Mageswari Sangaralingam, member of SAM – Friends of the Earth Malaysia, warned on Friday that in Asia there are communities affected by corporate crimes, and that the victims, especially of transnational corporations, don´t have access to justice. “So where do you go to access justice if there is a problem of environmental issue or human rights violations?”, when the existing judicial mechanisms are ineffective, she wondered.

Real World Radio interviewed Mages at Room XX of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, UN headquarters in the city, where the plenary of the open-ended intergovernmental working group of the UN Human Rights Council is negotiating a binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights.

Mages is part of the delegation of Friends of the Earth International that travelled to Geneva to push for the Treaty. She also spoke on behalf of Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific. Mages linked the international talks with concrete situations taking place in several Asian countries, such as human rights abuses by transnational corporations.