Leaders Urge U.N. to Withdraw Support from CEO Water

[Oscar]

125 Public Interest Leaders Urge U.N. to Withdraw Support from CEO Water Mandate


To: Council of Cdns ; Breitkreuz, G. MP ; Fed. Trade Min. Emerson ; Fed. Environ. Min. Baird ; Fed. Ind.Min.Prentice ; Prime Minister Harper

Cc: Polaris Institute ; AB Premier Stelmach ; AB Envir. Min. Renner ; BC Premier Campbell ; BC Envir. Min. Penner ; David Suzuki Foundation ; Dion, S. LIB ; Ducks Unlimited Canada ; Duceppe, G. Bloc ; ECOJustice ; Fogal, C. CAP ; Greenpeace Canada ; Julian, P. MP ; Layton, J. NDP ; May, E. GPC ; MB Premier Doer ; Nature Canada ; NL Premier Williams ; NL Health Min. Wiseman ; ON Premier McGuinty ; ON Envir.Min.Gerretsen ; Pembina Institute ; Parkland Institute ; Safe Drinking Water Foundation ; Sask Environmental Society ; Sierra Club - Can. ; Sierra Club - US ; SK Premier Wall ; SK Party Caucus ; SK Green, Finley ; SK NDP Caucus

Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 9:50 AM

Subject: WATER: 125 Public Interest Leaders Urge U.N. to Withdraw Support from CEO Water Mandate

http://www.examiner.com/p-134989~125_Pu ... _Withdraw_
Support_from_CEO_Water_Mandate.html

Mandate fosters corporate control, threatens global access to water

March 21, 2008

NEW YORK CITY—Leaders from more than 125 environmental, public health, water justice, human rights and corporate accountability organizations in 35 countries, are urging United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to withdraw his support from the CEO Water Mandate—a voluntary initiative being promoted as a way for corporations to make progress toward protecting water resources.

Corporations like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Suez and others that have joined the CEO Water Mandate have drawn criticism from around the world for practices that threaten people’s access to water. Organizations delivered the letter to coincide with the U.N.’s World Water Day, to call attention to the threats posed by corporate control of public water resources.

“Although the stated purpose of the CEO Water Mandate is to make progress toward protecting water resources,” says Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute in Canada, “we are concerned that it is really a thinly veiled public relations effort by for-profit corporations to gain greater control over water resources and services around the world. This is a prime example of ‘greenwashing’ and the U.N. should not be giving it credibility and support.”

“The United Nations should play a vital and active role toward protecting water as a human right and ecological trust,” says Rafael Colmenares of the Comité Nacional en Defensa del Agua y de la Vida in Colombia. “Instead, through the CEO Water Mandate, the U.N. is helping to advance corporate control of water.”

“Corporations like Coca-Cola, Suez and Nestlé are trying to turn water into a high-priced commodity, the oil of the 21st century,” says Kathryn Mulvey of Corporate Accountability International in the United States. “This presents a grave threat to people’s access to water. The United Nations needs to stand up for public, democratic control of a resource that is essential to life.”

For the full text of the letter and complete list of signers (also below) click here: www.stopcorporateabuse.org/files/pdfs/C ... eneral.pdf

==============================================

March 20, 2008

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary General,
United Nations Headquarters
S-3800
New York, NY 10017
USA

Dear Mr. Secretary General,

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are deeply involved in struggles for water justice taking place around the world. We appreciate the public warnings you have made recently about the growing crisis of global water shortages and how they are fueling, along with climate change, many of the conflicts going on around the world today. However, we do not share your enthusiastic support for the CEO Water Mandate, nor do we believe that a voluntary corporate-driven initiative is a viable solution to the mounting worldwide water crisis.

Under the United Nations’ Global Compact, the CEO Water Mandate is presented as a prime example of environmental stewardship. However, we are concerned that the real agenda of the CEO Water Mandate is to facilitate greater control over water sources and services by for-profit corporations. In our view, this is a prime example of ‘green-washing’ on the part of major companies and the United Nations should not be involved in legitimizing this process.

