Every year in January, the World Economic Forum (WEF)
gathers together business leaders, politicians and the world's
media in Davos, Switzerland, to set the trends for future
development of global business. And, every year, the international
NGO coalition "Public Eye on Davos" is present
at the same time and place as the WEF with an alternative
event.
The highlight of the 2005 "Public Eye" was an
award ceremony for WEF corporate members and other companies
who have excelled in socially and environmentally irresponsible
behaviour. Awards were given in the categories of human
rights, environment, labour rights, and taxes. Eventual
winners included Dow Chemical Company, Royal Dutch/Shell
Group, KPMG Internatio-nal and Nestlé.
Winner in the labour law category was the giant US retailer
Wal-Mart, which had been nominated by the CCC for refusing
to assume any kind of responsibility for working conditions
in its clothes supply factories outside the US. In Lesotho,
Kenya and Thailand, Wal-Mart has ignored requests for an
improvement in working conditions that include excessive
compulsory overtime and wages below the subsistence level.
Aisha Bahadur of the Civil Society Research and Support
Collective in South Africa presented the case against the
company, in a speech entitled "Wal-Mart: Menace to
Social and Labour Standards Worldwide". The company
did not respond to an invitation to attend. However, international
press and media did, and there was significant coverage
in the Swiss newspapers.
Other garment companies nominated for the Public Eye Award
were: North Sails, GST, and Boards and More (nominated by
CCC), Stallion Garments (nominated by the Maru Malarchi
Labour Front from India), and Tchibo (nominated by the German
CCC).
Public awareness work was also done by some of the CCC
partners who sent out invitation cards to the awards ceremony
and distributed a Public Eye Awards poster that gave details
of all the nominations the reverse side.
For more information on Public Eye on Davos and the 2005
award, including the CCC case against Wal-Mart, see the
Berne Declaration website at: http://www.evb.ch.
