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The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), IFOAM International Organics, Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI), and Millions Against Monsanto, joined by dozens of global food, farming and environmental justice groups announced today that they will take Monsanto MON (NYSE), a US-based transnational corporation, to a people’s trial for crimes against nature and humanity, and ecocide, in The Hague, Netherlands, next year on World Food Day, October 16, 2016.
Source: http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org
Since the beginning of the twentieth century according to the groups, Monsanto has developed a steady stream of highly toxic products which have permanently damaged the environment and caused illness or death for thousands of people. These products include:
• PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl), one of the 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) that affect human and animal fertility;
• 2,4,5 T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid), a dioxin-containing component of the defoliant, Agent Orange, which was used by the US Army during the Vietnam War and continues to cause birth defects and cancer;
• Lasso, an herbicide that is now banned in Europe;
• and RoundUp, the most widely used herbicide in the world, and the source of the greatest health and environmental scandal in modern history. This toxic herbicide, designated a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization, is used in combination with genetically modified (GM) RoundUp Ready seeds in large-scale monocultures, primarily to produce soybeans, maize and rapeseed for animal feed and biofuels.
Relying on the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” adopted by the UN in 2011, an international court of lawyers and judges will assess the potential criminal liability of Monsanto for damages inflicted on human health and the environment. The court will also rely on the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002, and it will consider whether to reform international criminal law to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offense. The International Criminal Court, established in 2002 in The Hague, has determined that prosecuting ecocide as a criminal offense is the only way to guarantee the rights of humans to a healthy environment and the right of nature to be protected.
The announcement was made at a press conference held in conjunction with the COP21 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, November 30 – December 11, in Paris.
Speaking at the press conference, Ronnie Cummins, international director of the OCA (US) and Via Organica (Mexico), and member of the RI Steering Committee, said: “The time is long overdue for a global citizens’ tribunal to put Monsanto on trial for crimes against humanity and the environment. We are in Paris this month to address the most serious threat that humans have ever faced in our 100-200,000 year evolution—global warming and climate disruption. Why is there so much carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere and not enough carbon organic matter in the soil? Corporate agribusiness, industrial forestry, the garbage and sewage industry and agricultural biotechnology have literally killed the climate-stabilizing, carbon-sink capacity of the Earth’s living soil.”
Andre Leu, president of IFOAM and a member of the RI Steering Committee, said: “Monsanto is able to ignore the human and environmental damage caused by its products, and maintain its devastating activities through a strategy of systemic concealment: by lobbying regulatory agencies and governments, by resorting to lying and corruption, by financing fraudulent scientific studies, by pressuring independent scientists, and by manipulating the press and media. Monsanto’s history reads like a text-book case of impunity, benefiting transnational corporations and their executives, whose activities contribute to climate and biosphere crises and threaten the safety of the planet.”
Marie-Monique Robin, journalist and author of the best-selling documentary (and book by the same name), “The World According Monsanto,” said: “This International Citizens’ Tribunal is necessary because the defense of the safety of the planet and the conditions of life on Earth is everyone’s concern. Only through a collective resurgence of all living forces will we stop the engine of destruction. That’s why today I am calling on all citizens of the world to participate in this exemplary tribunal.”
Also speaking at the conference were Valerie Cabanes, lawyer and spokesperson for End Ecocide on Earth; Hans Rudolf Herren, president and CEO of the Millennium Institute, president and founder of Biovision, and member of the RI Steering Committee; Arnaud Apoteker, creator of the anti-GMO campaign in France, which became one of the priority campaigns of Greenpeace France, and author of “Fish in Our Strawberries: Our Manipulated Food;” and Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPESFood) and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
Full list of founding organizations (so far) here.
Full list of Monsanto Tribunal Foundation organizing members here.
More information is available at http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/
Yes, Thank you!
How can the public around the world support this action?
Yes I would like to know as well.
how about publishing the names and home address’s of all these international criminals. We can do the rest.
Hillary Clinton is one of the names. You might have heard of her.
We all of the support of Hillary Clinton for Monsanto and other Biotech companies such as Syngenta, Dow, etc.-
We canpunish her by denying Hillary our vote in the coming electins and instead vote for Bernie Sanders.
Yeah, where are those hackers when you need them?
