SPECIAL REPORTS AND PROJECTS
Times for mitr phol, coca cola, nestle, mars wrigley and bonsucro to live up to their human rights responsibilities.
Published
4 years agoon
(November 17, 2020) — This week from Genva, the United Nations is hosting its annual Forum on Business and Human Rights. Thousands of participants from government, business and civil society groups from around the world will gather online to discuss current issues regarding the implementation of the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights – which outline the global authoritative standards on the business responsibility to respect human rights.
Inclusive Development International has joined with our partners at Equitable Cambodia and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) to issue a joint statement to the forum. The statement highlights a decade-long struggle by displaced Cambodian communities against Asia’s largest sugar company and explains how a number of prominent companies attending the forum are failing to meet their responsibilities under the Guiding Principles.
To make way for a sugar plantation in Cambodia, a Thai sugar company, Mitr Phol, colluded with the military to raze people’s homes, forcibly seize their land and loot their harvested rice crops.
Extraordinarily, Mitr Phol continues to be a member in good standing of the sugar industry’s sustainability certification initiative Bonsucro, while corporate customers of Mitr Phol, such as Coca-Cola and Corbion, are attempting to wash their hands of any responsibility for human rights abuses that are directly linked to their own supply chains.
The Executive Director of Equitable Cambodia, Eang Vuthy, renewed our joint call for Mitr Phol to undertake remedial action with the communities immediately.
“This problem won’t go away if this company continues to deny the reality of the violations it caused in Cambodia. People will use every legal means possible to hold them accountable,” said Mr. Eang.
Inclusive Development International’s Executive Director, David Pred, said the brands that continue to source sugar from Mitr Phol, such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Mars and Corbion, should utilize their leverage as key customers to demand that Mitr Phol engage in settlement talks with representatives of the affected families.
“These communities had their homes destroyed, their land seized and their livelihoods taken from them by force. Companies like Coca-Cola can’t claim to be responsible corporate citizens if they are willing to tolerate such serious human rights abuses in their supply chains,” said Mr. Pred.
Mitr Phol’s human rights abuses have been investigated and confirmed by many institutions including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Thai Human Rights Commission and multiple human rights NGOs, including Inclusive Development International.
Earlier this year the communities scored a major legal victory when the Thai courts granted them class status in their legal action against the company for its harmful actions in Cambodia – paving the way for the first transboundary human rights class action in Asian legal history. But Mr. Pred said it was a long road ahead for the communities seeking justice.
“Legal battles can take years to play out, whereas big brands like Coca-Cola and Nestle have the power and the clout to get Mitr Phol to sit down at the negotiating table with community members next week. If Mitr Phol continues to refuse to engage with the communities and meet its responsibility to compensate them for the damages it caused, then the brands should stop buying their tainted sugar – that is what the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights require,” said Mr. Pred.
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DEFENDING LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS
Statement: The Energy Sector Strategy 2024–2028 Must Mark the End of the EBRD’s Support to Fossil Fuels
Published
1 year agoon
September 27, 2023The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is due to publish a new Energy Sector Strategy before the end of 2023. A total of 130 civil society organizations from over 40 countries have released a statement calling on the EBRD to end finance for all fossil fuels, including gas.
From 2018 to 2021, the EBRD invested EUR 2.9 billion in the fossil energy sector, with the majority of this support going to gas. This makes it the third biggest funder of fossil fuels among all multilateral development banks, behind the World Bank Group and the Islamic Development Bank.
The EBRD has already excluded coal and upstream oil and gas fields from its financing. The draft Energy Sector Strategy further excludes oil transportation and oil-fired electricity generation. However, the draft strategy would continue to allow some investment in new fossil gas pipelines and other transportation infrastructure, as well as gas power generation and heating.
In the statement, the civil society organizations point out that any new support to gas risks locking in outdated energy infrastructure in places that need investments in clean energy the most. At the same time, they highlight, ending support to fossil gas is necessary, not only for climate security, but also for ensuring energy security, since continued investment in gas exposes countries of operation to high and volatile energy prices that can have a severe impact on their ability to reach development targets. Moreover, they underscore that supporting new gas transportation infrastructure is not a solution to the current energy crisis, given that new infrastructure would not come online for several years, well after the crisis has passed.
The signatories of the statement call on the EBRD to amend the Energy Sector Strategy to
- fully exclude new investments in midstream and downstream gas projects;
- avoid loopholes involving the use of unproven or uneconomic technologies, as well as aspirational but meaningless mitigation measures such as “CCS-readiness”; and
- strengthen the requirements for financial intermediaries where the intended nature of the sub-transactions is not known to exclude fossil fuel finance across the entire value chain.
Source: iisd.org
Download the statement: https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-09/ngo-statement-on-energy-sector-strategy-2024-2028.pdf
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SPECIAL REPORTS AND PROJECTS
Will more sovereign wealth funds mean less food sovereignty?
Published
2 years agoon
April 13, 2023- 45% of Louis Dreyfus Company, with its massive land holdings in Latin America, growing sugarcane, citrus, rice and coffee;
- a majority stake in Unifrutti, with 15,000 ha of fruit farms in Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Philippines, Spain, Italy and South Africa; and
- Al Dahra, a large agribusiness conglomerate controlling and cultivating 118,315 ha of farmland in Romania, Spain, Serbia, Morocco, Egypt, Namibia and the US.