Furthermore, voluntary initiatives like those used by the UN Global Compact in its collaboration with corporations have been shown to be flawed. Not only are the principles narrowly conceived, but the companies typically fail to put them into practice and they are also allowed to ‘opt in’ or ‘opt out’ of the standards set.

Led by Coca Cola, which has a highly questionable track record when it comes to water takings and water pollution, the companies which have signed on to the CEO Water Mandate all have a vested interest in securing control over water sources and services in times of increasing water scarcity. Suez is the world’s largest privatizer of water services and Nestle is the world’s leading bottled water company. Pepsico and Groupe DANONE are also major players in the global bottled water industry. Other signers include food giants like Unilever, clothing manufacturers like Levi-Strauss, and chemical companies like Dow Chemical, all of whom are greatly dependent on water sources for the production of their products.

To make matters worse, we understand that these same corporations and their allies met on March 5th behind closed doors at the United Nations in New York to map out their plan of action for the CEO Water Mandate. Given the failure to safeguard against conflicts of interest and the lack of transparency of the process, we have no other recourse but to reject your appeal that civil society organizations join the CEO Water Mandate.

We maintain that water is the essence of life on this planet. As such, it is both a human right and an ecological trust. Local communities must be recognized as the true guardians of their local watersheds. Democratically elected governments must be responsible for ensuring community participation and control over water sources and services. The United Nations should be looking to local communities and representative governments, rather than for-profit corporations, to set the global policy agenda and lead the development of solutions to the world water crisis.

For these reasons, we urge you, Mr. General Secretary, to withdraw your support for the CEO Water Mandate because of its inherent conflicts of interest and lack of transparency.

Alternatively, we would be prepared to work with you in developing more transparent, accountable global institutions and mechanisms to ensure access to water for people and the environment.

For follow-up, please contact Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute, tclarke@polarisinstitute.org and Kathryn Mulvey, Corporate Accountability International, kmulvey@stopcorporateabuse.org.

Sincerely,


Issah Ali
Action for Integrated Development (AID), Ghana

Koos van Schie
Africa - Europe Faith & Justice Network, Belgium and Divine Word
Missionaries, Belgium

Claude Drui
Africa-Europe Foi et Justice Network, Pôle de Strasbourg, France

Prasanna Saligram
AID Bangalore / People's Health Movement, India

Ruth Caplan
Alliance For Democracy, USA

Renji George Joseph
Alliance for Holistic and Sustainable Development of Communities, India

Tara Lohan
Alternet, USA

Rabin Subedi
Arun 3 Concerned Group, Nepal

Maria Lucely Alzate
Asociación de Desarrollo Comunitario en El Quindío –ADECOQUIN,
Colombia

Claudia Saller
Austrian Network Social Responsibility (Netzwerk Soziale
Verantwortung), Austria

Zakir Kibria
Banglapraxis, Bangladesh

Krishan Bir Chaudhary
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj (Indian Farmers' Organisation), India

Anil Naidoo
Blue Planet Project, Canada

Ron Challis
Canadian Auto Workers Union, Local 1520

Hassan Yusseff
Canadian Labour Congress, Canada

Markus Schlagnitweit
Catholic Social Academy of Austria

Matthias Reichl
Center for Encounter and Active Non-Violence, Austria

Jackie Dugard
Centre For Applied Legal Studies (CALS), University of The Witwatersrand,

South Africa

Patrick Bond
Centre for Civil Society Environmental Justice Project, University of
Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

D Roy Laifungbam
Centre for Organisation Research & Education, Indigenous Peoples' Centre for Policy and Human Rights in India's Eastern Himalayan Territories, India

Andrés Barreda Marín
Centro de Análisis Social, Información y Formación Popular – CASIFOP, México

Lorena Peralta Rojas
Centro de Derechos Humanos “Fray Francisco De Vitoria, O.P.", A.C.,
México

Marco Von Borstel
Coalición de Organizaciones Mexicanas por el Derecho al Agua, México

Arun Kumar Shrestha
Coasts, Wetlands and Tropical Ecosystem Research (CWATER), India