“We cab do the rest.” Like what, tough guy? Go to their homes and burn them out? Get a fucking grip.
USUALMENTE EN PÁGINAS COMO CHARGE.ORG U ALGUNAS SIMILARES HACEN PETICIONES EN LAS QUE JUNTAN FIRMAS PARA LUCHAR EN DEFENSA DE ALGUNA CAUSA JUSTA. YO PARTICIPÉ HACE UNOS AÑOS ATRÁS EN UNA CAMPAÑA CONTRA MONSANTO.
AQUÍ LES COMPARTO EL LINK : https://www.change.org/search?q=MONSANTO
YOU DO KNOW… THEY ARE NOT DOING THIS FOR YOU. THEY ARE ONLY DOING THIS FOR MONEY..
THIS IS THE SAD TRUTH
MONSANTO, DOES MAKE BAD STUFF, AND MAKE IT EVEN WORST,
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE OUTCOME WOULD BE WITHOUT WHAT THEY DO ?
THERE IS A BETTER SOLUTION, BUT
I DO NOT SEE IT COMING FROM THESE PEOPLE
Did someone say Monsanto does not make bad stuff??? Are you an idiot?? HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF AGENT ORANGE–the toxin that destroyed millions of acres of natural resources, deformed millions, leaving VN with the highest growth rate of cancer??
You might think it doesn’t effect the west, but Monsanto added water to agent orange, called it ROUNDUP and convinced millions of Americans to let their kids roll around in it. NOTE THAT THE NEXT TIME YOU TAKE LITTLE JOHNNY OR SUZY TO SOCCER.
You clearly didn’t read the comment before you began typing. I also love how people only blame Monsanto for agent orange, when Dow chemical made as much, if not more of that product. They both also informed the government that the product was high toxic and that they didn’t have the needed time to do the health effect research. The military didn’t care, as long as it worked. They knew they sprayed poison on our troops, and still did it. Your claim that round up is watered down agent orange is just rediculous. It’s not even close to agent orange. Do some research before you post things you clearly know nothing about.
Easy there, agent orange and roundup are two vastly different chemical compounds and to say that roundup is a watered down version is incorrect and damaged your reputation. If you look at agent orange from a historical standpoint the US should have tested this herbicide out before using it in Nam.
lanvy, if you weren’t just reading what you wanted to, you would’ve seen that THEY SAID MONSANTO DOES MAKE BAD STUFF THEN MAKES IT EVEN WORSE. You’re the idiot. Go sit in the corner, ya dunce.
without what Monsanto does we would have a healthier planet, healthier people and we would not be being poisoned by their frank-in food that they hide by not allowing marking of GMO foods, these are evil people make excuses for their behavior only puts you in their camp
Please let me know how I can help this situation…I reside in America. …I want to thank these other countries for getting all of us out of this mess….I am sorry this government protects them…
How can I help?
It’s GREAT that this lawsuit will be going forward; it’s long overdue! However, next October is almost a year from now. How many more will sicken and die in the meantime? I understand that you want to make a statement by filing the suit on that particular day, but as my momma used to say, “Time’s a-wasting.” Do it now!
This makes my day too but why waiting almost another year before this will be brought to court. Why not now??? Monsanto must be condemned and destroyed as quickly as possible.
LOL – it’s not a “trial”, it’s not a “lawsuit”, because there is no “law” under which Monsanto is being charged, there is no “court of competent jurisdiction” that is hearing the case, and the self-styled litigants bringing the case are also acting as the “tribunal”.
You might as well have a house party and put anyone you want on “trial” – mob rule, lol.
As to “ecocide” – that’s the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard. New flash: the “Earth” doesn’t give a hoot and is certainly at no risk of “death” from farming (though the sun’s supernova might eventually accomplish that). Only you do. So it’s not “ecocide”, it’s “offending my sensinilities”.
CalDre = paid troll for corporate agribusiness
No Gail, trolls are paid to MISinform…CalDre is merely pointing out that there has ostensibly been no transgression of any international statute/law by Monsanto and that it’s up to “the self-styled litigants bringing the case” to provide any evidence at all to the contrary…It sucks, I know…I’d like to see GMO banned worldwide myself and I wish them all the best of luck but the evidence they bring will have to be irrefutable…
No, he’s just someone who has a rational thought.
