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/* ---------- "RIGHTS: UN Team Scrutinises Transna" ---------- */
Copyright 1999 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 03-Aug-99 ***
Title: RIGHTS: UN Team Scrutinises Transnational Corporations
By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Aug 3 (IPS) - The United Nations (UN) installed a new
working group Tuesday to evaluate the effects of transnational
business activity on human rights.
El-Hadji Guisse, the working group's president, said
transnational corporations have a presence in the vital sectors of
the world economy and ''are thus in a position to block any moves
towards the respect for and protection of human rights.''
In a preparatory study for the working group, Guisse, a
magistrate from Senegal, recommended that nations create laws
which ''criminalise activities by transnational corporations that
violate economic, social and cultural rights.''
The biggest problem is getting transnationals to submit to
national or international law, stated Guisse.
The new working group, which functions within the UN
Subcommission on Human Rights, must establish the level of
compatibility between international investment agreements and
human rights law.
Asbjorn Eide, a Norwegian and one of the 26 independent members
of the Subcommission on Human Rights, remarked with satisfaction
on a group of industrialised nations' failed attempt to reach a
Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), though he predicted
''this issue will resurface.''
The member-countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD) attempted to create the MAI, but
were frustrated in 1998 by ''the reaction of human rights
organisations,'' said Eide.
Halima Embarek Warzazi, working group expert from Morocco,
interpreted the OECD initiative as ''an attempt by transnationals
to gain free access to our countries.''
Among the traits of the transnationals, Guisse cited ''conducting
activities in several countries, the pooling of resources and the
joint preparation and application of a co-ordinated strategy.''
Geographic diversity is a source of legal and jurisdictional
conflict, which causes serious difficulties in exercising economic
rights, whether individual or collective, said Guisse.
The power of the transnational corporations is evident in the
fact that they hold 51 of the 100 greatest concentrations of
wealth in the world, explained Guisse, while the remaining 49
concentrations are in the hands of governments.
According to the preparatory report, Mitsubishi's trade volume is
greater than the gross national product (GNP) of Indonesia, Ford's
trade totals more than South Africa's GNP, and Royal Dutch Shell's
income is more than Norway's.
The working group's responsibilities also include analysing the
role of governments and their human rights policies in relation to
transnational corporations.
The current session of the UN Subcommission on Human Rights,
which lasts until August 27, will also study the effects of
globalisation on human rights.
Guisse warned that economic globalisation runs the risk of
creating even wealthier transnational corporations and the
impoverishment of even more people, especially in countries with
weak economies.
Industrialised countries hold 97 percent of the world's
registered patents. According to one working group member, this
concentration is not healthy because it becomes an instrument
transnationals can use to pressure less developed nations.
Eide stated that agro-industrial transnationals have launched
genetically modified seeds in the market, and as a result of the
related intellectual property rights, they have altered farming
methods that were based on thousands of years of traditional
knowledge.
U.S. expert David Weissbrodt stated that some transnationals that
have begun to adopt voluntary codes of conduct, either on an
individual basis, such as Shell oil company, or collectively, as
companies from the textile industry have done.
The working group, which has a three-year term, will also examine
the functioning of the UN system in order to promote the
compatibility of transnational activities and its human rights
principles. (END/IPS/tra-so/pc/mj/ld/99)
Origin: Montevideo/RIGHTS/
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