GLOBAL PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL ON CORPORATE CRIMES
AGAINST HUMANITY: In Seattle Nov 27-29
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 05:47:51 -1000
From: +**
Reply-To: kanakamaoliallies-l@hawaii.edu
Organization: st4.tele.dk
Dear friends and allies,
A unique event is being organized to take place the weekend prior to
the WTO meeting in Seattle. It's being coordinated by Ward Morehouse,
co-director [with Richard Grossman] of the Program on Corporations, Law
and Democracy [POCLAD]. I urge anyone who is interested in this event to do
what you can among the following tasks to ensure that the event is a
huge success:
1. Try to attend this event yourself, and tell your associates about
it if
they're going to Seattle.
2. Re-Send this email to your list of ally individuals and
organizations
PROMPTLY. It's being organized quite late in the game, and has not
received
much publicity thus far. You can help rectify that!
3. If you have a website, please link it to OUR website as this full
text
is also downloadable from our site:
www.monitor.net/democracyunlimited
3. Make a tax-deductible donation to help defray the substantial
expenses
associated with bringing dozens of expert witnesses together, renting a
hall, etc. Checks may be made payable to CIPA, and sent to the address
at
the end of the announcement.
4. If you own a broadcast-quality video camera, and can commit to
being
present for the entire event [Sat + Sun 9am-5pm] as part of a
multi-camera
film crew, please promptly contact video coordinator Emilia Berol - no
later than 9pm west coast time on Monday, Nov 22nd - at 707-826-1963 or
trillium@humboldt1.com
I hope to see you there,
Paul Cienfuegos
Director, Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County
Arcata, CA
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DRAFT DOCUMENT: 23 September 1999
Announcement
GLOBAL PEOPLE'S TRIBUNAL ON CORPORATE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Seattle, Washington, USA, November 27-29, 1999
Plans are now being made to hold a Global People's Tribunal on
Corporate
Crimes Against Humanity at the time of the World Trade Organization
Ministerial Meeting, which starts on November 29. The Tribunal will
hear
testimony and receive other forms of evidence of crimes against
humanity by
global corporations as defined under international and Canadian law on
Saturday and Sunday, November 27 and 28, from 9am to 5pm both days. A
decision on whether this evidence is sufficient to sustain charges of
crimes against humanity will be rendered on Monday, November 29, the
opening day of the Ministerial Meeting.
Rationale:
The real enemy of the people and the biosphere in Seattle is not the
World
Trade Organization but those structures of power which created it and
which
it serves -- namely, giant global corporations now larger than most
nation
states. One purpose of the Tribunal is to focus attention on this
underlying reality of corporate-driven globalization. Another purpose
of
the Tribunal is underscore just how destructive of fundamental human
rights, the environment and democratic process the world's largest
corporations are.
The organizers believe that it will be possible to present to the
Seattle
Tribunal sufficient evidence to sustain an indictment of those
corporations
being examined by the Tribunal for 'crimes against humanity.' Such
crimes
have been defined under Canadian Law C-71 as meaning '... murder,
extermination, deportation, persecution, or any other inhumane act or
commission that is committed against any civilian population or any
identifiable persons ... and that ... constitutes a contravention of
customary international law or conventional international law or is
criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the
Community of Nations' [emphasis added]. This definition is drawn from
the
Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg as
subsequently
reaffirmed and extended to acts committed at any time [not just
wartime] by
the UN General Assembly. And the UN's International Law Commission has
asserted that 'inhumane acts' become crimes against humanity when they
are
'committed in a systematic way or on a large scale and instigated or
directed by a Government or by any organization or group' [emphasis
added]
which clearly includes non-state actors such as giant global
corporations.
Tribunal Format:
A grand jury of persons from the USA [host of the WTO Meeting], Canada,
and
other countries will be impaneled by the presiding judge or judges of
the
Tribunal to receive evidence of crimes against humanity by a limited
number
of global corporations [see below]. The jury will be aided in this
task by
one or more prosecutors who will review the applicability of crimes
against
humanity as defined above to different 'inhumane acts or omissions'
under
Canadian and international law.
This Tribunal will function like a grand jury, considering whether or
not
there is sufficient evidence to sustain charges of 'crimes against
humanity.' The actual trial will take place in other forums in the
future
with timely notice to the accused parties which will be given ample
opportunity to present evidence in their defense under generally
accepted
conditions of due process.
Venue:
Arrangements are now being made with the assistance of the Citizens
Trade
Campaign at the Labor Temple, 2800 First Avenue, Seattle.
Corporations to be Investigated:
Between 6 and 12 global corporations will be selected, based in part on
the
ready availability of evidence of 'inhumane acts or omissions'. Among
those already suggested are Union Carbide Corporation [perpetrator of
the
world's worst industrial disaster at Bhopal, India], Dow Chemical
[which
gave us Agent Orange and is about to acquire Union Carbide], Monsanto,
Bayer, Unocal, Shell, Rio Tinto, Cargill, and GAP. However, no final
choices have been made and additional suggestions are welcomed.
Types of Evidence:
Written, oral, and video taped. We will also examine critically
corporate
counterclaims to have benefited humanity.
Culminating Action:
On Monday, November 29, members of the Tribunal jury and others who
wish to
do so will march on the Convention and Trade Center to serve citizen
arrest
warrants on the Trade Ministers of the Group of 8 countries [i.e., the
largest industrialized countries] as accomplices after the fact in the
commission of crimes against humanity as determined by the Tribunal.
Participation Welcomed:
As plans are still tentative, we welcome suggestions of judges, members
of
the Tribunal grand jury [preferably people already planning to come to
Seattle as we have no travel budget], corporations to be examined, and
witnesses, both 'expert' and those who have suffered directly at the
hands
of the corporations in the dock at the Tribunal [again preferably those
already planning to come or with access to travel funds]. We also
welcome
financial contributions, in cash or kind [e.g., plane tickets to
Seattle].
Organizers:
Endorsed by People's Global Action at its recent conference in
Bangalore,
the Tribunal is being organized by a small group of human rights,
consumer,
and trade union activists in the USA and Canada. For further
information,
contact the Tribunal Coordinator, Ward Morehouse, Council on
International
and Public Affairs [CIPA], 777 United Nations Plaza, Suite 3C, New
York, NY
10017, Tel. 212 972 9877 or 914 271 6590, fax 914 271 6590, e-mail:
cipany@igc.org
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This full announcement can also be downloaded from the following
website:
www.monitor.net/democracyunlimited