Sovereign wealth funds invested in farmland/food/agriculture (2023)
|
|||
Country
|
Fund
|
Est.
|
AUM (US$bn)
|
China
|
CIC
|
2007
|
1351
|
Norway
|
NBIM
|
1997
|
1145
|
UAE – Abu Dhabi
|
ADIA
|
1967
|
993
|
Kuwait
|
KIA
|
1953
|
769
|
Saudi Arabia
|
PIF
|
1971
|
620
|
China
|
NSSF
|
2000
|
474
|
Qatar
|
QIA
|
2005
|
450
|
UAE – Dubai
|
ICD
|
2006
|
300
|
Singapore
|
Temasek
|
1974
|
298
|
UAE – Abu Dhabi
|
Mubadala
|
2002
|
284
|
UAE – Abu Dhabi
|
ADQ
|
2018
|
157
|
Australia
|
Future Fund
|
2006
|
157
|
Iran
|
NDFI
|
2011
|
139
|
UAE
|
EIA
|
2007
|
91
|
USA – AK
|
Alaska PFC
|
1976
|
73
|
Australia – QLD
|
QIC
|
1991
|
67
|
USA – TX
|
UTIMCO
|
1876
|
64
|
USA – TX
|
Texas PSF
|
1854
|
56
|
Brunei
|
BIA
|
1983
|
55
|
France
|
Bpifrance
|
2008
|
50
|
UAE – Dubai
|
Dubai World
|
2005
|
42
|
Oman
|
OIA
|
2020
|
42
|
USA – NM
|
New Mexico SIC
|
1958
|
37
|
Malaysia
|
Khazanah
|
1993
|
31
|
Russia
|
RDIF
|
2011
|
28
|
Turkey
|
TVF
|
2017
|
22
|
Bahrain
|
Mumtalakat
|
2006
|
19
|
Ireland
|
ISIF
|
2014
|
16
|
Canada – SK
|
SK CIC
|
1947
|
16
|
Italy
|
CDP Equity
|
2011
|
13
|
China
|
CADF
|
2007
|
10
|
Indonesia
|
INA
|
2020
|
6
|
India
|
NIIF
|
2015
|
4
|
Spain
|
COFIDES
|
1988
|
4
|
Nigeria
|
NSIA
|
2011
|
3
|
Angola
|
FSDEA
|
2012
|
3
|
Egypt
|
TSFE
|
2018
|
2
|
Vietnam
|
SCIC
|
2006
|
2
|
Gabon
|
FGIS
|
2012
|
2
|
Morocco
|
Ithmar Capital
|
2011
|
2
|
Palestine
|
PIF
|
2003
|
1
|
Bolivia
|
FINPRO
|
2015
|
0,4
|
AUM (assets under management) figures from Global SWF, January 2023
|
|||
Engagement in food/farmland/agriculture assessed by GRAIN
|
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SPECIAL REPORTS AND PROJECTS
Farmland values hit record highs, pricing out farmers
Published
2 years agoon
November 21, 2022UNCCD COP16: NGOs issue a stark warning and call for urgent actions to deal with the escalating threats of desertification, land degradation, and drought.
A bail application for the 15 EACOP activists failed to take off, and they were remanded back to Prison.
Land grabbers evict 360,000 Ugandans in 2024
Forced Land Evictions in Uganda: Tenure and food insecurity on the rise…
A bail application for the 15 EACOP activists failed to take off, and they were remanded back to Prison.
Breaking: There has been an alarming Rise in Forced Land Evictions in Uganda; over 360,000 Ugandans were Displaced in the First Half of 2024.
Appellate Division of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) rejects the request to dismiss the EACOP appeal case.
Breaking: 15 Anti-EACOP Activists have been charged with common nuisance and remanded to Luzira prison.
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Over 5000 Indigenous Communities evicted in Kiryandongo District
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Invisible victims of Uganda Land Grabs
Resource Center
- LAND GRABS AT GUNPOINT REPORT IN KIRYANDONGO DISTRICT
- 12 KEY DEMANDS FROM CSOS TO WORLD LEADERS AT THE OPENING OF COP16 IN SAUDI ARABIA
- PRESENDIANTIAL DIRECTIVE BANNING ALL LAND EVICTIONS IN UGANDA
- FORCED LAND EVICTIONS IN UGANDA: TRENDS, RIGHTS OF DEFENDERS, IMPACT AND CALL FOR ACTION
- FROM LAND GRABBERS TO CARBON COWBOYS A NEW SCRAMBLE FOR COMMUNITY LANDS TAKES OFF
- African Faith Leaders Demand Reparations From The Gates Foundation.
- GUNS, MONEY AND POWER GRABBED OVER 1,975,834 HECTARES OF LAND; BROKE FAMILIES IN MUBENDE DISTRICT.
- THE SITUATION OF PLANET, ENVIRONMENTAL AND LAND RIGHTS DEFENDERS IS FURTHER DETERIORATING IN UGANDA AS 2023 WITNESSED A RECORD OF OVER 180 ATTACKS.
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