Latest on Corporate Influence and Accountability (External) - Archive

The online awards organised by Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, LobbyControl and WeMove.EU focuses on big industry lobbies influencing the ongoing TTIP negotiations. For the fourth year, the EU-US trade negotiations are continuing behind closed doors, despite the far-reaching consequences which a deal will have on consumer protection, health and environmental standards, as well as democratic decision making in Europe.

Even though citizens have every right and reason to be concerned about this prospect, negotiation texts remain [...]

The UN Human Rights Council is currently negotiating a treaty with binding rules for businesses and human rights. This treaty could protect people from human rights abuses by corporations and bring corporate human rights violators to justice. Unfortunately, the European Union and its member states have so far taken a pro-business approach and have been boycotting negotiations. Help bring justice to the victims of corporate abuse and uphold the rights of people. Tell the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude [...]

The open-ended intergovernmental working group in charge of elaborating an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations (TNCs) and other business enterprises with respect to human rights convened its first session in Geneva on Monday. The role of TNCs has exponentially expanded over the last few decades and the value chains that are shaped by TNCs account for around 80 per cent of global trade. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz states [...]

The recently concluded 68th World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution to continue negotiations on WHO’s Framework for Engagement with Non-State Actors. The seven days of hectic negotiation, which started on 20 May could not reach consensus on critical issues due to the divergence of views among Member States. These issues include the definition of resources, secondments, the relation of WHO with industries other than the tobacco and arms industry, transparency requirements, oversight mechanism of engagements with non-State actors (NSAs) [...]

The right of indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent in relation to development, infrastructure, and resource extraction projects is critical to the realization of all indigenous rights connected to the preservation and control of their territories. In a legal argument regarding this right, Mónica Yriart, an attorney in constitutional law, human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, asserts that national political powers have no intention of conceding the right of consent to indigenous peoples, and that it [...]

Potential conflicts of interest continue to plague the European Parliament one year after elections, finds new research released by Friends of the Earth Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl. The new report details nine cases of MEPs who have other jobs while holding public office and are at risk of potential conflicts of interest.

The Unholy Alliance, Five Western Donors Shape a Pro-Corporate Agenda for African Agriculture, a new report released today by the Oakland Institute, exposes how a coalition of four donor countries and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is shaping a pro-business environment in the agricultural sector of developing countries, especially in Africa.

The Treaty Alliance has called on civil society organisations (CSOs) everywhere to take action to combat corporate capture. At the recent treaty Alliance gathering in Brazil they particularly called on CSOs to demand that the forthcoming United Nations (UN) binding treaty contains strong provisions that prohibit the interference of corporations in the process of forming and implementing laws and policies, as well as administering justice, at all national and international levels.

Greenpeace Netherlands is releasing a package of leaked TTIP negotiation texts to provide much-needed transparency and trigger an informed debate on a treaty threatening to have far-reaching implications for the environment and the lives of almost a billion citizens in the EU and US. This is the first time the public will have the chance to compare the EU and US negotiating positions.

In light of the emphasis given to public-private partnerships as a mechanism to finance infrastructure projects and highlighting the need for capacity building and knowledge sharing at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, a recently published working paper by the Department of Economic & Social Affairs at the UN Secretariat reviews the extant literature on the subject and identifies areas requiring better understanding and institutional innovation for ensuring value for money, minimizing contingent fiscal risk [...]

The European Commission’s “new” investor protection proposal brings controversial corporate super rights back from the dead according to a recent Corporate Europe Observatory report: “The zombie ISDS – rebranded as ICS, rights for corporations to sue states refuse to die”. It shows how the push for foreign investor privileges in EU trade talks such as the proposed EU-US ‎TTIP‬ deal continues as the Commission attempts to rebrand the politically untenable investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) as an “Investment Court System”.

The EU’s “Better Regulation” agenda, despite being less known than TTIP, seeks to improve Europe’s competitiveness by reducing the regulatory costs for business through instruments that closely resemble those discussed under TTIP. In a new report, the European Environmental Bureau, Bread for the World and Forum Umwelt & Entwicklung raise concerns over the “Better Regulation” project proposed by the Juncker Commission. According to the organizations, such a measure to curb regulation is unlikely to achieve its primary aim of improving [...]

A new report by Global Justice Now demonstrates that the trend to involve business in addressing poverty and inequality is central to the priorities and funding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The authors argue that this is far from a neutral charitable strategy but instead an ideological commitment to promote neoliberal economic policies and corporate globalization. Big business is directly benefitting, in particular in the fields of agriculture and health, as a result of the foundation’s activities, despite [...]

