Standing Up

Court cases involving transnational companies such as McDonalds are headline news. When the South African government took drug companies to court over the licence to produce HIV treatment, it raised many interesting issues about how individual human rights can be threatened by multinational supremacy. This text is the testimony of a pioneering British lawyer who specialises in defending the economic and social rights of individuals against multinational companies. The author recounts the cynicism of multinationals, judges, politicians and media as well as the work, energy and enthusiasm provided by the victims he defends, the doctors, trade unions, community activists and NGOs who made these cases possible.