69 of top 100 economic entities are corporations not countries
Walmart, Apple, Shell richer than Russia, Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands
British government has been told: stop supporting your corporations, support your people
Corporations have increased their wealth vis-à-vis countries according to new figures released by Global Justice Now.
The
campaign group found that 69 of the world’s top economic entities are
corporations rather than countries in 2015*. They also discovered that
the world’s top 10 corporations – a list that includes Walmart, Shell
and Apple – have a combined revenue of more than the 180 ‘poorest’
countries combined in the list which include Ireland, Indonesia, Israel,
Colombia, Greece, South Africa, Iraq and Vietnam.
The
figures are worse than last year, when 63 of the top economic entities
were corporations. When looking at the top 200 economic entities, the
figures are even more extreme, with 153 being corporations.
Global
Justice Now released the figures in order to increase pressure on the
British government ahead of a UN working group, led by Ecuador,
established to draw up a binding treaty to ensure transnational
corporations abide by the full range of human rights responsibilities.
Campaigners are calling for the treaty to be legally enforceable at a
national and global level. Britain doesn’t support the process, and has
repeatedly vetoed and opposed such proposal in the past.
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said:
“The
vast wealth and power of corporations is at the heart of so many of the
world’s problems – like inequality and climate change. The drive for
short-term profits today seems to trump basic human rights for millions
of people on the planet. These figures show the problem is getting
worse.
“The UK government has facilitated this rise
in corporate power – through tax structures, trade deals and even aid
programmes that help big business. Their wholehearted support for the
US-EU trade deal TTIP, is just the latest example of government help to
big business. Disgracefully it also routinely opposes the call of
developing countries to hold corporations to account for their human
rights impacts at the UN. That’s why today we’re joining campaigns from
across the world to tell the British government to stop blocking this
international demand for justice.”
Read more: 10 biggest corporations make more money than most countries in the world combined | Global Justice Now