A new report by Global Justice Now demonstrates that the trend to involve business in addressing poverty and inequality is central to the priorities and funding of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The authors argue that this is far from a neutral charitable strategy but instead an ideological commitment to promote neoliberal economic policies and corporate globalization. Big business is directly benefitting, in particular in the fields of agriculture and health, as a result of the foundation’s activities, despite [...]

The ongoing EU-US trade negotiations, TTIP, seek to bring rules on both sides of the Atlantic together by means of so-called regulatory cooperation. This part of the talks involves dismantling existing “regulatory barriers” and preventing new ones from emerging with public interest regulations having to go through lengthy procedures, including vetting by business for possible impacts on trade. It has sparked concerns that the trade deal will lead to attacks on environmental protections, safety at work regulations, and laws to [...]

A new report by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl examines the origins and impacts of TTIP's proposals for regulatory cooperation and shows that the process has been dominated by big business right from the start. This part of the talks involves dismantling existing “regulatory barriers” and preventing new ones from emerging with public interest regulations having to go through lengthy procedures, including vetting by business for possible impacts on trade. The TTIP talks cover a wide range of policy areas [...]

A new paper by Friends of the Earth Europe explains how the European Union is aggressively pursuing special rights for businesses whilst hampering efforts to hold corporations responsible for the human rights violations they commit. The European Commission and the EU member states have been pushing for special rights for European investors whose operations are internationally enforced by secretive, business-friendly tribunals in trade agreements such as the EU-US TTIP deal. Yet, the European countries and the European Commission are derailing [...]

Puvan Selvanathan has resigned from the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, where he has been working since 2011. In an open letter to J. Rücker, current President of the Human Rights Council, Selvanathan calls for a legally-binding treaty on business and human rights. He states “I believe that if a business can operate ‘legally’ yet impact negatively on human rights then that is a simple failure of a state’s duties. […] I suggest that if states wish [...]

Philanthropic foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations Foundation have seconded their staffers to top management positions at the World Health Organization. This information revealed to Member States during the ongoing negotiations of the Framework for Engagement with non-State Actors (FENSA) shows that between 2012 and 2015, WHO had 37 secondments from non-State actors (NSA). Three current top-level secondments have Gates Foundation connections. This information published for the first time brings out the lack [...]

Millions of dollars given by major pharmaceutical companies to the World Health Organization (WHO) raise questions of compliance with the organization’s guidelines on interactions with commercial enterprises. It is notable that the draft Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors (FENSA) currently being finalised by WHO Member States does not contain a provision that requires a commercial enterprise to conform to WHO’s polices, norms and standard. In a new article, K M Gopakumar from Third World Network (TWN) presents the amount [...]

Corporate Accountability International has released a report about corporations sponsoring the COP21 summit next week. The report, titled “Fueling the Fire: The big polluters bankrolling COP21” analyses the track record of four major sponsors: Engie (formerly GDF Suez) and Suez Environnement, BNP Paribas and Électricité de France (EDF). It sheds light on the pollution caused by the companies as well as their greenwashing and lobbying activities and their interference with the climate summit. It concludes that there is an inherent [...]

In an article for The Guardian, Alfred de Zayas, UN independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, argues that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) should be abolished as it puts investors rights before human rights. He outlines a number of cases in which investors sued governments over environment regulations or health standards and won, showing how commercial interests trump human rights considerations. He argues that respect for human rights must prevail over commercial laws and that [...]

The 87-88 double issue of the South Bulletin titled "Business and Human Rights: Commencing discussions on legally binding instrument", which was released by the South Centre, publishes a number of detailed reports on the first meeting of the Human Rights Council's Working Group on a legally binding instrument on TNCs and other business enteprises with respect to human rights in July 2015. The reports in this Bulletin include general overviews; the scope of application of the instrument; the obligations of [...]

Coming up to the UN climate talks in Paris bound to start next week, the Corporate Europe Observatory has taken a look at what is being cooked up by big business for the negotiations. This report highlights five “key ingredients” ranging from short-terminism, to the advocacy of fossil fuels, especially natural gas, market mechanisms, technologies that are yet to be discovered and continually promoting already existing methods such as industrial agriculture. The report concludes that the results of the Paris [...]

In response to a 'non paper' prepared by the WHO secretariat, a number of NGOs, among them the Baby Food Action Network and the Third World Network, have sent a letter to the Director General of WHO, calling on her to protect the UN and overall policy-making from corporate takeover. The WHO 'non paper' states that the Framework of Engagement With Non State Actors (FENSA), currently under negotiation at the WHO, might have “detrimental consequences on the work of the [...]