The cases were presented by sector (natural resources, public services, labor rights, agro-groceries, and finance). The jury were requested to consider both the individual cases and also the broader patterns. The TNCs included Repsol(Spain), Monterrico Metals (UK), Unilever, Calvo(Spain) and Cargill.

The British based mining company Monterrico Metals was accused of ignoring national and local laws, destroying fragile ecosystems, polluting rivers which provide water for four provinces and hence causing bi-lateral tensions. The Peruvian state was accused of repressing peaceful community protests with two people killed during 2005.

Cargill and Bunge, soya producers, were accused of causing mass deforestation, using toxic chemicals on a large scale, evicting people from their homes by burning down houses,using slave labor on the plantations and failing to comply with an order to do an environmental impact study. One third of the soya produced is then shipped to Europe for animal feed.

The jury said “We have been presented with overwhelming evidence concerning European TNCs abuses of human, social, cultural and workers’ rights, their irresponsible and sometimes irreversible actions towards the environment and their complete disregard for the welfare of local communities.”

This hearing is part of the Peoples Permanent Tribunal which was established in the 1970’s to investigate the relationship between economic laws and human and people’s rights, and to provide support and to empower social movements in their different struggle for justice and human rights.

The jury were asked to consider both the individual cases and the broader trends. The jury identified common elements and threat which require further investigation:

1. Threats to the right to access essential services: Water has been transformed into a commodity rather than a common resource. Pricing and distribution policies implemented by TNC with the support of International Financial Institutions deprive broad sections of population (mostly the poor) from the enjoyment of this fundamental human right. Electricity privatisation and liberalisation has similar results;
2. Threats to the right to land: The expansion of monocultural plantations for export (notably for soya and wood pulp) is destroying small-scale farmers’ livelihoods, while preventing fair and equitable access to land;
3. Threat to the right to food sovereignty, safety and security: Industrial scale production of food for export, and the privatisation of biodiversity and seeds, driven by imbalanced international trade regimes and corporate interests, is destroying the capacity of Latin American countries to realize these rights;
4. Threats to labour rights: So-called labour “flexibility”, the push for high returns for private investment, the need to produce cheap goods for global markets, together with the repression of Latin American trade unions, undermine core labour standards. Furthermore, TNCs use cheap suppliers of labour in order to keep costs low, thereby expanding an already huge informal sector;
5. Threats to indigenous peoples’ rights: EU TNCs and Latin American governments collaborate in invading and exploiting indigenous peoples’ lands without their prior informed consent or participation, thereby violating their cultural identity and fundamental rights;
6. Threats to environmental rights: Negligence and abuse by EU TNCs of fragile ecosystems in hotspots of biodiversity and wildlife, as well as key bioregions for climate stabilisation augmented by deforestation for economic reasons, contamination of water, infrastructure expansion, result into a substantial ecological debt and contradict EU public commitments for sustainable development. Irresponsible exploitation of natural resources by European TNCs such as oil and gas result in widespread ecological impacts both at a local and ultimately global level;
7. Threats to civil and political rights: EU TNCs can proceed undisturbed thanks to the complicity and cooperation of local and national governments. All this can occur in spite of popular dissent since those same governments do not hesitate to repress dissent and often crackdown on environmental, social and labour movements.

The dictamen of the jury was presented to the press and followed by a symbolic protest outside the Austrian parliament where people held signs condemning TNCs individuall.