Davos, Zurich and Basle, 24 january
2003
Transnational Corporations, Human Rights
and Development
While government leaders meet business
leaders from Shell, BP, Dow, and financial
institutions in Davos, at the World Economic
Forum (WEF), community and civil society
activists meet with international NGO's just
up the road at the Public Eye on Davos
conference.
At last year's Public Eye in New York and
at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) corporations committed
themselves to improved practice and
sustainable development. However, since then
we have seen a continuation of 'business as
usual' in which local communities world-wide
are negatively impacted. Today's panels at
the Public Eye conference present an analysis
of Foreign Direct Investment and case studies
of corporate crimes.
"It is claimed that Foreign Direct
Investment promises to deliver jobs, capital
and spill-overs to further development," says
Andreas Missbach of the Berne Declaration.
"Sadly, this is a myth and the empirical
evidence illustrates a picture of job losses,
the creation of additional constraints on a
country's current account balance, and the
failure to deliver on economic development
promises."
Marcelo Lucca, former Secretary of State
in the state government of Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil, describes how transnational
corporations can use their power to extract
concessions from governments to lure FDI with
the threat of choosing another location. He
presents the case of Ford Motor Company and
the unsuccessful struggle of the state
government to set terms that would benefit
the local economy. "This is an example of how
big corporations completely ignore wider
social concerns of host countries."
What was delivered to the people of India
in 1985, as a result of one investment by a
foreign company, was death to thousands of
people as a result of the leak at the Union
Carbide chemical plant. Ganesh Nochur of
Greenpeace, campaigning on Bhopal/Dow, points
out that untested technology, a reduction in
safety personal, and the failure to replace
redundant equipment on the plant to secure
company profits led to these deaths. "Dow
Chemicals, who has since bought out Union
Carbide, now owns the plant and must be held
accountable and liable for the deaths and
injury."
Oil companies have been at the forefront
of environmental and social justice abuses
world-wide. Be it in apartheid South Africa
or a democratic South Africa, Shell has and
continues to abuse the rights of local
residents. "Shell calls for trust, but how
can they be trusted when they continue to
lie, unduly pressurise our government to not
hold them legally accountable for the
polluting Shell oil refinery in south Durban"
asks Bobby Peek, a neighbour of the Shell oil
refinery, and Director of groundWork, Friends
of the Earth South Africa.
The practice of ignoring communities and
their needs continues with the practices of
BP with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
Kety Gujaraidze, of the Green Alternative for
the Georgian Republic, campaigning against
the construction of this pipeline, calls on
Lord Browne, CEO of BP to walk the
sustainability talk and commit BP to a course
that does not disrupt local livelihoods, to
consult openly with local people and to be
truthful about the potential for
environmental hazards which are associated
with pipelines.
For more information contact:
Andreas Missbach, Berne
Declaration/Erklärung von Bern, Switzerland,
+41 (0)79 339 37 01, amissbach@evb.ch
Miriam Behrens, Pro Natura - Friends of the
Earth Switzerland, Tel: +41 (0)61 317 92 42
oder +41 (0)79 216 02 06,
miriam.behrens@pronatura.ch
«The Public Eye on Davos» - a joint
project:
Berne Declaration (coordination) Pro Natura
(FoE Switzerland), Friends of the Earth
International (FoEI), Asociación
Latinoamericana de Organizaciones de
Promoción, Corporate Europe Observatory,
Focus on the Global South, International
South Group Network, Tebtebba Foundation,
Women in Development Europe, World
Development Movement
Public Eye on Davos c/o Berne Declaration,
P.O. Box 1327, CH-8031 Zurich,
Switzerland
Ph. + 41 (0)1 277 70 06,
Fax. + 41 (0)1 277 70 01,
publiceye@evb.ch,
www.evb.ch/mediapubliceye.htm
Miriam Behrens Pro Natura - Friends of the
Earth Switzerland mobile: +41 (0)79
216'02'06
|
