[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about why and how claim holders must be the first to act against this TNCs’ dodging of human rights. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text].
1. The prescriptions that countries in the South have accepted for numerous decades are actually given by international financial institutions, notably by the World Bank and the IMF, and are devoted to further neoliberalism. One key prescription is to depend on private enterprises, without discrimination against size (even be they transnational corporations) so as to maximize economic growth with trickle down effects originally advanced through ‘safety nets’ –now recast as ‘social protection floors.’* [As per this ideology, and in the case of agriculture, the larger the agricultural enterprise with strong links to global consumers, the more successful will peasants be in shedding poverty, if not today then certainly tomorrow (…?). The unacceptably frightening results of this ideology are apparent in the dismal and worsening situation of rural communities in countries rendered poor]. (Aly Alp-Ercelan)
*: It’s not the floors, stupid, it’s the ceilings!
TNCs play an important role in driving and perpetuating the axis of inequality between the Global North and the Global South
–Corporations and their allies put forward strategies to eliminate government regulation and democratic checks on corporate power. They use their outsized financial advantage to shape politics and policy robbing people of their ability to use local democratic channels to rein-in corporate-driven excess and harm, including human rights abuses.
2. TNCs serve as a neo-colonial wealth extraction vehicle from the Global South, depleting public resources and serving to entrench the privatization of public goods and services. This is perhaps the most pernicious example of how neoliberalism (not so indirectly!) harms health equality and conflicts with sustainable development goals.
3. The neo-colonial dimension to neoliberalism lies at the heart of the issue, but is not linked to any specific industry. Typically, TNCs and other actors (multilaterals, philanthropies, international NGOs…) use their power to:
• Influence jurisdictions, markets and local civil society organizations;
• shape political, legal, economic, socio-cultural and technological structures; and
• influence societal values and norms.
4. And the mechanisms of influence** they use are:
• Marketing, retail and pricing practices;
• social media, online marketing and sales, e-commerce;
• heavy-handed lobbying, political contributions, public relations and philanthropy;
• trade and investment agreements and foreign direct investment; and
• financial practices, tax avoidance, beneficial ownership and other practices.
**: Their influence also includes broader forces that enable these mechanisms, such as privatization, financialization, commodification and data monetization. (Frontiers in Public Health)
5. “It is no longer credible to get a handle of global crises without asking tough questions about the functioning of globalization and its key institutional actors: transnational corporations. Avoiding these realities will not get us a set of institutions fit for the future.” (1987, the Brundtland Commission’s Report, Our Common Future)
Who to fall back on, then?
6. “Courts, parliamentarians and national human rights institutions will not move unless claim holders (you) move first. I do not know whether you need them, but I certainly know that they need you as a source of motivation, of knowledge and of support for action(!)”. (Olivier De Schutter, past Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food). [It was the Optional Protocol on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) that amplified the importance of the UN Rapporteurs for advocating the implementation of human rights providing an international support mechanism].***
***: The International Covenant on ESCR has an Optional Protocol that enables the Human Rights Council to receive and consider direct communications from individuals claiming to be victims of violations of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. A State party to the Covenant that becomes a party to the Protocol recognizes the competence of the Human Rights Council to receive and consider communications such individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation by that State of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. Individuals who make such a claim, and who have exhausted all available domestic remedies, are entitled to submit a written communication to the Council. Such communications, as deemed admissible by the Council, are brought to the attention of the State party alleged to be violating a provision of the Covenant. Within six months, that State must submit to the Committee written explanations or statements clarifying the matter and indicating the remedy, if any, that it may have applied.
Bottom line
7. The call is for a serious re-thinking of our global governance, because indeed, the UN is powerless while international financial organizations and mega-philanthropies have too much power. The G7 or the G20 may certainly be useful, but cannot or will not change current power relations. And it is safe to say almost all of our international and national institutions –the G7, G20 and UN agencies included– are captured by business… (Francine Mestrum) Claim holders (you) must move first!
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com