Jacqueline Lenoir
Congrégation des Soeurs de la Providence de Ruillé-sur-Loir, France

Hannah S. Wiegard
College of William and Mary Student Environmental Action Coalition, USA

Carmen E. Sosa
Comisión Nacional En Defensa Del Agua Y La Vida - Red Vida - Uruguay

Onlus E. Moliari
Comitato Italiano Per Il Contratto Mondiale Sull'acqua

Sandra Cangemi
Comitato Milanese Per L'acqua, Milano, Italia

Richard Priestman
Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform, Kingston Chapter, Canada

Shah I Mobin Jinnah
Community Development Association, Bangladesh

Ramon Certeza
Confederation of Labor and Allied Social Services (CLASS) – TUCP,
The Philippines

Agnès Hédon
Congrégation Religieuses Catholiques, Notre Dame du Cénacle, France

Jocelyne Vander Beken
Congrégation Salésienne de la Visitation, Belgique

Gustavo Spedale
Coordinadora Córdoba En Defensa Del Agua Y La Vida (Ccodav), Argentina

Hernan Porras Gallego
Corporación de Estudios, Educación e Investigación Ambiental CEAM,
Colombia

Julio César Maya Gualdrón
Corporación para la Educación Integral y el Bienestar Ambiental - La Ceiba, Colombia

Kathryn Mulvey
Corporate Accountability International, USA

Olivier Hoedeman
Corporate Europe Observatory, The Netherlands

Mike Louw
COSATU Western Cape, South Africa

Maude Barlow
Council of Canadians

A. Ercelan
Creed Alliance Pakistan

Victoria Sant
Daughters of the Sacred Heart, Malta Antenna

Areli Sandoval Teran
Deca Equipo Pueblo, A.C. - Mexico

Jörg Felmeden
Departement of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (DESEE),
University of Kassel, Germany

Juan Camilo Mira
Ecofondo, Colombia

Tom Kucharz
Ecologistas en Acción, Spain.

Kayleigh Boyle
Emerson Peace and Social Justice, USA

Patricia Jones
Environmental Justice, USA

Riccardo Petrella
European Research Institute on Water Policy, Brussels

Luis Isarra Delgado
Federacion Nacional de Trabajadores del Agua Potable y Alcantarillado
del Peru -FENTAP

Oscar Olivera
Federation of Factory Workers from Cochabamba, Bolivia

Mary Ann Manahan
Focus On The Global South, India, Philippines and Thailand

Wenonah Hauter
Food & Water Watch, USA

Marie Louise Inghels
Franciscaines Missionaires de Marie, Belgium

Ricardo Ramirez Aguirre
Frente Nacional por la Salud de los Pueblos del Ecuador

Boris Ríos Brito
Fundación Abril, Bolivia

Raúl Mauricio Rodríguez G.
Fundación Centro de Investigaciones del Pacífico (Cenipacífico), Colombia

David A Mcdonald
Global Development Studies, Queen's University

Kirsten Moller
Global Exchange, USA

Sabine Hofmann
Globalisierungskritische Gruppe Welzheim, Germany

Sandra Finley
Green Party of Saskatchewan, Canada

Rao Javaid Iqbal
Helping Hand For Relief & Development, USA

Gopal Siwakoti 'Chintan'
Himalayan and Peninsular Hydro-Ecological Network (HYPHEN), Nepal

Maria Theresa Nera-Lauron
Ibon Foundation Inc, The Philippines

Karen Lang
IDEC - Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor, Brazil

Wilfred Dcosta
Indian Social Action Forum (Insaf), Indida

Carol Bergin
Initiative Colibri, Germany

June Deborah Meek
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, USA

Michael Sozinyu
International Socialist Organisation, Zimbabwe

Mesbahuddin Ahmed
Jatiyo Sramik Jote, Bangladesh

Christian Roberti
Justice-Paix-Intégrité de la Création, Congrégation du Saint Esprit, Belgium

Sumesh Mangalassery
KABANI – The Other Direction, India

Erick Otieno Owuor
Kamukunji Aralegal Network, Kenya

Ayodele Akele
Labour, Health And Human Rights Development Centre, Lhahrdev, Nigeria

