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African Peoples Tribunal to Dismantle Power of industrial Plantation Corporations, Building People Power

LAGOS, NIGERIA, November 23, 2020

Friends of the Earth Africa through its Forest & Biodiversity Program organises the First session of the African Peoples Tribunal from 25-27th November 2020. The main event will take place in Lagos, Nigeria, and due to restrictions and security measures imposed by the current COVID-19 pandemic, several sessions and case presentations will be happening in parallel and simultaneously from Maputo, Accra, Dar-Es-Salaam, Kampala, and other African capitals.

Affected communities and civil society will bring testimonies on cases of human rights violations and environmental degradation connected with monoculture tree plantations expansion from ten countries across Africa.

The tribunal’s legitimacy is based on the principle of recognising human rights under natural, national, and international law, and reclaiming and restoring the rights of impacted peoples whose rights have been violated with impunity.

Rita Uwaka, coordinator of the African Friends of the Earth Forest and Biodiversity program says “Aggressive land-grabbing and deforestation for expansion of industrial tree plantations are causing a new wave of oppression and colonization in Africa, with devastating impacts on people, including differentiated and aggravated consequences for women.”

Kwami Kpondzo, Human Rights Defenders focal point for Friends of the Earth Africa continues to explain that “In the face of ongoing social, environmental and gender injustice in Africa, defending people’s rights is crucial to dismantling corporate power and challenging the capitalist neoliberal model of industrial plantation expansion.”

In all of the ten cases, international financiers, including development banks, private banks, investment funds and pension funds from all corners of the world, are found to be controlling and financing the controversial rubber, palm oil and timber plantation companies. Amongst the accused companies are Socfin, Green Resources AS, Golden Veroleum Liberia (controlled by Golden Agri-Resources), SIAT SA, OLAM and PZ Wilmar.

Five eminent jurors will be interrogating the case presenters and provide a verdict on day three of the Tribunal. They include Nnimmo Bassey, director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) from Nigeria, Ikal Angelei from Kenya who won the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa and is involved in campaigns against dams, and Prof. Alfred Apau Oteng-Yeboah – a Professor of Botany at the University of Ghana.  The other two are Professor Hamudi Ismail Majamba, an Associate Professor of Law specialising in Natural Resources and Environmental Law and advocate of the High Court of Tanzania, and Ms. Makoma Lekalakala, a South African activist and Executive Director of Earthlife Africa who has long been active in social movements tackling issues from gender and women’s rights, social, economic, and environmental justice issues.

Friends of the Earth Africa is advancing the call for industrial plantation companies to stop their harmful activities across the whole continent. Friends of the Earth Africa urges public and private decision makers to work with civil society and communities to bolster the transition to community based agro-ecology and forest management land-use.

According to the network, the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities including access to and control of their own commons and livelihoods must be respected and protected.

Friends of the Earth Africa will continue to fight alongside indigenous peoples and local communities affected by transnational corporation operations to stop any attempts to expand industrial tree plantations and dismantle corporate power across African region.

To attend the Tribunal with interpretation to English, French and Portuguese, please get in touch through the email: vcabanelas.ja.mz@gmail.com

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Please read a summary briefer and ten case studies here: http://africanpeoplestribunal.org

You are invited to join an online press conference on November 27, 2020. Please contact Philip Jakpor: +234 803 725 6939 or jakporphilip@gmail.com for the details

CONTACTS IN MAPUTO:

Vanessa Cabanelas: Coordinator of the Land, Life and Livelihoods at Justiça Ambiental, Friends of the Earth Mozambique – vcabanelas.ja.mz@gmail.com

CONTACTS IN LAGOS:

Philip Jakpor: Director of Programmes, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa: +234 803 725 6939 or jakporphilip@gmail.com

Rita Uwaka: FoEA Forests & Biodiversity Program Coordinator: +234 803 455 3503 or riouwaka@gmail.com

CONTACTS IN LOME:

Ekue Assem, Friends of the Earth Africa Communication Coordinator : +228 93 84 19 30 or darius.assem@gmail.com ;

Kwami Kpondzo, Friends of the Earth Africa Membership Development Team/HRD Focal point : +228 98 22 14 57 or kwadodzi@gmail.com

Despite Covid-19 limitations civil society drives momentum for the historic UN Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights.

3 November, Geneva

The sixth round of negotiations of the United Nations (UN) Open Ended Inter-governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) mandated to elaborate a legally binding instrument on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights”,¹took place in Geneva from 26 -30 October 2020.

