GUEST BLOG: Lois Griffiths – The International Monsanto Tribunal

They came from all over the globe: Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, North and South America. Farmers, farm-workers, consumers, indigenous people gathered at The Hague in October of this year to testify at the International Monsanto Tribunal.

If a prize goes out to the most  ignored important international news item by our media, the International Monsanto Tribunal, described by Scoop  as “the first international civil society-initiated legal proceeding holding corporations accountable for their human rights violations, for crimes against humanity, and for ecocide”,   would be a strong contender.

A court of eminent  judges experienced in international human rights cases  listened to eye-witness first hand  accounts of how Monsanto and its ‘agribusiness accomplices’ have ‘poisoned the environment and devastated public health.’ An American lawyer testified on behalf of 1000 farmers with cancer, an Argentinian villager told of serious birth defects from over exposure to Monsanto’s toxic chemicals.  Farmers testified about their organic farms being polluted with GMO seeds. Small farmers forced to grow GMO foods described being economically destroyed. Scientists told  of the chilling effect of the political power of Monsanto. Other speakers told how  rainforests are being destroyed for mass production of GMO soy or animal feed.

In another part of the Hague 500 global activists held workshops discussing  not only the need to defeat Monsanto but the entire system of industrial agriculture. An united international grassroots solidarity movement is needed to enact a global ban on GMO companion pesticides such as Roundup/glyphosate. Activists including Vandana Shiva of India,  where destitute farmers in their hundreds of thousands  have committed suicide,  are calling for seed freedom.

Nigerian Nnimmo Bassay opened the tribunal. “..food is a celebration, it is culture, it is life.  This is a struggle not against one multinational corporation, it is a struggle for life, it is a struggle for liberty. A struggle to stop big companies from colonizing our food systems, colonizing our agriculture, holding mother Earth as a slave for their profits. “

The Tribunal judges, probably in mid December, will issue legal advisory opinion based on international law. It is hoped they will be able to include ‘ecocide’ the destruction of the ecosystem on which  human life depends, as a crime against humanity.

I recommend that you Google International  Monsanto Tribunal for much more information. Read the testimonies of farmers and others. Some of the testimonies are on youtube.  Read about the judges themselves. This was a big event, very big, very important. What is the matter with our media?  As the Standing Rock Sioux are telling us, ‘water is life’. Also, ‘food is life’. And ‘healthy food is healthy life.’  

 

Lois Griffiths is a human rights activist