Public Tribunal Finds Monsanto Guilty on Four Counts! Ecocide, Harm to the Environment, Health and the Right to Food, and Threats to Scientific Independence

If the Syrian government did indeed use chemical weapons, causing the death or injury of hundreds and thousands of civilians and young children, then even in the midst of war it would face charges of war crimes for harming the innocent. If, in peacetime, the use of pesticides destroys the environment and endangers the health of millions and the survival of future generations, what crime does that constitute?

The verdict of the "Monsanto Tribunal," initiated by civil society groups, is out: under existing international law, Monsanto is guilty on all four counts, including harm to the environment, to health, to the right to food, and threats to the independence of scientific research.

Besides producing Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, over the past 20 years Monsanto has also taken part in Colombia's anti-drug program, using "glyphosate air strikes" to destroy coca plants, endangering the environment and health. By comparison with the crimes of genocide and war crimes, if international law contained a crime of "ecocide," this American agrochemical giant would likewise stand convicted on overwhelming evidence.

A Symbolic Verdict by Professional Judges, Grounded in Law

Last October, 5 professional judges at the "Monsanto Tribunal" in The Hague, the Netherlands, heard testimony from farmers, lawyers and experts from around the world, and put the crimes of the American agrochemical giant "Monsanto" on trial. Because the judges had no real investigative powers, this "international public trial" initiated by civil society groups was only symbolic, and the verdict was merely advisory in nature.

Though an informal trial, it was grounded in law. Françoise Tulkens, a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights who served as president of the Monsanto Tribunal, stressed: "The Monsanto Tribunal conducted its proceedings in accordance with the norms of the International Court of Justice and followed international human rights and international humanitarian conventions." She sent an invitation to Monsanto last year, but the "defendant" chose to be absent, giving up the chance to defend itself.

According to Colombian government statistics, from 1994 to 2014 the "anti-drug program" sprayed 22.3 million liters of glyphosate, covering 1.86 million hectares of land. Mutambai said: "This glyphosate was twice as concentrated as the commercially available product. The blanket spraying affected not only illegal crops, but also forests, scrubland, pasture, water sources, livestock, fish and people's own food crops, as well as people themselves. I also saw a calf born after the spraying that was missing its hind legs."

"Monsanto is part of the U.S. military-industrial complex and must be held responsible for ecocide and for causing disease, because Monsanto knew full well that glyphosate was being used in Colombia as a chemical weapon." The area where Mutambai lives is also a stronghold of anti-government guerrilla forces; under the name of the drug war, it is an entanglement of civil war.

After the World Health Organization classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen in 2015, the Colombian government finally announced a ban on aerial spraying of the herbicide, but glyphosate could still be used when coca plants were removed by hand.

The Colombian government launched a victim compensation program in 2001, "but 96% of applications were sent back. Most of the victims are poor people with little education, and rural communities could not possibly have satellite positioning technology to provide the evidence required." Mutambai explained, "Those who handle the compensation applications are the very people who carried out the anti-drug program, so they are both player and referee, and no transparency in any procedure can be guaranteed."

The Colombian government, which treats its people like weeds, did agree in 2013 to pay Ecuador 15 million US dollars in compensation for a neighboring country affected by the glyphosate air strikes. Its own government would rather "give to a friendly state than to its own people," and Mutambai could only sigh.

Corporate Interests First, Government Not Serving the People

The government "Leviathan," which was originally meant to give people a better life, has gradually become an accomplice of the giant multinational corporations.

"Under the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), bilateral trade and investment treaties and free trade agreements all protect investors and gradually weaken the ability of states to protect people and the environment. The gap between international human rights and environmental law and trade and investment regulations is also growing wider and wider." said Judge Siebmann of the Monsanto Tribunal.

There is also a huge gap between the rights and obligations of corporations. "When multinational corporations violate basic rights, they should be regarded as legal subjects and bear more responsibility under the norms of international human rights law, and they could be tried before the International Criminal Court." Siebmann said.

Despite the seriousness of the crimes, multinational corporations are enormously wealthy and even order states around, and Monsanto is not an isolated case; the root of the problem lies in the political and economic structure. Even if its marriage with Bayer goes smoothly, Monsanto will not turn over a new leaf overnight, and the ever-growing agrochemical giants must likewise be regulated.

Judge Orellana said, "The significance of the Monsanto Tribunal lies in creating the tools to respond and clarifying the shape of the problem. What comes next depends on joint action by civil society."

With Zhuge Liang offering strategies, and thousands upon thousands of mediocre cobblers overcoming the dilemma of collective action, there is still a fair chance of subduing the Leviathan and the giant beast.

The globally launched Seeds of Freedom seeks to take the power over seeds and planting back from the agrochemical giants

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