Nestlé, one of the biggest food companies in the world, was recently accused of beign co-responsible for the assasination of a trade unionist.

Blood in your cereal?Multinationals corruption overseas

On March 5, 2012, an unconventional lawsuit resonated throughout European news media. Swiss food group Nestlé was accused of being co-responsible for the

murder of unionist and Nestlé Colombia employee Luciano Romero. This is the first time a Swiss transnational company has been called to account for offences allegedly committed by foreign subsidiaries.

According to the lawsuit, the unionist received death threats after Nestlé Colombia’s management falsely branded him a guerilla fighter. The assassins turned out to be members of the right-wing paramilitary group AUC (United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia). Romero’s case is far from being

t h e only one of its kind. Other renowned m u l t i n a t i o n a l companies, including Coca Cola, Chiquita Brands, and Drummond, remain under public scrutiny for alleged links with illegal paramilitary

groups, whose two-decade history of human rights violations includes violence against union leaders at the request, and with the financing of, both national and transnational corporations.

Luciano Romero’s murder has helped open the debate in Europe on the degree of responsibility a parent company bears in cases of criminal acts committed by foreign subsidiaries. In an increasingly globalising world,

offences committed thousands of kilometres away are beginning to have implications at home.Misereor, a German catholic NGO, is one of the three main organisations behind the lawsuit against Nestlé. A billboard with the message “Courage is exposing crimes that

supposedly never happened” welcomes employees and guests at its headquarters in Aachen. Susanne Breuer, responsible for Colombian projects at Misereor, determinately explains why her organisation decided to support the case. “Colombia is considered the world’s most dangerous country for a trade unionist to live in. From the beginning we saw good possibilities to prove Nestlé’s responsibility.”

Colombia’s armed conflict has been going on for over 40 years, during which fighting among leftist guerrilla, army

Photo

: XXX

XXXX

XXXX

XXXX

X

“Companies can no longer profit at the expense of human

rights“

By Julieta Romero Güeto

Photo

: Juli

eta Ro

mero

Photo

: Juli

eta Ro

mero

Susanne Breuer leads

Colombian

projects at Misereor

Nestlé, one of the biggest food companies in the world, was recently accused of beign co-responsible for the assasination of a trade unionist.

´s DARK side in Colombia1944-2012.

•In 1977, Nestle

was accused of the

death of 28 children

who drank Nestle’s

poisoned milk.

•Landowners with

proven connections

with illegal paramilitary

groups were among

Nestlé’s milk providers.

•The former paramilitary

leader Salvatore

Mancuso testified that

Cicolac, Nestlé’s

subsidiary, had

made payments to

his units. However

it’s not clear when

and how much.

Nestlé acquired

Cicolác in 1997.

•Over the last 25 years,

13 Nestlé employees and

Sinaltrainal’s unionist

have been killed or

disappeared.

forces and right-wing paramilitary was compounded by drug trafficking and state violence. It is certainly complicated to do business at a place where corrupt companies exploit the lack of state presence.

“Multinational companies, as economic actors, often ignore the dynamics of the conflict, says Claudia Müller-Hof, a legal analyst for the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and one of the plaintiffs in the Nestlé case. “Our standpoint is that the headquarters cannot completely delegate risk management when conducting operations in a conflict zone. The company must take precautionary measures, the so-called duty of care, and should not abandon those responsibilities, just as it doesn’t abandon profits.”

In 2000, discussions about the social responsibility of multinational enterprises became an international issue with the establishment of the Global Compact programme. The programme encourages international business organisations to adopt socially responsible policies. It is the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative and Nestlé is one of its signatories. The OECD Risk Awareness Tool for Multinational Enterprises in Weak Governance Zones was adopted in 2006. It essentially constitutes a set of guidelines agreed by governments and designed for multinational companies.

Despite the introduction of these initiatives, both mechanisms have been criticised for being ineffective because of their voluntary character and for being a form of tokenism, or lip service, used to cover up corporate misconduct. The Swiss campaign Corporate Justice is one of those actively fighting against relying exclusively on self-regulation: “We are calling on the Federal Council and Parliament for legal provisions”.

Müller-Hof, from ECCHR, agrees. For her, the discussion about corporate responsibility must sooner or later start broaching legal issues: “I notice that in Europe the discussion about corporate responsibility overseas from the standpoint of litigation is almost

nonexistent. It’s a really young debate among scholars and politicians.”

Meanwhile, organisations like Misereor continue campaigning to raise consumers awareness. Susanne Breuer, who boycotts Nestlé products, points out that companies can no longer profit at the expense of human rights: “For consumers, it is not easy to comprehend how the supply chain of a product works. That’s why we believe the first step is for companies to make their supply chain more transparent.”

Nestlé has rejected all charges brought against it in Luciano Romero’s case. The food giant continues to control a big share of the global food market. The company’s overall profits this year have already reached 50.79 million euros.

Back in Colombia, demonstrations against the company continue. From October 22 to 26, members of the trade union Sinaltrainal organised a week against Nestlé’s crimes. Protesters carried chains and banners to the symbolic Bolívar Square in Bogotá, condemning the assassination of Luciano Romero as well as the deaths of a further 12 Nestlé employees, whose murders remain unresolved. Whilst it remains to be seen whether these cases will ever reach an international court, the legal discussion about how to deal with corrupt multinational corporations in conflict areas has irreversibly begun.

Photo

: Juli

eta Ro

mero

Sinaltrainal´s banner against Nestlés alleged crimes.

Photo

: Sina

ltrain

al