Tribunal reviews multinationals' alleged practices in Colombia

Published: 2006-04-19

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) -- For most people, U.S. multinational corporations Coca Cola and Chiquita Brands and Switzerland's Nestle are synonymous with soft drinks, bananas and chocolate. But for Colombian union members, human rights lawyers and others, the multinationals' names prompt more sinister associations: assassinations of union leaders, links to paramilitary death squads, persecution of union members and labor instability. In early April, the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, an alternative international tribunal, will begin a two-year process of spotlighting these and other multinationals' alleged activities in Colombia and the human rights abuses they allegedly have committed or from which they have benefited. Most of the multinationals have denied the claims. Tribunal members said they do not expect the hearings to prompt changes from governments or multinational corporations. Instead, the documentation collected for the hearings could help inform international institutions as they establish norms to limit multinational corporations' unchecked powers, said Jesuit Father Javier Giraldo, a prominent social justice activist who acted as an adviser to the first round of hearings.

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