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	Corporate Capture by Ana Margarita Gonzalez Dejusticia, agencies   A common practice of private companies is attempting to influence the legislation and institutional framework of States in order to design policies that favor their interests.   Corporate capture is defined as undue influence that corporations exercise over national and international public institutions to maneuver in accordance with their interests and against the general public interest and the duty to respect, protect, and guarantee human rights.   Companies adopt different mechanisms to co-opt governmental decisions that establish norms regarding companies’ actions in different countries.   Thus, it is important for civil society organizations and communities to understand the way in which companies act, and to design strategies to avoid their undue influence in public policy decisions. In spite of companies’ almost unlimited capacity to concrete this agenda, civil society organizations can challenge and denounce these practices.   Global South experiences are particularly useful to identify the elements of a strategy for civil society organizations.   Corporate Capture Strategies   Lobbying politicians or public policy makers and direct financing of political parties to influence national policy agendas is the most frequent form of corporate capture.   Similarly, the so-called “revolving door,” which consists in moving key members of the public sector to the private sector and vice versa, is also popular.   In addition to influencing or creating incentives for the executive, companies also seek to influence judicial decisions and mold public debate through the activity of NGOs and think tanks. Companies not only attempt to influence think tank activity, but also create and finance non-profit organizations, allegedly independent, to guide public debate, such as the recently denounced Global Warming Policy Foundation, whose principal mission is to deny the relationship between human activity and climate change.   In spaces for the definition of global policies regarding company activities, Greenpeace has denounced the presence of more than 124 organizations financed by Exxon that attempt to question climate change for the benefit of this company.   In negotiations during Conferences of the Parties (COP) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the extractives sector organizes booths, dinners, meetings, and participates in meetings as observers, through commercial organizations that are considered NGOs under the current rules of the COP, as happened in the earlier Varsovia COP.   This situation leads to the question of what strategies organizations can develop to prevent corporate capture at the domestic and international decision making levels. At the national level, various organizations have attempted to use legal action and public exposure to denounce the undue influence of companies in the public sector.   With respect to legal actions, the Brazilian organization Terra de Direitos has created enough pressure to restrict corporate support for judicial events and prohibit the granting of corporate incentives to members of the judiciary. Via litigation before the Brazilian National Justice Committee, organizations managed to impose limits on stimuli and forced the judiciary to be accountable.   In Kenya, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission has lobbied to strengthen the right to information in order to achieve greater transparency and visibility of regulatory proposals in the legislature regarding corporate behavior, as well as strategies to clarify the rules regarding financing and interest rates.   Additionally, strategies of exposing the relationships between sectors has been useful for studying corporate capture and designing mechanisms to combat it.   The Who is who Wiki initiative, undertaken by Mexican organizations, includes a database that reveals corporate ties to Mexican politics, accompanied by a media campaign.   At the level of global policies related to climate change, the Center for Democracy has undertaken a research initiative regarding corporate ties to the COP in Lima, held at the end of 2014. This project is the fruit of a strategy of collaboration between NGOs and research centers, and the reports on the role of extractive industries in negotiations demonstrates the contradiction between the interests of corporations (who are generally responsible for pollution), and the progress of negotiations.   To counteract corporate capture, civil society needs to have a broad array of measures and strategies, in addition to political will of the State and companies. For civil society, collective measures that promote information, transparency, and monitoring of companies, so that the regulations of business activities in various sectors avoid greater human rights violations.   *Ana Margarita Gonzalez is a researcher at the Center for the Study of Law, Justice, and Society (Dejusticia)   http://dejusticiablog.com/2014/11/10/civil-society-answers-to-corporate-capture/   Feb 17, 2015   Winnie Byanyima, the Executive Director of Oxfam International, is delivering the inaugural International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Lecture at the 38th session of the Governing Council, IFAD"s annual meeting of Member States. IFAD asked Byanyima to share her thoughts on the role of development aid in the context of the Governing Council"s theme: rural transformation: Extract.   Winnie Byanyima: "One final point about the impact of inequity on the future of aid: Just as aid alone cannot solve the challenge of poverty, aid cannot solve the problem of inequality. But how aid is delivered can influence how responsive partner governments are to their own citizens.   Too often, the impact of aid and the actions of donors can reinforce existing power relationships in partner countries, assisting elites in their efforts to capture and retain power over how national resources are distributed. When aid is given blindly in a way that benefits bad leaders or a small cadre of wealthy people, it makes it harder for citizens to influence how taxes are collected, how national assets are distributed, or how government services are allocated. This can lead to elites capturing the state for their own selfish ends, worsening inequality.   