Advocacy – Political and financial secrecy 

Why and how fight against political and financial secrecy?

Access to evidence is a prerequisite to access justice against multinational corporations. However, the lack of transparency around international economic activity hampers the collection of information, and thus of evidence, on multinational companies.  

In particular, the use of complex corporate structures and shell companies registered in tax havens, or the legal protection afforded to various business secrets, prevent victims and courts alike from gathering key information about corporate misconducts.  

National security and trade secrets for example are broadly defined, and their protection regimes allow the secret-holders to both short-circuit and heavily sanction disclosures. Companies and public institutions alike may thus rely on these secrets to stifle freedom of information and to prevent whistleblowers, journalists and other rights defenders from gathering and disseminating evidence.  

While some disclosure and transparency obligations have also been imposed on multinational corporations, these duties have proved largely inadequate to close the information gap between companies and citizens. Access to administrative documents through freedom of information requests are also a struggle for most journalists and rights defenders.   

Securing access to justice against multinational companies thus requires addressing this opacity through ambitious legal reforms that prioritise the right to information over business secrets.