decrease in the workforce, indirect hiring (temporary hiring and outsourcing) with the subsequent precarization of workers (32% of the Colombian workers are not subject to any labor agreement, 60% work in the informal market and 44% do not have any kind of social security) and the illegal hiring of paramilitary groups.
Expert opinions were also heard, enabling to decode “the policy of the corporations and of the Colombian State, at many times pressed by multilateral organizations” such as the World Bank, the IMF, the IDB and the WTO to favor capital over human and social values, including life itself, evidencing that the international law has adjusted to the needs of multinational corporations.
During the hearings, witnesses reminded the victims of the multinational corporations who were murdered, disappeared or were displaced: “unionists of Coca Cola, Nestle and Drummond; 80 countrymen, of African and Indigenous origin, and country communities murdered by paramilitaries who were serving oil and mining corporations, such as Anglo Gold Ashanti, Kdhada, B.P., in the South of Bolivar, Casanare, in Putumayo, in the Macizo Colombiano, in the Coffee-Growers’ Axis; the innumerable victims of the Urabá of low Atrato and of Magdalena, who were murdered by paramilitaries, financed with money from Chiquita Brands and other multinational corporations”; the communities whose “quality of life has deteriorated since corporations such as Unión Fenosa, Canal Isabel II, Endesa and Aguas de Barcelona began to operate the public utilities, privileging their profitability logic over the right to receive such services”.
The tribunal made a moral and ethical accusation against the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization for increasing inequalities between a limited number of powerful people and an extraordinary majority who suffer the negative consequences of globalization, under the excuse of promoting growth and economic development, in order to fight poverty and achieve a sustainable growth; such organizations promote and enable corporations’ “invisibility”, thus making it difficult to determine liabilities in international law. Moreover, the tribunal condemned the State for implementing economic, political, industrial and judicial practices that benefit powerful minorities in detriment of the impoverished majorities’ quality of life. It also condemns multinational corporations for “gross, clear and persistent violation of general principles and laws of international treaties protecting civil, political, social, economic, cultural and environmental rights of communities, nations, peoples, families and persons from Latin American populations”.
After describing Colombia from the Tribunal’s point of view, the Tribunal concluded that such country is an “institutional political laboratory where the interests of national and international economic actors are fully defended through the state’s abandonment of its functions and its constitutional duty to protect the dignity and life of the population, to which instead the state applies the Colombian version of the doctrine of national security, in its Colombian version". Considering the aforementioned, the Colombian government was condemned for establishing a legal system that enabled the violation of workers’ rights and the generalized violation of civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Moreover, Colombia was also condemned for violating environmental protection regulations established in its Political Constitution of 1991, as well as laws protecting community land, natural resources, self-government, rights of participation and self development of native peoples.
The ruling condemns both the Colombian state and the transnational companies for its direct and indirect participation, either due to action or omission, in genocide practices against 28 indigenous peoples, against trade unions and the slaughter of the Political Movement of the Patriotic Union (Movimiento Político de la Unión Patriótica). Besides the war crimes and the crimes against humanity, the State was condemned for not fulfilling its obligations in prosecuting and punishing such crimes.
Multinational corporations were condemned for its direct and active participation or, in some cases, for incitement or complicity, “in all cases, at least, receiving a financial benefit from the existence and the characteristics of the armed conflict in Colombia and of the human rights violations produced in that context”; the ruling states that such corporations did not dissociate nor had seriously claimed before “the competent authorities that have engaged them in assassinating their own workers”.
Transnational corporations were also accused of: gross and massive violations of labor laws, specifically the rights of trade union freedom “for fraud to shareholders and consumers due to entering into social responsibility commitments that are flagrantly not complied with in Colombia” and its participation in the environment degradation.
The PPT recommends the United Nations Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Reporter to present a report with a proposal to give binding effect to the laws regarding the liability of transnational and other commercial corporations in the context of human rights, proposed in the United Nations Human Rights Committee on August 26, 2003; international organizations (World Bank, IMF, WTO and IDB) to modify its neoliberal policies and institute in its financing policies for the private sector the obligation of performing independent follow-up assessments of its projects, taking into account the economic, social and environmental impact in the context of biodiversity loss and climate change. The tribunal also made a recommendation to the European Union to perform an efficient control on its financial aids to Latin American governments, demanding full respect for human rights and to punish any human rights violation; finally, the tribunal requested to the United Nations the formation of a Truth Commission, impartial and independent, to clarify the events of these last decades regarding Human rights violations in Colombia.