Yet when delivered well, aid can help to improve public accountability, complementing government spending on much-needed public goods, and support citizen’s efforts to hold their governments to account. This accountability to citizens is the antidote to political capture, and can help disadvantaged people and groups get the policies they need to reduce inequality both of opportunities and outcomes.   Smallholder farmers are often politically, socially and geographically remote from development decision-making. To combat poverty and inequality, aid needs to support the poor and marginalized to find their voice and claim their vote in how development resources are distributed". http://www.ifad.org/events/gc/38/oxfam.htm   Australian Tony Fitzgerald, QC, a highly respected former judge, states of Australian Democracy: "The well-connected and wealthy, are given access to and influence over the political process".. "Access can now be purchased. Patronage is dispensed. Mates and supporters are appointed and retired politicians exploit their connections to obtain success fees for deals between business and government."   There are 4,000 corporate lobbyists in Canberra, Australia, more than 20,000 at K-Street, in Washington D.C., many thousands more in London, Brussels.. - they are active in every capital of nearly every country in the world pursuing their interests.   The Global Financial Crisis was precipitated by the deregulation of the banking and financial sector in the U.S. at the behest of corporate lobbyists, with widespread negative global consequences. In the upcoming American Presidential election the Conservative Koch Brothers are planning to spend 1 billion dollars to ensure the election of business friendly politicians to advance the interests of the 1%. In China, widespread popular outrage compelled President Xi Jinping to launch an anti-corruption initiative that has so far identified over 25,000 corrupt Government officials and is ongoing.   Indonesian President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, was elected last year promising to address widespread perceived corruption. Last week in Delhi, India the anti-corrption party Aam Adami had resounding victory in legislative elections, over Prime Minster Narendra Modi''s BJP Party - promising to address widepread official corruption.   Accountability advocates lament the nexus between Government and major business leaders in Russia. During the recent South African elections, Jacob Zuma from the African National Congress promised again to address corruption. In Cambodia, hundreds of thousands of dispossessed small landowners are calling for their land rights to be recognised.   Civil Society advocates can often face repression, threats, intimidation''s and much worse for calling for justice and the respect of their rights from powerful actors who benefit most from inequitable arrangements.   Current major international Multilateral Trade Agreements under negotiations (Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) impacting well over a billion people have been criticized for their lack of transparency, and serious concerns raised by the investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions allowing investors to sue governments if policy changes or even court rulings substantially affect "the value of their investment", yet do not allow governments to sue investors for breaching the right to health.   Investor state dispute settlement processes constrain governments abilities to regulate on the basis of the precautionary principle, or even to implement health policies on the basis of established evidence reported The Lancet medical journal this week.   Transparency International every year cites the widespread corruption of the political processes in countries around the world.   (Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates, “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government.” Corporate capture is defined by the undue influence that corporations exert over public institutions, manipulating them to act according to their priorities, at the expense of the public interest and the integrity of the systems required to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. Through corporate capture parties exert political influence over the legislative process, and the state regulators charged with enforcing laws, weakening provisions in the law or their implementation).   * Links to agencies that further explore these concerns:   http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/five-years-after-citizens-united-signs-backlash http://www.citizen.org/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/BusinessIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/Fiscalandtaxpolicy2014.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/ESCR/Pages/ESCRIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/ListOfIssues.aspx http://www.hrw.org/topic/business http://www.fidh.org/International-Federation-for-Human-Rights/globalisation-human-rights/business-and-human-rights/ http://business-humanrights.org/ http://www.srfood.org/en http://www.landcoalition.org/node/2581 http://www.rtfn-watch.org/ http://www.righttowater.info/ http://www.right2water.eu/ http://www.msfaccess.org/ http://corporateeurope.org/media http://www.escr-net.org/thematic-focus/corporate-accountability http://www.aepf.info/news/articles/57-corporate-capture-at-the-heart-of-europe http://www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/TaskForce_IllicitFinancialFlows_Poverty_HumanRights.aspx http://academicsstand.org/2014/06/press-release-un-goals-should-do-more-to-curb-tax-dodging-that-has-cost-poor-countries-trillions/ http://taxjustice.net http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/library/tackling-tax-and-saving-lives-children-tax-and-financing-development http://www.icij.org/offshore http://business-humanrights.org/en/search-topics
