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Coca-Cola Company in ColombiaThe accused corporation is the US based Coca-Cola Company, through its involvement and control of its Mexican subsidiary Coca Cola Femsa which owns the Colombian bottler Industria Nacional de Gaseosas S.A.
Testimony :
Coca-Cola Company
in Colombie
Testimony
Interrogation
Sinaltrainal
Il caso Coca Cola
Summary:
  The parent and subsidiary companies are accused for violations that have occurred in Colombia between 1996 and 2014, including death threats, persecution of workers' representatives, assistance to military troops in entering the company, arbitrary dismissals and defamatory campaigns, as well as the complicity with military and para-military groups in carrying out arbitrary detentions, illegalization and incendiary destruction of workers' unions, covering up of environmental contamination and the unsustainable extraction of water.
  These abuses were previously recognized by the Permanent Peoples Tribunal in 2008, by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its recommendations of 2001(which were never implemented), and by the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights in provisional measures dictated to protect 26 workers affiliated to the Sinaltrainal Union.
  It is therefore alleged that the activities of the accused constitute a breach of the ILO Conventions, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and of both the Constitution and the Labour Law of Colombia.
Session of the Permanent People's Tribunal on Human Rights Violations Committed by the Transnationals,
Geneva 23 June 2014
  A number of cases of human rights violations by Transnational Corporations has been presented at the Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) Hearing being held in Geneva on June 23. The one-day Hearing of the PPT is being prepared by The Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power & Stop Impunity together with Swiss-based social organizations and movements, and affected communities from different global regions. The PPT is an Opinion Tribunal, which follows on the tradition of the Russell Tribunals on the Vietnam War and the Dictatorships in Latin America and was established in 1979 in the framework of the Algiers Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples.
  The PPT has held almost 40 sessions addressing systematic violations of human rights and peoples rights including a Session on the World Bank, European TNCs in Latin America and Bhopal and it is one of few international institutions where affected communities can directly present cases of violations of human rights perpetrated by Transnational Corporations.
  Some of the cases that has been heard include Chevron in Ecuadorean Amazon, Shell in Nigeria, Glencore in several countries (such as the Philippines, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru and Colombia), Pacific Rim in El Salvador, Lonmin in South Africa, Coca-cola in Colombia, Mekorot in Palestine and Hidralia in Guatemala.
  The Panel of Jurors is presided by Juan Hernandez Zubizarreta (Basque Country) and composed by Beverley Keene (Argentina) Francesco Martone (Italy), Renata Reis (Brazil), Roberto Schiattarella (Italy) and Jean Ziegler (Switzerland).
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