The Colombian government was asked to comply with the ruling of the Constitutional Court C-370, dated May 18, 2006, about law 975 of the year 2005, known as the Justice and Peace law, to amend it in accordance with international human rights standards; to withdraw the country’s reservation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to denounce the bilateral agreement between Colombia and the United States signed on September 13, 2003, regarding the referral of US citizens to the ICC; to apply the United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples; to revoke the permits for the exploitation of natural resources in indigenous territories without the consent of the affected populations; to investigate and punish those who are responsible for human rights violations; to implement appropriate mechanisms for victims of human rights violations to satisfy their needs for truth, justice and indemnification; to develop an independent, efficient and effective judicial system, and to promote and support “the judicial system with all its resources to perform clarifying processes” and, finally, to favor humanitarian negotiations and peace.
The tribunal also made recommendations to all governments, asking them to relate its international relations, its economic policies and international cooperation to the guarantee and respect for human rights, human development, democracy and the protection of the environment, “demanding multinational corporations and international, commercial and private financial institutions the abandonment of their double morale” and respecting human rights, controlling their compliance with the law in any place of the world in which they operate.
The tribunal asked the international community to take distance from the information received by official and traditional sources, since “sources that enabled to silence crimes” committed against the Colombian population cannot be considered reliable. The shareholders of multinational corporations were asked to inform about the operation of their branches and to submit them to an ethical supervision.
The Colombian justice was exhorted to find a true justice that gives adequate response to citizens’ claims, maintaining the division of powers in the understanding that the judicial power has a primary role, again with the legislative power and the executive power.
Finally, the PPT also exhorts the “insurgent” groups to conform to all circumstances in the humanitarian international law “that protects the civil population”; and to free the kidnapped civilians and favor humanitarian negotiations and peace.
The PPT, established in 1979, is a non-governmental international organization, an opinion tribunal created to judge war crimes committed by the United States during the Vietnam War (1966-1967) and the Latin American dictatorships (1974-1976): Its first hearing in Colombia was held in 2006, condemning the Multinational Corporation Chiquita Brands.
The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal met in Colombia on July, condemning multinational corporations for promoting human rights violation and benefiting from that
The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) judged multinational corporations for human rights violation in Colombia
The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) judged multinational corporations for human rights violation in Colombia
| Sector/ Activity | Transnational corporations | Amount |
| Agriculture and food, Bogota, April 1, 2006 | Coca Cola, Nestlé, Chiquita Brands. | 3 |
| Minero, Medellín 10 y 11 de noviembre, 2006 | BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Glencore- Xtrata, Cemex, Holcim, Drummond, Anglogold Ashanti con su filial Kedhada, Muriel mining corporation, B2 Gold Cobre y Oro de Colombia. | 7 |
| Biodiversity, Nueva Esperanza Humanitarian area, Cacarica River basin in the low area of Atrato chocoano, February 15 and 26, 2007 | Smurfit Kapa - Cartón de Colombia, MULTIFRUIT S.A. filial de DELMONTE, PIZANO S.A y su filial Maderas del Darien, URAPALMA S.A, Monsanto y Dyncorp. | 6 |
| Petrolero, Bogota, August 3 to August 5, 2007 | Occidental Petroleum Company, British Petroleum y Repsol YPF, Ecopetrol, Petrominerales, Gran Tierra Energy. | 3 |
| Public Utilities, April 7 and 8, 2008 | Unión Fenosa, Endesa, Aguas de Barcelona, TQ3, Telefónica, Canal Isabel ll, Canal de Suez, Empresas Públicas de Medellín | 7 |
| Indigenous Peoples, Atanquez, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, July 18 and 19 | Brisa S.A. (the rights of indigenous people were also discussed on a separate article) | 1 |
Seinforma Special Reports