Video: ESCR-Net launches a comic series on corporate capture

Publish Date: 
Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Members of the Corporate Accountability Working Group, and in particular those engaged with the Project Advisory Group on Corporate Capture, have collectively worked with the art studio Zago Brothers on the online comic series The Power of the 99% to Stop Corporate Capture, to shed light on the widespread global phenomenon of how corporations are capturing government institutions and decision-making, including in international spaces such as the United Nations.

Watch our video:

(Available with subtitles in English, Spanish, French and Arabic)

The comic series will be launched on 22 February 2021, coinciding with the start of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC).

“Corporate capture of government decision-making affects all of us in every country across the globe in similar ways - it results in privatization and public policy that prioritizes profit over people. This comic series helps us to collectively name and shame not only the ongoing corporate capture, but also some of the global corporations that are behind rigging our systems in country after country, ” says Shayda Nacify, Senior Program Director at Corporate Accountability and member of ESCR-Net Project Advisory Group on Corporate Capture.

The first episode, entitled "The Power of the 99% to Stop Corporate Capture of the United Nations" will be launched alongside a background document illustrating several examples of capture of UN bodies and other multilateral institutions. Upcoming episodes will cover other issues impacted by corporate capture – including our healthcare systems, the right to a healthy environment, the impact of foreign debt in a just recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and capture in conflict-affected areas. 

The series is part of a broader advocacy strategy that ESCN-Net members have been collectively developing over the last 15 years. ESCR-Net has been central to mobilizing global advocacy for an international binding  treaty to strengthen corporate accountability for human rights abuses and violations. However, ESCR-Net members have repetitively denounced that the treaty process, currently being negotiated in the United Nations, is “threatened by corporate capture”, often through the inclusion of corporate lobbyists and associations as official advisors to the process, such as the International Organization of Employers (IOE), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) - allowing them to exert influence on a binding treaty that is meant to hold them accountable.

The message in this comic series is clear: if we - the 99% - work together, we can overcome corporate capture and build a new normal. 


Related events and resources to #StopCorporateCapture