	Charities warn India PM Modi that NGO crackdown will hurt the poor by Alertnet, World Today, agencies   May 2015   Charities warn India''s Modi that NGO crackdown will hurt the poor, by Nita Bhalla. (Alertnet)   Charities in India appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop a government crackdown on thousands of foreign-funded non-profit groups saying it would hurt the lives of poor and marginalised people.   Since Modi came to power almost a year ago, his right-wing nationalist government has tightened surveillance on foreign-funded charities. It says some had violated the law by not disclosing details of their donations, or used overseas money to engage in "anti-national" activities.   Charities reject the accusations, but admit there may be some groups which had unintended funding discrepancies. They say authorities are using an opaque, "draconian" law on foreign funding to muzzle criticism of initiatives such as industrial projects affecting the poor and the environment.   "Funds are being frozen, intelligence reports are being selectively released to paint NGOs in poor light, disbursal of funds are being subjected to case-by-case clearance, and their activities are reportedly being placed on ''watch lists''," said an open letter to Modi signed by 171 charities and activists.   "At the moment it seems that ''compliance'' is serving as a garb to actually target those organisations and individuals whose views the government disagrees with, and indeed to monitor and stifle disagreement itself."   The letter - signed by groups such as Oxfam India, Human Rights Law Centre and the Conservation Action Trust - said the clampdown was "arbitrary, non-transparent, and without any course of administrative redress".   Last month, the government cancelled the licenses of almost 9,000 charities and blocked the bank accounts of Greenpeace India, which has led campaigns against genetically modified crops, coal mining and nuclear power projects.   Greenpeace says it now faces closure within a month due to a shortage of funds and has accused the government of "strangulation by stealth".   Big donors like the U.S.-based Ford Foundation are also being investigated. Ford Foundation faces a probe of its funding of a group run by Teesta Setalvad, a prominent rights activist and critic of Modi.   U.S. Ambassador Richard Verma to India said this week he was worried about "the potentially chilling effects" of the action against the NGOs, while Germany''s top diplomat Michael Steiner said charities should be supported for their "impressive work".   There is no official number of charities operating in India, but the government estimates there are at least two million non-profits - working in areas from conservation, education and health to protecting the rights of minorities.   A 2013 report by the home ministry said that while more than 43,500 - around 2 percent - were registered as charities which receive foreign funds in 2011/12, only 22,700 had provided details of their donations.   Home ministry officials say they were now simply enforcing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), a law which bars overseas donations going to NGOs of a "political nature".   A leaked intelligence service report in June 2014 said local branches of organisations such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International and ActionAid were using foreign funds to damage the country''s economy with anti-industry campaigns.   The groups have been involved in many campaigns in which they have supported indigenous communities to successfully mobilise against big mining firms such as Vedanta and Essar.   Modi''s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government is keen increase investment in infrastructure and make it easier for businesses to buy land to boost growth.   This jars with NGOs who oppose what they say is economic development at the cost of the poor and the environment.   http://www.rtcc.org/2015/05/18/india-no-place-for-dissent-in-worlds-biggest-democracy/   Feb 2015   Rising Hindu nationalism alarms Indian Minority Communities, by Stephanie March.   A series of attacks on Catholic churches in the Indian capital has minority groups warning about the rise of Hindu nationalism under the leadership of prime minister Narendra Modi.   The latest attack follows a series of government gaffes that have offended religious minorities, including an attempt to cancel Christmas.   On Monday the leaders of St Alphonsa Catholic Church found the South Delhi house of worship had been vandalised, the fifth attack on a Catholic church in the Indian capital in recent months.   Police in Delhi claim that the attack was a robbery, but church leaders suspect something more sinister.   "The scenario is pretty bad all over India for Christians and Muslims as well, and this is certainly worrying because this is happening right under the nose of prime minister," said Father Dominic Emmanuel, spokesman for the Delhi Catholic Union.   "These attacks are certainly connected to the right wing Hindu fundamentalists whose voice is getting stronger and have been emboldened by last year''s election of the BJP."   Mr Modi''s political party, the BJP, has its roots in the Hindu fundamentalist group the RSS, which has been accused of recently trying to convert people to their religion by force.   Secularism is a sensitive topic for Mr Modi, who has been accused of not doing enough as chief minister of Gujarat state to prevent the deaths of up to 2,000 Muslims in religious riots in 2002.   The vast majority of India''s 1.2 billion people are Hindu, but there are still millions of citizens who belong to other religions, like Islam and Christianity, many of which say they are being ignored by this government.   The Modi administration recently came under fire for printing old versions of the country''s constitutional preamble in newspapers on India''s national day, a version which omitted the word "secular", which was added in 1976.   It has also been criticised for proclaiming December 25 as Good Governance Day, to mark the birthday of former BJP prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.   "I have told the government that if they want to increase business with western countries, in particularly America, what do they think?" Father Emmanuel said.   "Do they think that America or Europe, or Australia would be happy to hear that on Christmas Day you are converting it into Good Governance Day, undermining the meaning of Christmas and of the birth of Jesus Christ - not just for Christian community in India, but what impact will it have on the rest of the Christian world?"   During his visit to India last week, US president Barack Obama used his final speech in the nation to declare that "India will succeed so long as it''s not splintered along the lines of religious faith". Visit the related web page
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