On the 20th of March the governments of the EU member states have given the European Commission the mandate for negotitations about a global investment court called MIC (multilateral investment court). Corporations increasingly use investment tribunals to attack rules that protect people and the environment: read about ISDS at elstel.org. This would entrench a massive parallel legal system that foreign investors can use to subvert democratic decision making.
After the Monopolies and Mergers Commission of the EU the US Department of Justice does also want to approve the mega merger being detremential for customers and framers.
The powerful agribusiniess lobby has directed its congressional and judicial allies from the Temer administration to neutralize FUNAI's efficacy by slashing its budget, compromising its independence, and undermining its ability to comply with its constitutional mandate. Mr. Temer has never been voted as president by the Brazilians. Yet his adminstration is slashing FUNAI with similar attacks like Donald Trump is waging against the EPA, the environmental protection agency of the US. Unfortunately indigenous land-titling processes have been frozen by a specious legal opinion issued by Brazil's Attorney General. We call on the Office of Brazil's Attorney General to immediately revoke its legal attacks upon this critical institution.
The extremely climate-damaging oil extraction from tar sands requires three tons of tar sand for just one barrel of oil. Huge amounts of wastewater contaminated with heavy metals and carcinogenic hydrocarbons end up in rivers and the ground water. A tar sands oil pipeline, known as the Kinder Morgan pipeline is currently being laid across British Columbia. Local opposition has been huge. Over 10,000 people marched on the streets in Vancouver, and (so far) over 100 people have been arrested for direct action. Protest at the Canadian embassy against the pipeline project. Ask Prime Minister Trudeau to take action against tar sand mining. We were additionally asked for help in the South of the USA where the Bayou Bridge Pipeline would endanger the water supply of Louisiana conveying fracked oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota and the Dakota Access Pipeline. see also our last message from 2015-12-20 under 'new'.
Ashaninka leader Benki Piyãko was threatened to be killed and invoked a Brazilian court in order to protect him. However his complaint was dismissed; instead he is now threatened to spend up to 8 years in prison because of reputational damage against his adversaries.
