-Caveat Lector- Dave Hartley http://www.Asheville-Computer.com http://www.ioa.com/~davehart Corporate Watch Homepage http://www.corpwatch.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 23, 1999 Groups Expose More United Nations Affiliations with Corporate Predators Contact: Kenny Bruno (1 718) 623-8529 Joshua Karliner (1 415) 561-6567 Sept. 23, 1999 San Francisco -- Non-governmental organizations have sent a letter to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata and UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy calling for their resignation from the Business Humanitarian Forum (BHF). The BHF is a new private group Co-Chaired by UNHCR's Ogata and John Imle President of UNOCAL, a corporation notorious for human rights abuses in Burma. Its complicity with the brutal Burmese military dictatorship in using forced labor on a natural gas pipeline is well known. "UNOCAL has done so much harm to my country. It is discouraging to find respected UN agencies sharing the podium with companies like UNOCAL, especially to those of us who are fighting every day against their human rights abuses," said Ka Hsaw Wa, Director of EarthRights International, one of the signatories of the letter. Forum board members also include UNICEF, and Nestle a company which continues to violate a UN code of conduct on infant formula designed to protect children. The letter, which is also signed by the International Baby Food Action Network says it is "ironic and disturbing that UNHCR would share this platform with a company [UNOCAL] with practices so antithetical to its own mission[and] that UNICEF, with its mission to protect children, would voluntarily associate with a company [Nestle] which has done so much to harm children. The Business Humanitarian Forum, based in Geneva, is supported by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has called for a compact between the UN and corporations. "This is one more example of why the UN must fundamentally reconsider the partnerships it is embarking on with global corporations," said Joshua Karliner, Director of TRAC--Transnational Resource & Action Center, a San Francisco-based human rights and environment group and a signator to the letter. "So far the way UN agencies have implemented Kofi Annan's call for a closer relationship with the private sector is to jump into bed with a bunch of bad corporate actors." Last March, over one hundred groups, including the signatories to the letter sent yesterday, called for the dissolution of the UNDP's planned collaboration with private companies such as Dow, Rio Tinto and ABB. That collaboration, the Global Sustainable Development Facility, is on hold pending review by the UNDP. ================================= DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
