26th November 2011

The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is stepping up its campaign to protect bees. Last year it hosted the 2010 London Bee Summitt.  This year, PAN is sending scientists, lawyers, doctors and  beekeepers to testify at the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) in Bangalore starting on 3rd December. The PPT will hear cases brought against six multinational agrochemical companies, which stand accused of violating human rights to health, livlihood and life.

Cases from the UK and Europe will focus on the loss of bees and other pollinators due to neonicotinoid pesticides developed and sold by Bayer. Other concerns are the suffering of families from organophosate pesticides (OPs) and the wilful suppression, corruption, manipulation and distortion of science.

Bees play a crucial role in the production of 80 million tonnes of food per year, that’s around 160kg of food per EU citizen. Germany lost 60% of bees in 2008 and France lost a third of bees in 1999 when neonicotinoids were introduced.

Graham White, a beekeeper said, “Bee losses in Britain have been catastrophic, with over a million colony deaths since 1993.  There is a massive body of peer reviewed scientific evidence from European universities, which indicate that neonicotinoids are having a lethal impact on bees and other pollinating insects.  It is high time that the companies that manufacture these toxic pesticides are held to acount for the damage they have done.”

Taking the multinationals to the PPT is giving voice to the unheard victims of pesticide poisonings around the globe. An estimated 355 000 people die unintentionally each year because of the relentless promotion of toxins by the six largest companies; Monsanto, Syngenta, International, Bayer Crop Sciences, Dow Chemicals, Dupont and BASF.

Also under indictment are the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO, which are specifically geared to support massive corporate profits rather than human and environmental well-being.  The governments of Germany, Switzerland and the USA are also indicted for colluding with, and failing to regulate corporate power. The defendants have been summonsed to give their perspectives and responses.

The PPT was started in 1979 by Italian senator Lelio Basso. So far it has held 35 international sessions exploring various human rights abuses. Unlike existing legal mechanisms that only benefit the powerful and wealthy, the PPT provides alternative judgments and legal articulations that are essential to serve justice for both historic and continuing crimes against humankind.

Photo:  (c) Schumacher College