Mobilisation contre le meurtre de Berta Cáceres

Geneva, 10^th March 2016

The brutal assassination of Berta Cáceres in her home in Esperanza, Honduras on March 2, has generated an unprecedented protest against corporate impunity and a demand for effective access to justice from around the world. This global demand is the essential context of the deliberations of the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on March 11th as the Report of the Open Ended Inter Governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) on transnational corporations (TNCs) is presented. In this context, the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity & for Peoples Sovereignty is present and active in Geneva, calling for a mobilization and a Press Conference on Thursday 10^th March (12.30 pm) at the Place des Nations, and intervening at the 31st UNHRC regular session on Wednesday 9 and Friday 11^th March.

Resistance to dispossession of people’s livelihoods perpetrated by TNCs has now claimed another victim: the life of the Honduran indigenous woman leader Berta Caceres, whose organisation, COPINH has sustained resistance to the dam Project Agua Zarca for several years. This project is being financed by a range of international Financial Institutions - European Financial corporations, the German giant Voith Siemens, FMO (Netherlands Development Finance Company), the Finnfund (Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation), and the American CABEI (Central American Bank for Economic Integration). It is of crucial importance to expose the gravity of this latest corporate crime, taking place just one week before the presentation of the Report of the OEIGWG on TNCs at the UNHRC. The OEIGWG, mandated in June 2014, is effectively pursuing its work to establish a binding international instrument to address TNCs and other business enterprises with respect to human rights.

In this context it is also very important to urge immediate protection and safe return home for Gustavo Castro, a Mexican activist that was with Berta and witnessed the moment of her assassination. He was injured and has been prevented from leaving Honduras and is still detained today without reason. Berta Cáceres assassination isnot an isolated eventbutis part of thesystematicviolationof human rightsthat takes placeon a daily basisin thesystemicprocess of securingthe interestsof transnational corporations. In recentyears ithas consolidateda dense network ofmechanismsthat make up thearchitectureof impunityof TNCsand ensurestheirprofits are placed aboveHuman Rights andthe Rightsof Peoples.The Trade & Investment regime is part of thatframework,which would not bepossible withoutthe complicityof States,both fromthe home countries which are headquartersof TNCs anda large number ofcountriesthat receive corporate investments. Besides tax exemptions, TNCs demands for lowering of labour and environmental standards are accommodated as in the case of the Agreement made by Chevron with YPF in relation to Agentina’s Vaca Muerta oil field.

We also face a real corporate capture of Democracy in front of which the struggle of Berta and COPINH is a growing threat. This is why she was assassinated. To reduce corporate impunity, there is an urgent need for a UN, legally binding instrument providing for the establishment of a World Court on TNCs and Human Rights. To confront corporate capture, we reaffirm and organize to establish the sovereignty of the peoples.

Contact:

Alberto Villareal, Redes-FOEI: comercioredes@gmail.com (+41 7 942 94275)

Raffaele Morgantini, CETIM: contact@cetim.ch (+41-796606514)

Mónica Vargas, TNI: m.vargas@tni.org (+34-662026497)

More information:http://www.stopcorporateimpunity.org

Related documents/material:

•

International Statement on the murder of Berta Cáceres, endorsed by the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity

• Déclaration devant l'ONU du CETIM et de l'AIJD

• Declaración ante la ONU del CETIM y del AIJD

•

8 proposals for the new legally binding international instrument on Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and Human Rights