Sorry, Duplicate. Salvadorans Warn Canadians about World Bank’s Kangaroo Court

[polly7]

Last edited Tue May 19, 2015, 04:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Please see prior thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110840771



By Rene Guerra
Source: teleSUR English
May 19, 2015

In anticipation of an imminent ruling from the World Bank’s little known investor-state arbitration tribunal that could force El Salvador to pay Canadian mining firm OceanaGold US$301 million, a Salvadoran delegation is in Canada to discuss how this arbitration process threatens democratic decision making, public health and the environment here and beyond.

“As United Nations expert Alfred de Zayas recently expressed, the impact that investor-state arbitrations have already had and will have on human rights is very worrisome,” warned Yanira Cortez, Deputy Attorney for the Environment for El Salvador’s Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office, at an event in Ottawa this week. “We know that just the threat of these lawsuits can force governments in the Global South – and even here in Canada – to go against the public interest when it comes to health and environmental protections.”

Since May 11, Cortez and Marcos Gálvez, President of the Association for the Development of El Salvador, have been sharing how their country’s sovereign decision to halt large-scale mining on environmental grounds could be punished any day now by the secretive International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington, DC. Gálvez’s organization is also a founding member of the country’s National Roundtable against Metal Mining.

They have also been reminding Canadians of the dangers they face through investor provisions in existing and proposed free trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canada and European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

OceanaGold (originally Pacific Rim) is suing El Salvador for an amount equivalent to the country’s 3-year budget for health, education, and public security for not having granted it a permit to put a gold mine into operation, despite its project not having met regulatory requirements and despite a broad-based consensus in El Salvador rejecting large-scale mining. Filed in 2009, this ICSID suit is taking place in an undemocratic, closed door arbitration tribunal and could undermine El Salvador’s sovereignty and right to legislate social and environmental policies in the public’s interests. For example, a proposed legislative ban on mining has been stalled in the Salvadoran legislature for years, partly due to government fears of further suits in response.

As Gálvez and Cortez’s stay in Canada draws to an end, Gálvez draws hope from this growing global concern over these powerful international tribunals. “Salvadorans, Canadians, and many others elsewhere face a common threat. Let’s continue to call on our governments to withdraw from these treaties and provisions that leave us all so vulnerable.”

BBM.

Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/salvadorans-warn-canadians-about-world-banks-kangaroo-court/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Doesn't seem possible that corporations could have stolen this much power.

They just had to buy the right politicians to push immoral, evil laws through to turn everything over to them, and destroy everyone who objects.

When was the last time anyone ever thought of a politician as a "public servant?"

It's going to take a horrendous struggle to set things straight. It must be done.