Global Policy Forum

Letter from Alison Linnecar, International Coordinator of IBFAN-GIFA,
to Mr. Georg Kell, Executive Head of the Global Compact

By Alison Linnecar

Mr. Georg Kell
Executive Head, Global Compact
Office of the Secretary General
United Nations
New York 10017
USA

July 10, 2003

Re: Membership of Nestlé in the Global Compact

Dear Mr. Kell,

Since early 2000, the Geneva Infant Feeding Association/International Baby Food Action Network (GIFA-IBFAN) has been corresponding with the Global Compact Office about whether or not the Office intends accepting the transnational food manufacturer Nestlé as a member of the Global Compact. This correspondence outlined substantial reasons against such a decision to allow Nestlé to participate as well as IBFAN's concerns over the predictable negative consequences. In January 2000, the then UN Assistant Secretary-General John Ruggie, wrote to GIFA that "neither Wyeth nor Nestlé are involved in the Global Compact. Neither has shown any sign of being ‘anxious' to participate, as you put it, nor have we sought their participation".

IBFAN was never directly informed that Nestlé had been allowed to participate in the Global Compact. At the October 2002 symposium on The UN Global Compact and Swiss Business in Geneva, Nestlé was publicly presented as a member of the Global Compact and given credit for being one of four exemplary Swiss companies. Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck-Lethmathe was one of the key plenary speakers. The Symposium programme gratefully acknowledged the "support of Nestlé in making this event possible". We have two questions:

1) How did Nestlé become a Global Compact member? More concretely, what criteria and procedures formed the basis of the Global Compact Office's decision to accept Nestlé as an official Global Compact member?

2) What procedures are in place to allow public interest NGOs and concerned citizens to request a scrutiny of whether one of the corporate Global Compact members should be officially excluded from this initiative.

We would appreciate your answer to the above questions by mid August 2003.

Yours sincerely,

Alison Linnecar
International Coordinator
IBFAN-GIFA

cc.
Louise Frechette, UN Deputy Secretary-General
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International
Irene Khan, Amnesty International
Michael Posner, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
Kenneth Roth, Human Right Watch
Kenny Bruno, Alliance for Corporate-free UN

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