Vita De Waal
Liaison Planetary Association For Clean Energy, Canada

Ajay Kumar Khare
Madhya Pradesh Vigyan Sabha/People’s Health Movement chapter, India

Manuel Peña Celis
MASTRANTO del Municipio de Paz de Ariporo, Departamento de Casanare, Colombia

Terry Swier
Michigan Citizens For Water Conservation

Zeki Ergas
Millennium Solidarity Geneva Group, Switzerland

André Claessens
Missionaries of the S. Heart, Borgerhout, Belgium

Angela Wiley
Morgantown High School Green Initiative, USA

Meghan Dougherty
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, USA

Ratan Bhandari
National Concerns Society, Nepal

Sandra Willard
New Democratic Party, Lanark Frontenac Lennox And Addington Riding Association, Canada

Katherine Hoyt
Nicaragua Network

Gustavo Castro Soto
Otros Mundos, AC, Chiapas, México

Hans G. Kratz
Parksville-Qualicum Kairos, Canada

Pete Williams
Peace and Justice Organization of St. Olaf College, USA

Rapudo Hawi
Pedagogue Milestones, Kenya

Liz Welsh
Peoples’ Health Movement, South Africa

V. Soundara Rajan
Pesat Ngo, India

R. Ajayan
Plachimada Solidarity Committee, India

Tony Clarke
Polaris Institute, Canada

Elsa Nivia
Rapalmira, Rap-Al, Colombia

Erika Arteaga
Red de Accion, Taller Observatorio de Politicas de Salud, Ecuador

María Selva Ortiz
REDES-Amigos De La Tierra, Uruguay

Annie Girard
Réseau Foi et Justice Afrique-Europe, Antenne de France

Kathleen Ruff
Rightoncanada

Art Cohen
Saniplan, USA

Christine Elwell
Sierra Club of Canada

Larry Williams
Sierra Club, USA

Anne Rutter
Sisters of St Joseph Of Annecy, England

Winifred Doherty
Sisters of the Good Shepherd International Justice and Peace Office, USA

Manu Alphonse
Social Watch - TAMILNADU", India

Muhammad Arshad Khan
Society for Social Justice & Development Pasrur (Sialkot) Pakistan.

Louisa Barton-Duguay
Sos Eau Water Sankwan Inc, Canada

Jeff Rudin
South African Municipal Workers' Union

Lucian Borg
St. Augustine’s Priory, La Valletta, Malta.

Elaine Hughes
Stop The Hogs Coalition

Christina Copeland
Sustainability Hub at Cornell University, USA

Gallege Punyawardana Alvis
Swarna Hansa Foundation, Sri Lanka

Álvaro J. de Regil
The Jus Semper Global Alliance, USA

Joy Kennedy
The United Church Of Canada

Satoko Kishimoto
Transnational Institute (Tni), The Netherlands

Ahmed Nawaz Khan
Umeedenao Citizen Community Board, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Asim Nawaz Khan
Umeed-E-Nao Citizen Community Board, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Rob Keithan
Unitarian Universalist Association Of Congregations

Sachin Kumar Jain
Vikas Samvad, Bhopal, India

Mariama Ahmeda Mansaray
Voices of the Voiceless, Ghana

Ram Chandra Chataut
Water and Energy Users' Federation-Nepal (WAFED)

Trude Malthe Thomassen
Water Movement , Norway

Gaye Yilmaz
Waterpolitics, Turkey

Martha Spiess
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,

Maine chapter, USA

Laura Roskos
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section

Benedict Southworth
World Development Movement, UK

Peter Fuchs
World Economy, Ecology & Development (WEED), Berlin,Germany

Mónica Vargas
Xarxa de L'observatori del Deute en la Globalització, Catalonia

Muyunda Ililonga
Zambia Consumers Association, Zambia

Adonio Mutero
Zimbabwe Labour Centre, Zimbabwe

Ludo Vercammen
Zusters van Liefde van Jesus en Marie, Leuven, The Netherlands