The continued presence each year since 2015 – the start of this process – of hundreds of representatives from affected communities, civil society organisations, trade unions and social movements makes it one of the most strongly supported in the history of the OEIGWG. This year, however, due to COVID19 restrictions, physical presence in Geneva was limited.

The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (Global Campaign)²contributed as ever with substantial and concrete proposals to the negotiated text, both from Geneva and via the UN online tools.

Earlier in September, the Global Campaign forewarned that the global corona virus pandemic, meant suitable conditions for a negotiation session and for ensuring its inclusiveness and participatory character were not possible. Although remote participation was enabled through various online platforms by the UN, repeated technical problems hampered remote intervention in the negotiations. The Global campaign’s statement on the last day of the negotiations confirmed that its “original assessment was correct, as the difficulties that everyone encountered in this sixth session resulted in a less than ideal process. We recall that this process should be an inter-governmental negotiation, with ample space for civil society participation according to ECOSOC rules.”

A number of states once again showed their commitment to the process and supported an ambitious Binding Treaty that respects resolution 26/9 and the focus on regulating transnational corporations, such as South Africa, Cuba, Egypt, Azerbaijan and Namibia.

This contrasts with countries whose economies rely heavily on transnational corporations with overseas operations who have always opposed this UN process, such as the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia, as well as the US Chamber of Commerce and the International Organisation of Employers – both of which hold consultative status at the UN.

As in previous negotiation rounds, the European Union – whose member states voted in block against resolution 26/9 – failed to contribute to the text negotiations. In fact the EU’s presence was limited to asking questions of clarification. This was despite 847,000 European citizens calling for the EU’s participation in the negotiations.³Mayors of European cities including

1^{This mandate is a result of resolution 26/9 adopted by the Human Rights Council in 2014. Official page:}https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/hrc/wgtranscorp/pages/igwgontnc.aspx

²A network of over 250 social movements, civil society organisations (CSOs), trade unions and communities affected by the activities of transnational corporations (TNCs), representing 260 million people globally

³https://stopisds.org/

Barcelona, Marseille and Strasbourg last week called on local authorities around the world to support the UN Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights.⁴

Lilian Galan, Member of the Uruguay Parliament and part of the Global Interparliamentarian Network in support of the UN Binding Treaty⁵said:

“We would like once again to emphasize – as the majority of States have – the urgent need to respect the mandate of the OEIGWG established by Resolution 26/9. The purpose of the mandate is to regulate the activities of transnational corporations with regards to international human rights law. This is explicit and all parties must bear that in mind.”

Erika Mendes, from Justiça Ambiental JA! Mozambique and regional co-coordinator of Economic Justice Resisting Neoliberalism program for Friends of the Earth Africa, stated:

“Last Wednesday’s court hearing in France against oil giant Total has shown just how important it is to improve access to justice for affected communities, by granting jurisdiction to courts in the home countries of transnational corporations. Yet, gathering evidence in Uganda has been an uphill battle as community leaders and organisations face continuous threats and harassment. In Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, Total is also leading the gas boom that has come with increased conflict, violence, corruption, human rights violations and social inequality. The binding treaty must go further by reversing the burden of proof, guaranteeing communities’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and ensuring better protection for human rights defenders.”

Josua Mata, from the Asia Task Force on the Legally-Binding Instrument (ATF):

“We hear repeatedly that the crafting of a legally binding instrument will take years. Some say ten years. We’d like to remind those negotiating on our behalf that the longer they tarry, the longer our people, our land and our planet suffer from the ravages of unscrupulous transnational corporations!”

In a final summary statement delivered on the last day of negotiations negotiations the Global Campaign announced:

“In the context of major difficulties and challenges, the Global Campaign reaffirms its faith in this process. Despite all the challenges we face, we have shown – through our commitment and numerous participation – that we remain fully convinced that this legally binding instrument is needed to bring justice to affected people and to put an end to the impunity of transnational corporations. The process is at a critical stage, with many threats looming on the horizon.

Therefore, we provide our proposals and opinions to restore the vitality of this historic process and renew the commitment of delegations and civil society alike to achieving a successful, long- lasting treaty to finally address corporate impunity.”

⁴https://bindingtreaty.org/local-authorities-in-support-to-the-un-binding-treaty/

5^{Global Interparliamentarian Network in support of the UN Binding Treaty is formed by more than 300}members of parliaments from all over the world. https://bindingtreaty.org