Latest on Corporate Influence and Accountability (External) - Archive

The International Call is out for a new regulatory regime that will end the impunity of Transnational Corporations (TNCs). This includes the demand for a World Court that will judge and sanction economic, political and ecological corporate crimes and ensure justice for affected communities and sectors.

An alternative Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights for Latin America and the Caribbean along with Latin American communities demand justice against the systematic human rights violations, pollution, exploitation and destruction of their territories and natural heritage perpetrated by national and transnational corporations. They emphasize that UN's voluntary standards in this respect are insufficient and demand true accountability and morality from states, multilateral organizations and corporations.

United Nations' Unions call for action ahead of the 2013 General Assembly about the credibility of mercenaries being used to carry out security and peacekeeping work. Their call is based on a report published by the United Nations’ Working Group on the use of mercenaries, which reveals that the UN is increasingly outsourcing contracts for armed guards, convoy security, security advice, risk assessment and transport services. This report is supported by Global Policy Forum’s report on the use of Private [...]

"Few forms of financial speculation are as perverse or damaging as the speculation in food prices, or have such dramatic and immediate effects. Despite this, the financial lobby has skillfully defended its territory and if politicians lack focus, the plans to curb speculation might be lost at the last moment," writes European lobby-watchdog Corporate Europe Obeservatory (CEO) in an article published yesterday.

In an article for Financial Transparency Coalition, a transparency watchdog, economist Ann Hollingshead describes the relationship between income inequality, wealth and illicit financial flows in the context of Asian economic development. In Asia, a strong export sector and high overall growth rates have led to the creation of a large number of extremely wealthy individuals. In turn, these have attracted banks, which play a role in moving money out of these countries. This has adverse consequences for Asian states' ability [...]

The first session of an intergovernmental working group for drafting a UN declaration on the rights of peasants took place in July. FIAN, an international human rights organization advocating the realization of the right to adequate food, expresses concern over opposition to a declaration. The organization reports that the USA, Japan, Korea and several EU member states doubt the necessity of a declaration protecting peasants specifically. FIAN underlines that peasants are one of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in [...]

More than 30 Mozambican civil society organizations have committed to take concerted action against privatization of land and looting of natural resources. Mozambique’s National Peasants Union (União Nacional de Camponeses, UNAC) reports with other participating organizations that the decision to launch a nationwide campaign was taken in response to the government failing to manage land and the country’s rich natural resources justly. According to the organizations, this is a result of corruption and concentration of wealth and power in the [...]

There is a vast number of proposals, strategies and initiatives how to improve food security and agricultural production. Suspiciously, one aspect is missing in these debates: Could import restrictions help to stimulate agricultural production and benefit small-scale farming families? What are the preconditions for a rational and "smart" implementation of trade regulation to achieve these objectives? These questions are taken up by Uwe Hoering in his report "Alternatives to Food Import Dependency" which he wrote for FDCL, a research and [...]

On July 19, 2013, the OECD published a long awaited socalled Action Plan with recommendations to tackle corporate tax avoidance. Tax Justice Network, an international expert network working on issues around tax evasion and avoidance, reacted to this Action Plan with their own take on what needs to be done about transnational corporations paying little or no taxes in countries where they operate.

Transnational Institute, the European Coordination Via Campesina and the Hands off the Land network have published a joint report on the scale of lang grabbing within Europe. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they argue that land grabbing is not only prevalent in Africa and Latin America, but is happening increasingly in Europe, and in particularly rapid fashion in Eastern Europe. The losers have been smallholder farmers, who have been replaced by investors both foreign and domestic. Therefore, the report calls for [...]

Nina Schneider from Alliance Sud, the Swiss Alliance of Development Organizations, draws attention to the new guidelines of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation for public-private development partnerships (PPDPs). The guidelines were published in early 2013 and they aim at regulating the partnerships more tightly. Alliance Sud reports that one central problem has been decentralized structures of the Swiss agency resulting in lack of control over the various partnerships. The new guidelines tackle some problematic issues related to PPDPs [...]

Martin Khor, director of South Centre, explains how the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement could potentially disadvantage participating developing countries. He points out that local producers will have to compete with large foreign businesses. Moreover, the TPPA will give foreign companies more opportunities to sue governments, while also raising the prices of medicines.

In a press release, the German NGO "Information Centre on Militarization" (IMI) criticizes the decision of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) ot begin deploying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in UN missions. IMI is a member organization of the German Drone Campaign "against the deployment of UAV technology used for military, surveillance and oppressive purposes".

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the influence of big corporations on EU-decision making, has issued a call for support. The organization sued the EU Commission for withholding information on free trade negotiations with India from the public while sharing it with business lobby groups. CEO is now appealing to the European Court of Justice on a ruling from the EU’s General Court - with possible repercussions for the upcoming US-EU trade [...]

This article published by IRIN, a humanitarian news and analysis website affiliated with the UN, refers to a letter written by a group of African civil society organizations to the head of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which aims to spread the use of genetically modified crops on the continent. The article points to the dangers associated with GMO crops, the extent to which their benefits have been overstated and why this is the wrong approach [...]

In April 2013 Latin American countries responded to the piling lawsuits against their governments by large corporations. In a meeting in Guayaquil, Ecuador, seven states adopted a declaration deciding to take action in order to support each other through a mutual Executive Committee, among other things. The second meeting of this grouping is to be held in July.

A coalition of NGOs, including Friends of the Earth Europe, Oxfam, the World Development Movement and SOMO have criticized the position EU finance ministers display with regard to financial regulation. They say the EU ignores how financial institutions continue to engage in food speculation, which endangers food security. New regulations are due to be adopted by 2014.

Harris Gleckman, senior fellow at the Center on Governance and Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, critically reviews the proposals put forward by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its Global Redesign Initiative. The report of the initiative, a 500 page collection of proposals of over 40 thematic working groups, calls for a fundamental redesign of global governance towards “multi-stakeholder governance” of governments, corporate actors and civil society. In his new article on Policy Innovations Gleckman lays out some of [...]