Käesolev üleskutse pole seotud teaduse ega kõrghariduse rahastamisega, aga seostub meie ühiste väärtuste ja sihiga. Laiapinnaline kodanikualgatus koosneb üle 200-st organisatsioonist:
suur osa neist ametiühingud. Petitsiooni on allkirjastaund rohkem kui 500 000 inimest üle Euroopa. Petitsiooniga nõuatakse suuremaid õigusi riikidele jakodanikele keskkonna- ja sotsiaalpoliitika kujundamisel ja suurema vastutuse asetamist üleilmsetele sageli äärmiselt mõjukatele korporatsioonidele, kes on harjunud nautima privileege ja vabadust.

Petitsiooni saab allkirjastada: stopisds.org

Täiendav informatsioon inglise keeles selle kohta, miks ja mida, on tehtud, on ära toodud allpool.

It’s been almost a year since we started our campaign ?Rights for People, Rules for Corporations ? Stop ISDS!? Together with over 200 European organisations, trade unions and social movements we are campaigning in favour of corporate accountability rules for companies, for instance through a UN Binding Treaty, and against Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) which gives special rights to corporations. What have we achieved since then?

The campaign started off eventfully: with a kick off at the end of January, in parallel to the World Economic Forum in Davos and in different cities all over Europe: Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, Vienna, Paris…to name just a few.

At the beginning of February, the European Parliament voted on the EU-Singapore investment protection agreement – and thus on the continuation of special rights for corporations. The Socialists & Democrats group was split until the end, but unfortunately the decision came out clearly in favour of the agreement with 436 parliamentarians voting yes and 203 voting no (with 30 abstentions).

However, more than a quarter of a million people signed our petition in the first week – a clear sign that a large part of the population is fed up with increasing corporate power!

Another highlight in the first half of the campaign were the European elections during which we launched our pledge campaign. In various countries we called on candidates to sign our pledge – and hundreds of them did, promising to vote against ISDS and for binding corporate accountability rules. Even famous politicians such as the Socialist & Democrat candidate for EU Commission president, Frans Timmermanns, pledged to end ISDS and protect human rights.We also used the election campaign to hand over the first half million signatures in Austria and Belgium.

The second half of the year and the campaign was dominated by our joint week of action in mid-October. While negotiations took place in Geneva and Vienna on a Binding Treaty and on the future of investment protection on a global scale, we took to the streets.

In France, different organisations launched a series of civil disobedience actions and many other public events in more than 80 cities to denounce the impunity of French multinational corporations. In Paris, the facade of the headquarters of Total, France’s largest oil & gas company, was painted black. In Germany there were actions in at least 12 cities. In Spain several activities, actions and conferences took place across the country. Also a bus tour from Geneva to Vienna, connecting the two political events was carried out, with different actions taking place along the way.

Finally, at the end of October, some organizations launched the “Golden Toilet Brush Award for evil corporations who get away with it”. In Spain, the nomination was delivered to the bank BBVA for funding arms dealers, damaging projects and trying to fight social justice. In Portugal, one of the first winners was the international arbitrator Professor G. Bermann, who received his Golden Toilet Brush during his Doctor Honoris ceremony at the University of Lisbon.

More than 675,000 people are already supporting our campaign. We will hand over the signatures at the end of January. Help us gain even more supporters by forwarding this newsletter or telling your friends about the campaign! Also, a strong campaign needs financial means. Support us with whatever you can to end the campaign with a BOOM!

Let’s not give corporations the right to sue us with ISDS for Christmas.