WUNRN
Greetings from the
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)!
At the Asia Pacific
Feminist Forum last June, women, civil society organisations and social
movements from around the world came together and decided to launch a campaign
against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. As the international community comes
together in negotiating a new sustainable development agenda,
another global agreement is on its way, one that would undermine national
sovereignty and democracy; it is a binding agreement that would finalise
corporatocracy!
Please find below a
collective statement against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We are calling for endorsements of
groups who want to join our campaign against the TPP. Click
this link to add your signature to our statement
and also to receive more information about the campaign.
We encourage you to
share this widely with your networks.
In solidarity,
APWLD
....................................................................
RESIST THE
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
We, civil society organisations, networks, and social movements from around the
world, declare our unequivocal opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP). We believe that the TPP, which is currently being negotiated behind
closed doors by governments, led by the United States (US) as the dominant
player among 12 countries, and hundreds of corporate advisors, will
significantly infringe upon people’s rights and freedoms and privilege the
interests of corporations over the public interest.
The TPP is distinct from most trade agreements because of the extraordinarily
broad scope of the rules it would impose on governments. In addition to
conventional trade concerns, such as market access, it allows wealthy countries
and large corporations to reach across borders and impose constraints on a vast
array of domestic non-trade policies that impact the environment, public
services, intellectual property, labour, health, communications, and visas,
among others. The TPP’s main provisions are expected to require
member-countries to remove any remaining barriers to investments, to strictly
enforce intellectual property laws that would raise pharmaceutical costs and
stifle digital innovation and freedom of expression, and to allow private
corporations to sue states before an international tribunal. In effect,
countries joining the TPP will have to surrender big chunks of their national
sovereignty to the trade pact’s dominant players.”
The degree of secrecy surrounding the trade negotiations is completely
unacceptable given the huge repercussions the TPP will have on people’s rights.
It is particularly outrageous that legislatures, civil society, and the media
have been excluded, yet more than 600 corporate advisors have access to—and
influence over—the text. What we know about the TPP comes from leaked texts
that confirm that a broad range of domestic policies must be brought into line
with the terms of the TPP. The TPP represents a corporate coup to deceptively
take over national policy making and democratic rights. This is an
extraordinary violation of domestic policy space, representing unprecedented
aggression against national sovereignty and democratic policy-making.
One aspect of the TPP that is especially concerning is the investor-state
dispute resolution (ISDR) mechanism. This allows foreign corporations to sue
governments if they enact policies, including laws in the public interest, that
reduce their potential profit margin. Consumer laws, environmental protections,
and public health laws can all be considered under ISDR to infringe on
‘investor rights’. In past cases, ISDR has been used by companies to sue
governments for millions, even billions, of dollars, in foreign tribunals
outside of domestic legal systems where there is no compulsion to publish
decisions and no appeal mechanism. ISDR is an attack on the ability of
developing countries to protect the rights of their citizens.
We are particularly alarmed about the implications of the TPP for women.
Policies of privatization, deregulation, and liberalization have the most
negative impact on women, who comprise 70% of the world’s poor. Women’s rights
will inevitably be violated, particularly their rights to decent work and a
living wage, adequate healthcare, and equal access to land and productive
resources. By promoting the aggressive liberalization of all of these sectors,
women living in poverty stand to lose the most as a result of the TPP.
Trade can be a way of empowering local economies and strengthening women’s
economic autonomy. But the TPP is designed to entrench corporate dominance,
inequalities, and exploitation. Whatever the international community commits to
in the context of new Sustainable Development Goals will be comprehensively
undermined by the TPP and its draconian enforcement measures. We call for an
end to the TPP negotiations and for the main text to be publicly released. We know
this will expose the TPP for what it is: a framework that further
institutionalises profit over people.
____________________________________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: WUNRN
LISTSERVE
To: WUNRN ListServe
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 5:25 PM
Subject: Trans-Pacific Women vs. Trans-Pacific Corporatocracy -
Compounds Inequalities for Women
WUNRN
APWLD - Asia Pacific Forum on Women,
Law & Development
TRANS-PACIFIC WOMEN VS.
TRANS-PACIFIC CORPORATOCRACY - COMPOUNDS INEQUALITY
At a time when governments, civil society organisations and the larger international community are negotiating a new sustainable development agenda, another binding, global, agreement is being negotiated behind closed doors. Learn more about the impact this trade agreement can have on the women in the region.
Direct Link to 4-Page Leaflet