This is a “mock trial”, not actually in the international court system, and is being paid for by public funds through organizations that are essentially lobbyists for organic foods, which have been fighting against Monsanto for years.
The lawyers are all hired by these companies, Monsanto isn’t even going to be there, and the results of this will come from judges that are also hired by the same organizations.
So thinking about that, what will this ACTUALLY accomplish??
Nothing. It’s funny that anyone who reads about this, thinks anything will actually be done once this “mock trial” happens.
But go on and keep believing this makes a difference. It doesn’t.
Unfortunately this will be only a Mock trial. So if the mock trial will be held in Oct 2016, I can’t help but ask “When will the real international trial will be held?
Do what the Hungarians, a Frenchman and the American patriots did, burn and destroy all of the poisonous gmo crops that these evil murdering monsters have planted, and then start a class action against Monsanto worlwide.
Thank goodness,I have previously written my congressman and senator about these GMO products to no avail. Asking why are so many Americans suffering from acid reflux and irritated bowel syndrome, including children, they blame it on stress. I write as many companies whose products I am not going to use because of GMO corn and soy in them. Read all your labels. If in doubt leave it alone- that goes for white potatoes too.
I feel your pain…Ive written our illustrious Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan Rep WI, about is backing of HR1599 also know as the DARK act. It was quite apparenthat he doesnt read or study the bills he votes for. He only reads the checks that come to his re-election campaign..He is obviously a food corp sell out.
How can we truly speak without being criminalized?? this is our time….the internet and facebook will only continue to muzzle us.
Để cho luật nhân quả nó xử lí thôi à.
Finally, thank you. This makes my day.
I also want to help in this from India
How can the public support this?
I’m so glad! How can I help? A lot of Americans are outraged with Monsanto, but when leople protest we are sqelched, farmers are put out of business, we contact our representative, no one will help. We buy organics and recently funded friends to wash DC to protest the dark act and fight this machine! We are so grateful for this lawsuit!
Will it ever be soon enough for global corporate terrorists to be brought to justice and punished? Is there any punishment to great for these scum of the earth?
Let me know how I can help. This destructive gmo madness must stop.
How can I help!
May God bless this endeavor.
Please tell us what we can do to help. I’ve signed petitions and written letters, but a few letters from private citizens while the general population and court systems are doing/saying nothing gives little political motivation for a Congressman or Senator to speak up or make a change. Now that an international court is getting involved it is finally the time to kick our efforts into high gear and make some noise while there is the chance for justice. If this fails we may not get this opportunity again. What can we do?!
This is incredible news! Thank you. I reside in Italy, how can I help?
Anna
https://www.change.org/search?q=MONSANTO
So why is this taking over a year to be set in motion??? What’s the hold up?
Monsanto the seed company isn’t the same as Monsanto the chemical (bought by pfzizer) company o.O
this is Ill informed at best.
Monsanto is Monsanto. Don’t let anyone tell you any different! There’s only one, and the whole place is corrupt!
They say they will have to consider whether to reform international criminal law to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offense. That will take time. Meanwhile people who care have to keep the pressure on. We are fighting for the survival of life on earth as we know it.
I would like to support this trail against all toxic applied to our world / food. Please provide information to HELP TO STOP POISONS APPLIED TO FOOD AND LAND..
I’m waiting with baited breath for you folks to take Bayer to the International Criminal Court for producing Zyklon-B back in World War II. Oh, wait, I supposer “Bayer” isn’t a scary word like “Monsanto.”
My concern is for the October 2016 date, gives Monsanto plenty of time to come back with whatever means they can to get away and get out of this. One of the things that got me when reading how they have literally destroyed the natural earth’s soil.
so very happy to read this. wish it was sooner
please let us know what we can do as world citizens to finally put an end to this
The title of this article and the intent of its proponents is highly misleading and quite useless. This is a MOCK TRIAL not a real trial. If these people are really serious about their claims and intentions, why not sue Monsanto for Crimes Against Humanity and Nature in a REAL court of law ?
