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	Uruguay Sued for Saving Lives by NYT, BBC, Avaaz, agencies   The tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing Uruguay for having some of the best anti-smoking laws in the world, and there’s a good chance it could win, unless we strengthen the fight in court.   It''s a scary reality that one company, whose product kills, could overturn laws that protect our public health. But if our community''s voices are brought into court by a world class legal team, we could fight back with a force no judge could ignore, showing how this sets an unacceptable precedent for the world.   Let’s tell the court that this doesn’t just affect Uruguay -- if Big Tobacco gets their way it opens the door for challenges everywhere -- companies already have at least 4 other countries in their crosshairs, and many more have anti-smoking laws at risk.   We have to move fast - the court is already hearing arguments. Click on the link below to protect our public health and our democracies from corporate greed -- each of our names will be submitted to the court.   Uruguay requires 80% of the cigarette package to be covered with medical warnings and graphic images. Smoking had reached crisis levels, killing around 7 Uruguayans each day, but since this law was put in place smoking has decreased every year! Now tobacco giant Philip Morris is arguing that the warning labels leave no space for its trademarks.   It''s all part of a global Philip Morris strategy to sue and intimidate countries. The company already slapped an expensive lawsuit on Australia -- and if it wins against Uruguay, it could run cases against more than a hundred other countries including France, Norway, New Zealand, and Finland who are all considering new life-saving legislation.   Experts say Philip Morris has a good chance of winning because it’s using a closed door international tribunal that ruled for corporations two-thirds of the time last year. And their rulings are binding, even though many of the judges are private citizens with corporate ties instead of impartial legal experts. It’s up to us to force them to consider the devastating effect their ruling could have on health across the world.   Uruguay has its own legal team, but they’re rightly focused on arguing their individual defence. We can submit a unique legal argument about how this ruling would set a precedent for every country with smoking laws and a similar trade agreement. And we can show the court that public opinion is behind them if they rule in favour of Uruguay and health protection everywhere. The more of us sign, the harder it is for the court to ignore us.   When big corporations launch deadly attacks on our public good, our community has jumped into action to ensure that profits don''t come before people.   More information:   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30708063 http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/15/345540221/philip-morris-sues-uruguay-over-graphic-cigarette-packaging http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/big-tobacco-puts-countries-on-trial-as-concerns-over-ttip-deals-mount-9807478.html http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21623756-governments-are-souring-treaties-protect-foreign-investors-arbitration http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2960233-1/fulltext http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=5454 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/opinion/dont-trade-away-our-health.html http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/opinion/27mon3.html?_r=1 http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/webdiaepcb2015d1_en.pdf http://citizen.org/documents/tpp-investment-leak-2015.pdf http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/summary.faces/en/58670/html.bookmark http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15883&LangID=E   * July 2016: Uruguay wins legal case against tobacco giant over health warning labels.   Tobacco giant Philip Morris has lost an international dispute surrounding the sale of cigarettes in Uruguay, President Tabare Vazquez says.   As a result, the company must continue to cover its packages sold in the South American country with graphic health warning labels and restrict its branding practices.   In a televised address Vazquez said the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes has rejected a challenge by Philip Morris to his government''s anti-smoking policies, calling it a victory for efforts to protect public health and his country''s sovereignty.   "The health measures that we have imposed to control tobacco and protect the health of our people have been recognised as legitimate and adopted as a sovereign function of our republic," said Vazquez, an oncologist who had spearheaded the anti-smoking campaign.   Philip Morris International had challenged Uruguay''s requirement that graphic warning labels cover 80 per cent of the front and back of cigarette packages and that each brand have only a single product presentation.   Philip Morris contended that Uruguay''s tobacco law violated a bilateral treaty and also hurt its intellectual property rights and sales.   The US-based tribunal also ordered Philip Morris to pay Uruguay $US7 million ($A9.36 million) and reimburse other costs associated with the case. 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	Unmask the Corrupt by Transparency International, agencies   G20 put anti-corruption and money laundering at the top of the G20 agenda.   Transparency International; Global Witness; the Africa Progress Panel; Amnesty International; Care International; Christian Aid; Oxfam; The One Campaign; Tearfund and World Vision call for concrete steps to stop the flow of billions of dollars of shady money which are siphoned off each year instead of being used to alleviate poverty and better the lives of millions.   When a global financial system allows billions of dollars of corrupt or stolen money to flow unchecked around the globe, something is wrong. When financial secrecy helps strip Africa of tens of billions each year, something is wrong. When the poor of this world see the wealth of their countries slip beyond their borders, something must be done.   That’s our message to you, G20 leaders, you must address the flaws that allow the corrupt to operate with impunity and siphon off tainted monies.   As long as there are places in the global financial system where illicit financial flows can find a safe harbour and there are people to help hide these funds millions of people around the world will suffer. You, the leaders of the world’s largest economies must make the global financial system serve its citizens.   At least one trillion dollars is siphoned from developing countries each year. The perpetrators of this “trillion dollar scandal” are rarely found, nor challenged. The UN estimates that global detection rates of illicit funds by law enforcement are as low as 1 per cent.   However, there are common-sense ways to make it harder for criminals to hide the proceeds of their crimes.   The G20 has declared that shedding light on corporate ownership is a priority. Today anonymous companies, secrecy jurisdictions and opaque corporate ownership structures represent the ongoing methods used by those who are corrupt or evading tax to shift their funds and mask their identity.   G20 governments must collect and publish the identity of the real, living people who ultimately own and control companies and other legal entities to make it easier to track the origin of corrupt or illicit funds.   The G20 has supposedly agreed that profits should be taxed “where economic activities occur and value is created” to ensure that countries, especially developing countries do not lose out on the wealth of their resources and the graft of their people.   It is crucial that multinational companies are more transparent about their operations. They should publish information about revenue, profits, numbers of staff, tax liabilities and taxes paid on a country-by-country basis. This needs to be public for citizens to see the impact of companies in their communities and to make it easier to scrutinise where money is earned and where it may be going missing.   Opacity in the global financial system serves as a smokescreen to hide crime and corruption but the G20 has a responsibility to shine a light and make it harder to hide. The primary victims of organized crime, corruption, and tax evasion or avoidance are the poorest citizens of the world. Visit the related web page
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