Public Eye

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Public Eye
legal form Volunteer Association
founding 1968
Seat Zurich and Lausanne
main emphasis development organization
Chair Pierrette Rohrbach (President of the Board)
Members 25,000
Website www.publiceye.ch

Public Eye , formerly the Bern Declaration (EvB), is a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO). It is politically and religiously independent.

activities

Public Eye is an independent Swiss organization that advocates fair globalization . In addition to lobbying , the organization also runs regular campaigns to influence development policy issues.

It does this in Switzerland, but it also intervenes together with partner organizations around the world in international institutions such as the World Bank , the International Monetary Fund , the FAO and the OECD . Public Eye is mainly involved in the following areas:

history

The Bern Declaration was published in 1968 by a group of predominantly Reformed theologians. a. Kurt Marti and Max Geiger belonged, formulated in the form of a manifesto about “Switzerland and the developing countries”. 1000 people signed this manifesto and pledged to donate 3% of their income to development cooperation. In 1971 the Bern Declaration was constituted as an association. The association now has more than 25,000 members. It is supported by membership fees, donations and the sale of own publications.

In 2016, the General Assembly decided to rename the organization Public Eye . This was justified by the fact that the new name is self-explanatory, cross-lingual and already known to the public through the Davos counter-event to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Public Eye on Davos .

Actions and campaigns

consumption

With their behavior, consumers can influence producers and thus the entire economic structure. In order to use this influence, Public Eye has promoted fair trade since its inception. Conscious consumption and joint actions in public can influence the behavior of large corporations. In 1974, EvB paved the way for third-world shops by launching Fairtrade coffee from Tanzania . 250,000 fair trade jute bags from Bangladesh were sold in the “ Jute instead of plastic” campaign . A year later the establishment of the import cooperative OS3 was initiated, in 1977 it was founded by various aid organizations. In 1997 claro fair trade AG emerged from the OS3 import cooperative . In 1997 the EvB launched the “Let's go fair” campaign together with terre des hommes Schweiz - for sport shoes that were produced fairly.

The chocolate campaign started in spring 2009. The EvB called for transparency and a fair pricing policy so that child labor is not the rule in cocoa production .

Clean clothes campaign

Together with Bread for All and Fastenopfer , the EvB started the campaign for clean clothing in Switzerland , which advocates the rights of workers and an improvement in working conditions in the international clothing and sporting goods industry. In 2001 a campaign was carried out against the underwear manufacturer Triumph , which produces in Burma . In the 2004 Olympic year, Prêt-à-partager was a critical assessment of 29 clothing companies. In 2010, the “10 Rappen” campaign mobilized 31,425 protest notes in nine weeks from consumers demanding that clothing companies pay living wages. With this campaign, the Clean Clothes Campaign supports the Asian Floor Wage Alliance.

Banks and the Swiss financial center

In 1978, the EvB launched its own campaign for the banking initiative and, together with friendly organizations, founded the Swiss Financial Center Action - Third World (AFP) office to address the relationship between developing countries and the Swiss financial center and Swiss banks. In 1991, together with the specialist agency, the EvB carried out the campaign “for a Switzerland without flight money”, which was supported by 153 organizations and led to the Swiss Federal Council revising the legal aid law.

A survey by the EvB in 1982 showed that there is great interest in Switzerland in a bank with social and ecological objectives. A working group established in 1988 for an alternative bank in Switzerland finally led to the establishment of Alternative Bank Switzerland in 1990 .

In 2003 the Tax Justice Network was founded.

In 2004 a campaign against aiding and abetting tax evasion was launched, in 2009 the EvB, together with Attac and Denknetz , demanded the abolition of the distinction between tax evasion and tax fraud, as well as the automatic exchange of information with foreign tax authorities.

Agriculture / biodiversity / patents

The Berne Declaration analyzed the effects of the corporate policy of the Swiss Syngenta group in poorer countries. The herbicide paraquat was at the center of the criticism . In 2001 the EvB launched a worldwide campaign against paraquat. Another example of campaigns in the field of pesticides is the “Beware of Flowers” ​​campaign, which took place in 1989 on Valentine's Day. It shows the problem of the increasing imports of flowers from third world countries and the pesticides with which the flowers are sprayed.

Public Eye is also campaigning against Syngenta's patent claims on important gene sequences from crops.

The Bern Declaration is also committed to easy access to medicines and the human right to health.

Corporate social responsibility

Public Eye on Davos

Since 2000, Public Eye has organized the Public Eye on Davos as a counter-conference during the World Economic Forum . Since 2005, Public Eye has been presenting the negative Public Eye Awards in Davos . The awards have been presented with Greenpeace since 2009 .

Annual report

In the 2018 annual report, Public Eye et al. a. the following key figures:

  • Balance sheet assets: CHF 4,463,476 (of which CHF 4,057,751 in cash and cash equivalents )
  • Balance sheet liabilities: same (of which CHF 3 785 299 for total organizational capital )
  • Income: 5 777 674 CHF (of which 2 913 546 CHF in donations)
  • Expenses: 5 310 261 CHF (of which 3 673 405 CHF total project expenses )
  • Annual result: CHF 464,987 (8%; allocation / use of organizational capital)

Publications

  • Regula Renschler , Roy Preiswerk (ed.): The poison of the early years. Racism in Youth Literature . Lenos, Basel 1981, ISBN 3-85787-089-3 .
  • Andreas Missbach: Clean returns - investing in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Ott, Bern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7225-0084-3 .
  • Declaration of Bern (Ed.): Raw material - Switzerland's most dangerous business. Salis, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-905801-50-7 .
  • The Truth About Swiss Chocolate: Chocolate Companies Compared . Declaration from Bern, Zurich 2013, DNB 1038599652

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Berne Declaration (EvB) is now called Public Eye. In: www.evb.ch. Retrieved December 11, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Chocolate at www.publiceye.ch
  3. ^ Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), accessed July 20, 2012
  4. ↑ 10 cents for a dignified life - The true fashion victims ( Memento from July 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 20, 2012.
  5. ↑ PUBLIC EYE Annual Report 2018. publiceye.ch, February 1, 2019, accessed on April 1, 2019 .