I believe that many of these organizations and individuals are using the GMO issue for personal profit (i.e. selling books, documentaries, paid conferences and speaking tours, “consulting” and paying their lavish salaries, etc.) Incredibly, the Steering Committee are asking the public to crowdfund $1 MILLION for this FAKE MOCK TRIAL! http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/home/crowdfunding/
A massive and very profitable multi-million dollar industry has sprung up around Monsanto and GMO’s; “fighting” GMO’s has become a very profitable industry! Furthermore, the so-called anti-GMO movement and organizations have been WIDELY infiltrated by Monsanto et al…(i.e. Controlled Opposition)
ok. suggestions?
I have been lecturing throughout New England and to my radio show listeners for over 15 years on organic gardening and the dangers of poisonous herbicides and pesticides and having my listeners and fans sign all petitions involving Monsanto, Dow,Bayer, Syngenta and others. This news on Monsanto going to trial at the Hague is fantastic.
“Agricultural biotechnology will find a supporter occupying the White House next year, regardless of which candidate win the election in November”
Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, worked for Monsanto’s legal dept; Former Monsanto vice president Michael Taylor appointed by Obama to be the U.S. food safety czar; – Monsanto Inhouse Newsletter, 2000The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (Anne Veneman) was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto’s Calgene Corporation; The Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto’s Searle pharmaceuticals;
The U.S. Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, received $50,000 in donations from Monsanto during his winning campaign for Wisconsin’s governor.
The two congressmen receiving the most donations from Monsanto during the last election were Larry Combest (Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee) and Attorney General John Ashcroft. (Source: Dairy Education Board)
In order for the FDA to determine if Monsanto’s growth hormones were safe or not, Monsanto was required to submit a scientific report on that topic. Margaret Miller, one of Monsanto’s researchers put the report together. Shortly before the report submission, Miller left Monsanto and was hired by the FDA. Her first job for the FDA was to determine whether or not to approve the report she wrote for Monsanto. In short, Monsanto approved its own report. Assisting Miller was another former Monsanto researcher, Susan Sechen. Deciding whether or not rBGH-derived milk should be labeled fell under the jurisdiction of another FDA official, Michael Taylor, who previously worked as a lawyer for Monsanto.
It might be a good idea to bring the US into the lawsuit as well as they are the ones protecting Monsanto. It can basically be considered accessory to the crime. It would force the US to either stop protecting them or pay up. I speak as a citizen of the US. Paying for reparations is something I wouldn’t mind my tax dollars going towards.
This article fails to mention that the “court” to be convened has no authority to enforce any judgement reached.
Sorry for the potentially stupid question, but can someone please clarify how a “mock” trial is effective? I got really excited when I read another article about Monsanto going to trial, but then I came to this link and found out that it’s a mock trial as opposed to a legitimate trial with real-world consequences. Is this prep for a real trial? I want to be excited about this but can’t really get a grasp on the concept of a mock trial.
I like the idea as World Citizens Act to pursue further. Does anyone has any suggestions? We can make a great impact with World Citizens joining hands!!! I am residing in Canada.
“Relying on the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” adopted by the UN in 2011, an international court of lawyers and judges will assess the potential criminal liability of Monsanto for damages inflicted on human health and the environment. The court will also rely on the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002, and it will consider whether to reform international criminal law to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offense.” – This means that there is the start of the process of consideration of looking into what would have to happen to open a discussion on taking Monsanto to international court. This isn’t precisely the same thing as “going to trial” in the stricter sense. A mock trial is not a real trial.
Brilliant Move!!!
Exactly what can this court do to Mad Santa even if they were to find them guilty on every charge? I fear – not much.
We in the states have become aware of the problems of the gmo seeds from Monsanto. We asr asking for trouble when we force nature into the product of one seed. It will take only one infection or bug to wipe out the “super seed” Our politicians are now so interested in elections rather than providing representation of the citizen. Too soon they forget who puts them in office and money may have an effect but in the end the people will have the last word,
Grampa
However flawed it’s a marker in the sand. What’s really important is public exposure of these and other practises which depend on secrecy and not quite corrupt lobbyists.There are plenty more, overfishing, palm oil cultivation, mono-culture, intensive rearing of animals and desertification due to over grazing. Some of which would be understandable but we have an epidemic of obesity in the west. So we are going for evermore intensive agriculture to raise crops that we don’t actually need. Can some one from agri-industry explain how this makes sense……? And please don’t mention bio-fuels- the most stupid idea since the rubber ladder.