In
signing Wall Street reform, President Obama may have done
a great
favor to some of the world's most powerless.
Le Monde, France
Wall Street Reform is a Victory for Global Civil Society
"U.S.
senators, Democratic and Republican alike, have accepted their responsibilities
- with the approval of Barack Obama. … The challenge?: stop feeding the war for
control of minerals which, for fifteen years, have made every day in countries like Nigeria as deadly as the September 11, 2001 attacks."
A Shell worker watches over a well head near the Niger River Delta village of Oloibiri, in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Wall Street reforms recently passed by Congress and signed by President Obama are likely to help people in countries that have great oil and mineral wealth but equally great curruption - finally reap some of the benefits of mining and oil drilling.
Global Witness, IATP, Revenue Watch Institute ... do these
names mean anything to you? Yet alongside a few others, these associations of
international solidarity have accomplished the feat of passing, thanks to the
reform of Wall Street, measures of considerable significance for developing
countries. Twelve years after the Ottawa Treaty banning
landmines and the Rome Statute
of the International Criminal Court, the reform signed into law Wednesday,
July 21, by U.S. President Barack Obama, marks the culmination of years of
mobilization, the building of expertise and education. This is a true victory
for the advocacy of American and international civil society, and includes
three major provisions for the political and economic development of countries
in the Southern Hemisphere.
Mining
companies listed in New York will have to declare the payments they make to the
governments of each country in which they operate. We're talking about 90
percent of global oil and gas companies and 80 percent of the mining giants.
After a similar measure instituted at the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange in May, a new era - one of transparency - is now taking shape in
the mining sector. An initial parry against that paradox of wealth, which sees
the citizens of Nigeria, Burma, Angola, Guatemala or the Congo come to regret
the abundance under their land, which to them has become a synonym for
violence, corruption, environmental plunder and misery. Since 2002, this
demand for transparency has come about in 55 countries through 600
organizations spurred on by the international coalition Publish What You Pay. This should
allow three and a half billion inhabitants of nations rich in raw material to
better measure and control the share of revenue that comes back to their
governments.
Companies
that buy minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must declare
themselves to the police of Wall Street and take so-called "due
diligence" measures to ensure that their activities don't contribute to the
enrichment of armed groups. The challenge?: stop feeding the war for control of
those minerals which, for fifteen years, has made every day in the east of that
country as deadly as the September 11, 2001 attacks. Specifically, retailers
who market the gold of Kivu will, like manufacturers who make portable phones
and computers with coltan and
cassiterite from Congo, have
to ensure the traceability of their supplies. Again, this first decisive step
toward restoring peace in the [African] Great Lakes region would not have been
taken without the joint advocacy of international NGOs and local actors.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The
reform will finally constrain the use of derivatives in
agricultural futures markets. The measures will help limit speculation on
agricultural products. The stabilization of agricultural prices has been a long
struggle of NGOs. For developing countries, where the 2008 food crisis plunged
200 million people more into hunger, the same goes for the ability of both the
poor in cities to feed themselves and peasants to live off their work . When
traders and other intermediaries triple the price of wheat or rice in a few
weeks, it is Egyptian and Senegalese consumer who suffer. When they drop the price
of coffee or palm oil, it is the Colombian or Indonesian producer who is
ruined. With prices less volatile, producers will finally be able to plan their
activities and, incidentally, feed the population.
Of
course, the mobilization of civil society would have remained a dead letter if
it hadn't found the ear of politicians willing to personally lead the battle.
U.S. senators, Democratic and Republicans alike, have accepted their
responsibilities - with the approval of Barack
Obama. It will also require vigilance on the part of American civil society to
ensure that these legislative victories are reflected in the implementation.
But the lesson is clear: proposals from civil society, when they encounter
responsible politicians, can change the lives of millions of people!
In
2011, the president of the French Republic [Sarkozy], host of the G8 and G20,
will be under the international spotlight. French civil society isn't short of ideas:
building agricultural reserves to curb speculation on prices, forcing
multinationals to publish their accounts country by country to avoid
artificially putting their profits in tax havens, taxing international
financial transactions ... will Nicolas Sarkozy draw some inspiration?
