«Il n‘y a pas un monde développé et un monde sous-développé, mais un seul monde mal développé»
Transnational corporations (TNCs) have become major and powerful actors.
The activities of transnational corporations are a source of multiple human rights violations
In many cases, especially when victims are from the Global South, impunity prevails. TNCs are indeed able to evade national jurisdictions because of the unprecedented economic, financial and political power they command, their transnational character, their economic and legal flexibility and the complex structures they use to carry on their activities.
Since the late 90s, the CETIM is firmly committed to ending the impunity of transnational corporations and ensuring access to justice for the victims of their activities. The CETIM supports social movements, trade unions and organizations representing victims and affected communities from the Global South in their efforts to access the UN human rights protection mechanisms. And the CETIM is involved to their sides in the campaign for new binding international norms to end impunity, providing its support for their participation in the negotiations and the presentation of their proposals.
Access to justice for victims of TNCs
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 54th session 29 July – 16 August 2002 Read the CETIM written statement I. Effects of transnational corporations’ activities and working methods on human rights A. What are transnational corporations? 1. Transnational corporations are private law legal entities with a presence in multiple territorial jurisdictions but […]
Continue readingDuring the last twenty years, transnational corporations (TNCs) have acquired unprecedented economic, financial and political power. Markets and capital globalization, which has been mostly profitable to these companies, has allowed for further concentration of their capital and production means, creating oligopolistical situations. Their activities cover all sectors . They can choose where and how to […]
Continue readingI. In 1998, the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, duly concerned about the effect of the methods of work and the activities of transnational corporations on the enjoyment of human rights, decided to create a Working Group with the following six points mandate. “1) to identify and examine the effects of […]
Continue readingSUB-COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS 53rd session 30 July – 17 August 2001 [Excerpt from the statement] The industrial and financial groups that drive globalisation with the backing of political institutions are practising an exclusionary form of globalisation. According to the theory of ‘comparative advantage’, free trade is always beneficial to all parties, stimulating less efficient […]
Continue readingHUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION 57th session 19 March – 21 April 2001 [Excerpt from the declaration] On the initiative of CETIM and the American Association of Jurists (AAJ), an NGO petition was launched to this effect, calling on the 57th session of the Human Rights Commission, on the one hand, to affirm the primacy of fundamental […]
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