My name is Andre Leu. I’m the President of IFOAM, organics international. We strongly support the Monsanto Tribunal and the People’s Assembly because we believe Monsanto is a company that has had a long history of crimes against people. This Assembly and the Tribunal will document these crimes. There will be people who are victims of these crimes and they will have their chance to tell why their lives have been wrecked because of the toxic chemicals. The history of People’s Tribunals dates back to the Nazi times. The Nazis had show trials and sentenced innocent people to death. Eminent jurists started the first people’s trials to actually retry these people who had been found guilty by the Nazis, in doing so these people were found in this case not to be guilty and international public pressure saw them freed instead of being executed. Since then there is a very long history of these Tribunals acting, where governments either act corruptly or fail to act, the people will act. And instead of calling this a mock trial remember this is the people acting where governments should have a long time ago. The reason why we have a People’s Assembly as well as the Tribunal is because the Tribunal is a proper legally constituted trial. It has eminent jurists. It is run by eminent lawyers and professors of law so it will be run by the principles of international law. The only thing it can’t do is deliver a punishment. The real punishment is the punishment of public opinion and that is why we have a People’s Assembly because that is the punishment that will affect Monsanto.
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