125 Public Interest Leaders Urge U.N. to Withdraw Support from CEO Water Mandate - Corporate Accountability International - Challenging Abuse, Protecting People - Think Outside the Bottle


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125 Public Interest Leaders Urge U.N. to Withdraw Support from CEO Water Mandate
Mandate fosters corporate control, threatens global access to water

For Immediate Release: March 21, 2008

Contact: Nick Guroff, Corporate Accountability International, (617) 784-4753
Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute, 613-746-8374

NEW YORK CITY—Leaders from more than 125 environmental, public health, water justice, human rights and corporate accountability organizations in 35 countries, are urging United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to withdraw his support from the CEO Water Mandate—a voluntary initiative being promoted as a way for corporations to make progress toward protecting water resources.

Corporations like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Suez and others that have joined the CEO Water Mandate have drawn criticism from around the world for practices that threaten people’s access to water. Organizations delivered the letter to coincide with the U.N.’s World Water Day, to call attention to the threats posed by corporate control of public water resources.

“Although the stated purpose of the CEO Water Mandate is to make progress toward protecting water resources,” says Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute in Canada, “we are concerned that it is really a thinly veiled public relations effort by for-profit corporations to gain greater control over water resources and services around the world. This is a prime example of ‘greenwashing’ and the U.N. should not be giving it credibility and support.”

“The United Nations should play a vital and active role toward protecting water as a human right and ecological trust,” says Rafael Colmenares of the Comité Nacional en Defensa del Agua y de la Vida in Colombia. “Instead, through the CEO Water Mandate, the U.N. is helping to advance corporate control of water.”

“Corporations like Coca-Cola, Suez and Nestlé are trying to turn water into a high-priced commodity, the oil of the 21st century,” says Kathryn Mulvey of Corporate Accountability International in the United States. “This presents a grave threat to people’s access to water. The United Nations needs to stand up for public, democratic control of a resource that is essential to life.”

For the full text of the letter and complete list of signers in English and en Español click here.

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Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For 30 years, we’ve forced corporations—like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria—to stop abusive actions. Corporate Accountability International is an NGO in Official Relations with the World Health Organization (WHO).