Press Invitation
Brussels, 11 October 2016
From 14 to 16 October 2016, an International Monsanto Tribunal will be held in The Hague, Netherlands, alongside a People’s Assembly, to hear cases against Monsanto and other agribusiness corporations and put forward real solutions to societal and environmental challenges. An international delegation of La Via Campesina will be taking part in this awareness raising event highlighting the need to reclaim people’s sovereignty, dismantle corporate power and stop impunity.
Faced with the increased control by transnational corporations over food and agriculture, through privatization, commodification and concentration of resources, grassroots organizations propose food sovereignty, agrarian reform and agroecology as alternatives for the whole of society and more specifically at the UN through the implementation of binding instruments to control TNCs .
We hereby invite you to hear the testimonies, experiences of peasants from around the world and their propositions to win back our sovereignty as they unite in The Hague with other social movements and civil society oganisations against the corporate capture of people’s rights and agriculture. Joining us are: Yudhvir Singh (BKU, India), Jean-Luc Juthier (Confederation Paysanne, France), Jean-Paul Henry (Confederation Paysanne, France), Nivia da Silva (MST, Brazil), Sandra Moreno (SOC, Andalucia) and Mohamed Hakech (FNSA, Morocco).
In the program, La Via Campesina is organizing and/or participating in the following sessions and workshops:
Friday, 16h30 – 18h00: Attack on Farmers and Farming
Saturday, 10h00 – 12h15: Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power & Stop Impunity and GMOs cases around the world
Saturday, 14h00 – 16h00: Struggles for Peasant Rights and Food
Sovereignty, against agrotoxics, (new) GMOs and TNCs
Sunday, 10h00 – 11h00: Going Forward – Strategies to build Peoples’ Power – Round Table: Exchanges on Strategies going beyond Corporate Impunity
Follow us on twitter and facebook
You can join the global struggle to dismantle TNCs like Monsanto with the hashtags : #BindingTreaty #PeasantRights #DismantleTNCs
Press contact:
Andres Arce Indacochea, press contact : +32 489 55 22 97 (EN, ES, FR)
Annelies Schorpion, press contact : +32 474 84 72 80 (EN, ES, FR, NL)
Reference documents regarding Monsanto and other agribusiness corporations:
Combatting Monsanto – Grassroots resistance to the corporate power of agribusiness in the era of the « green economy » and a changing climate (report): https://www.viacampesina.org/downloads/pdf/en/Monsanto-Publication-EN-Final- Version.pdf
Syngenta – human right violations in Brazil (report) : https://viacampesina.net/downloads/PDF/The%20Case%20of%20Syngenta%20-
%20Human%20Rights%20Violations%20in%20Brazil.pdf
Power and impunity of transnational corporations stifles people’s voice (position paper):
https://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/actions-and-events-mainmenu-26/stop- transnational-corporations-mainmenu-76/1836-power-and-impunity-of-transnational- corporations-stifles-people-s-voices
Blocking the path of corporate grab of food systems (dossier): https://nyeleni.org/DOWNLOADS/newsletters/Nyeleni_Newsletter_Num_25_EN.pdf
