By voicing your opposition to the treaty, you are joining more than 10,000 citizens and hundreds of organizations - including the Belgian League of Human Rights - in the collective fight against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
For several months, the mobilization against the transatlantic market has grown, with inspiring civic initiatives such as the excellent "Treat the Treaty," a popularization of transatlantic issues (in BD format) that you can (re)discover here.
This text is, above all, a call to action. As you probably know, the TTIP would allow multinational companies to file a complaint against states before special courts like courts of international arbitration. These international arbitration tribunals would not be subject to national law and would put the multinational companies before the states, because only the former are entitled to lodge a complaint against the latter. This special procedure has a name: the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). ISDS leads to disaster everywhere it exists (especially because payment of damages to wealthy multinationals comes from public finances) and constitutes a serious breach of democratic principles (because important issues like the level of wages, the existence of public solidarity and ecological protection systems can be challenged by multinationals). To be convinced, see the Transatlantic Corporate Bill of Rights document.
Although this was by no means its initial desire, the European Commission has had to acknowledge the growing concern over the treaty and launch a "public consultation" about it. The quotes are required since everything is done to dissuade the average citizen from answering the ultra-technical questionnaire. In addition, the way the questions are asked is designed to make us approve the ISDS system: based on any failures where international arbitration tribunals exist, the EU proposes to remedy certain shortcomings by one adjustment or another. We are then asked to judge the relevance of the improvements suggested by the EU, which silences (in all languages) the essential point: the best way to improve the system of ISDS is not to adopt it!!!
To fight this project, it is imperative to respond massively to the public consultation launched by the European Commission. To do this, we offer three different ways:
·Solution 1: respond individually to all questions. It is the best solution, but we wish you luck and courage, because it is a difficult and highly technical exercise that you have to complete in 90 minutes (after this deadline all information already encoded will be lost!)
·Solution 2: answer only the first question (i.e., "Are you a citizen, business or organization?") and the last question ("Do you agree that the EU establishes a procedure ISDS allowing multinationals to complain against the states?"). For all questions in between, say you do not mind.
·Solution 3: the easiest way is to follow these steps:
1. Consult the typical responses we propose
2. Go to the official website of the public consultation where you will find the online questionnaire
3. Using the tab at the top right of the screen, choose the language of your choice
4. At the first question, check the option "I am participating in this consultation on behalf of myself (as citizen/individual)"
5. For each question, copy and paste the model answers (or, if you're very inspired, write in your own answers)
6. When you are finished and you are sure of your answers, click on the "SUBMIT" tab at the end of the document. Your answers are then sent to the European Commission.
Beware that each response is limited to 4000 characters maximum.
It is essential to respond massively and as quickly as possible (before July 6, 2014) to this questionnaire to defeat this anti-democratic project.
For this reason, do not hesitate to send this mail to your friends and family and let them know the democratic, ecological and social reasons the League of Human Rights supports this vital http://www.no-transat.be initiative.
Sharpen your pencils and let's get started!
