Hi John,
Multinational mining firms are currently suing Colombia to the tune of $13 billion. That’s equivalent to over 13% of the Colombian government’s annual budget. What’s more, many of these cases are the result of decisions taken by Colombia’s courts to protect human rights, especially those of Indigenous communities, or to preserve the environment.
If you’ve been following Global Justice Now’s work for a while, you’ll be able to guess what’s going on here. This is the result of what we call ‘corporate courts’, the system of secretive investor tribunals written into trade deals. We’ve fought and beaten some of these deals before, and now we’re standing in solidarity with Colombia to fight the deal it has with the UK. Join us for the online launch of the campaign.
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Stand with Colombia
Inside the global fight against corporate courts
- Guillaume Long, ex-Foreign Minister of Ecuador
- Cleodie Rickard, campaigner at Global Justice Now
- Sebastián Abad Jara, legal expert and researcher from the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defence
📅 When: 7pm–8.15pm, Tuesday 25 February
📍 Where: Online via Zoom
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The UK-Colombia investment treaty was signed over ten years ago, and has just reached the point at which it can be renegotiated, or even scrapped, if both parties agree. With at least 24 corporate court cases against it in the last decade, including four via the UK treaty, Colombia’s government wants out of the system. Now we need to persuade the UK to come to the table.
In this webinar, we’ll hear from Guillaume Long, ex-foreign minister of Ecuador, who led his own country through the process of terminating investment treaties, and from Sebastián Abad Jara, a legal expert and researcher for the ecosystems programme at the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defence (AIDA). AIDA has been central to the struggle to protect Colombia’s fragile páramo wetlands, which has caused an onslaught of corporate court claims by mining firms. Finally, my colleague Cleodie Rickard will set out the concrete actions we can take in solidarity from the UK.
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A year ago, we won our last campaign against corporate courts when the Conservative government agreed to exit the Energy Charter Treaty. The Labour party applauded that decision at the time. Join us on 25 February to hear the case for terminating this treaty and how you can help bring that about.
James O’Nions
Head of movement building at Global Justice Now
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