The Geneva Week of Mobilization Begins
The Polaris Institute's Executive Director, Richard Girard, is in Geneva this week to participate in a week of mobilization organized by the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power to pressure the United Nations Human Rights Council to adopt binding codes that would regulate Transnational Corporations and provide access to justice for victims of human rights violations committed by corporations.
The week action kicked off with a hearing of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal...
Read moreThe WTO pushes through bad deal in the final hours; Developed countries and TNCs are the big winners
STATEMENT/PRESS COMMUNIQUE
The 9th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) pushed through a Bali Package in the final hours, extending the Conference to December 7, but at the cost of the developing countries, the poor and the hungry.
Read moreCall to Defend Peoples' Rights Against Corporate Power outside WTO ministerial in Bali
(Le français suit)
Polaris Institute's Tony Clarke and Richard Girard along with thousands of activists from hundreds of social movements are in Bali this week to challenge the World Trade Organization during its 9th Ministerial. Here is a press release from the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power where Polaris is playing a leading role.
Canadian Mining Company Infinito Gold Seeks to Extort $1 Billion from Costa Rica
Thursday, October 10, 2013
As organizations in Canada and Quebec, we are appalled that Calgary-based Infinito Gold has decided to sue the Government of Costa Rica for $1-billion under the Canada-Costa Rica bilateral investment treaty. This is just the latest - and arguably most disturbing - attempt by Infinito management to intimidate the people, court system and government of Costa Rica over their rightful decision not to approve the controversial Crucitas gold mine near the San Juan River system.
Citizens' groups demand an end to the impunity of transnational corporations through an International People’s Treaty
Brussels, 5 September 2013
Civil society groups, trade unions, affected communities and MEP’s, will gather at a conference in Brussels later this week to urge the EU to promote an International People’s Treaty & International Tribunal that regulates transnational corporations and investments for the public interest.
Read moreProtect the Commons, Not the Banks!
Text & reflection co-authored by Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute about how the recent Rio+20 and G20 pose a strategic challenge to social movements and civil society groups regarding the economic and environmental future of the world.
Land Grabs in Africa - Fueling Water and Climate crises
Two short reports on land grabs intersecting with water and climate justice produced by the Polaris Institute and the Oakland Institute.
Read moreCorporations, Climate and the UN
November 24, 2011 - In time for COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, the Polaris Institute has prepared a report outlining how multinational corporations and their lobbyists have infiltrated the United Nations and are influencing the outcomes of climate negotiations. The report uncovers and describes where corporations influence the United Nations in the build up to and during climate change negotiations and how this corporate interest is the driving force behind the preferred market based initiatives that are emerging from the UNFCCC process.
Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity
The Polaris Institute has been a key member of the The Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity since it was launched in 2012. The campaign aims to provide a global structural response to the unaccountable power of Transnational Corporations by bringing together existing campaigns and networks to build collective systemic responses to corporate power and advance the Peoples’ solutions.