Watch live now Investment and impunity in an era of crisis. Advancing a new regulatory regime for Transnational Corporations and Investment Towards An International Peoples’ Treaty. GUE/NGL initiative. 5.9.2013
This Round Table aims to deepen the debate on Corporate Impunity, and introduce key elements in emerging alternatives to Reclaim the Public Interest and to end impunity of Transnational Corporations. Some of the primary topics of discussion will be: the creation of an International Peoples’ Treaty; the Call for a World Court/Tribunal on Transnational Corporations and Extra Territorial Obligations (ETOs); and a European Parliament register for lobbyists. Concrete proposals for the European Parliament and civil society joint actions in 2013-2014 will also be discussed.
PROGRAMME
15.00 – 15.15 Framing the Forum
Gabriele Zimmer – President of the European United Left /Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)
Juan Ramón Quintana – Minister of the Presidency of Bolivia
Context and Background
Rationale for Global Campaign and Focusing the International Peoples’ Treaty
Brid Brennan – Transnational Institute – Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power & End Impunity of Transnational Corporations
15.15 – 16.00 Session 1: Defending the Public Interest and Justice in the face of intensifying corporate offensives and attacks on social, labour and human rights
Challenges & new risks in the intensifying corporate offensive and deepening architecture of impunity (the global trade & investment regime – FTAs/BITs (e.g. the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), WTO Bali package, ISDS instruments & arbitration industry.
Alberto Villareal – Redes (Uruguay) – Friends of the Earth LAC
Member of Seattle to Brussels Network (tbc)
Moderator: Gabriele Zimmer- President of GUE/ NGL
European Parliament and political parties’ responses – Defending the Public Interest
Helmut Scholz – MEP of the GUE/NGL
Ska Keller – MEP – Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Richard Howitt (TBC), Maria Badia i Cutchet – MEPs – S&D Group
Moderator: Erika Gonzalez – Observatorio de Multinacionales en America Latina, Paz con Dignidad (Spain)
Open Forum – Debate
16.00 – 17.45 Session 2: Constructing an International Peoples’ Treaty on Binding Obligations for Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and a World Court to Judge their crimes and End Impunity
Introducing the proposal for an International Peoples’ Treaty
Alejandro Teitelbaum – lawyer specialized in international economic relations and former ‘expert consultant’ on a series of Permanent Peoples’ Tribunals (PPTs) on European Corporations in Latin America (Argentina-Spain)
Chair: Helmut Scholz – MEP of the GUE/NGL
Moderator: Jan Willem Goudriaan, European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) (tbc)
Human Rights and Labour Rights violations and corporate impunity
Case 1 – Mining / Extractive Sector
Rehand Desai- Lonmin Support Committee (South Africa)
Case 2 – Textile Sector
Amirul Haque Amin – President – National Garment Workers’ Federation, NGWF (Bangladesh)
Case 3 – Landgrabbing
Paula Álvarez – Grupo Semillas (Colombia)
Josie Ruffaud – Vía Campesina
Extraterritorial Obligations (ETOs) & Call for a World Court on Transnational Corporations
Rolf Künneman – ETOS Consortium & FIAN International (Germany)
Case 4 – Privatizing Europe: the case of Greece
Maria Kanellopoulou – Save Greek Water Campaign (Greece)
Challenging Corporate Culture in the EU & UN
Olivier Hoedeman – Corporate Europe Observatory – Mandatory Transparency Register & Public-Public-Partnership
Open Forum – Debate
Chair: Helmut Scholz – GUE/NGL MEP
Moderator: Jan Willem Goudriaan, European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) (tbc)
17.50 – 18.30 Ways Forward*
Challenges in Advancing the International Peoples’ Treaty
How to contribute to the International Civil Society efforts from the perspective of the European Parliament?
Which political initiatives are proposed towards the EP elections 2014
Gabriele Zimmer – President of GUE/ NGL
Josua Mata – Alliance for Progressive Labour (Philippines)
Juan Hernandez Zubizarreta – Professor at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) (Spain)
GUE/NGL Group in coordination with civil society networks such as: Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power & End Impunity of Transnational Corporations!, Bi-Regional Network ‘Enlazando Alternativas’, TNI, ODG, Ecologistas en Acción, War on Want, OMAL – Paz con Dignidad, CADTM and Seattle-to-Brussels Network, OIDAHCO.
* A Video-Conference to link up with the Peoples’ Summit about G20 in Moscow is being arranged from 18.00-18.10
Press contact: Gianfranco Battistini + 32 475 646628 gianfranco.battistini@europarl.europa.eu
