Not-So-Frequently Asked Questions: Spring 2001.

 

7. Not-So-Frequently Asked Questions: 2001.
 
Wayland Kennet.
 
(pdf version)
 

World Trade Organisation
 

What steps is the British Government taking to improve the accountability of the World Trade Organisation?

Whether there is no appeal from World Trade Organisation decisions outside that Organisation, and if so will the British Government take steps to establish an appeal system, e.g. to the International Court of Justice?

Why the rulings of the World Trade Organisation take precedence over rulings of the International Labour Office and / or the UN Environmental Programme, and if so whether the British Government are promoting a better balance in the authority of these Organisations?

 

Multinational Organisations' Accountability
 

What steps the British and other Governments are taking to improve the financial accountability of Multinational Corporations to Governments and Parliaments, to ensure that loopholes do not exist that may enable Multinational Corporations to avoid taxation?

What steps the British and other Governments are taking to improve the environmental accountability of Multinational Corporations to Governments and Parliaments, and to ensure that loopholes do not exist that may enable Multinational Corporations to avoid environmental regulations?

What steps the British and other Governments are taking to improve the social accountability to Governments and Parliaments of Multinational Corporations, and to ensure that loopholes do not exist that may enable Multinational Corporations to avoid observing social and labour regulations?

What is the status in national or in international law of the recent agreement signed by certain Oil Companies on the one hand and the British and American Governments and various human rights groups on the other [International Herald Tribune, 29-12-00] to regulate the conduct of the security forces employed by the companies, and will the conduct of such security forces (employed by the companies) now be justiciable, and if so in what courts?

 

Proper Measurement of Growth - Not GDP
 

What steps the British Government is taking, and in what fora, to ensure that a better mechanism is devised for measuring "growth" than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which fails to measure either non-marketed or non- recorded activity however economically significant it may be, and when will this better mechanism be available, and put into general use?

With what degree of accuracy does the British Government currently assume GDP measures "growth", and in what circumstances is this degree of accuracy sufficient for measuring growth in well-being?

 

Chemical, Biological and / or Environmental Warfare
 

Whether the use by the US of Messrs Monsanto's Roundup to "fumigate" - i.e. to destroy - crops in farming areas of Colombia, some of which may include coca plants, is in accordance with all the international Treaties and Conventions on Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Warfare to which the US is party, or which US Governments have committed themselves to observe?

Whether civilians who suffered in their health or property as a result of military action without declaration of war in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Somalia, Haiti and other places, may have a case in law for compensation?

On the basis of what research was NATO stating that there was "no evidence" that Depleted Uranium was harmful, by whom was the research a) conducted and b) funded, how long did it last, whether the results were peer reviewed, and where were they published?

Whether NATO was assuming that the absence of evidence of harm from DU (due to the absence of research) might amount to evidence of absence of harm (from DU), and if so will the British Government now ensure that NATO makes no more logical mistakes?

Whether NATO's "scientific programme" has been involved in the assessment of Depleted Uranium and if so, since when, and with what funding?

 


© Wayland Kennet, 2001.
 


 


 


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Not-So-Frequently Asked Questions: Spring 2001.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 


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