Once a year, the World Economic Forum (WEF), an association of the largest private corporations world-wide, convenes for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. In addition to the WEF members, some of the most influential politicians and representatives of international institutions will attend the event.

Through its annual meeting, the WEF helps to enlarge and strengthen the influence of the private sector on international politics. Past Forum meetings have led to the launch of trade negotiations such as the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) or the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) ­agreements which have caused social inequality and environmental destruction.

Across the world, opposition against economic globalization is gaining strength. This has been evidenced by the successful protests against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) or the Millennium Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle. In 2000, thousands of people demonstrated against economic globalization in Chiang Mai, Washington, Prague, Melbourne and Nice. They expressed their disagreement with the dominance of the corporate driven economic policies and called for democracy and transparency in international economic decision-making.

Launched in 2000, the Public Eye on Davos will be present in Davos for the second time. This joint campaign of several non-governmental organizations (NGO) remonstrates against the influence which the private sector exerts on international policies, and warns of its negative impact on the safeguarding of human rights, social equity, democracy and the environment.

The Public Eye on Davos calls for the implementation of the following basic rules by governments, international organizations and the private sector:

Concerning Global Governance:

	All governance structures on the national and international level must be based on transparent, accountable and democratic principles. Discussions and decisions which are relevant to the public at large should be held in fora which abide by these principles.

Concerning Corporate Control:

	An intergovernmental agreement should impose high standards of transparency and accountability on companies through binding rules. Companies must be required to disclose the social and environmental impacts of their activities in order to meet the needs of stakeholders - such as local communities, customers and ethical investors - for fair, accurate and relevant information. All stakeholders of companies - including local communities and employees - should be granted legal rights to challenge the activities of companies that threaten their interests. Such an agreement should be enforced by national legislation and backed by international law.
	International anti-trust law should be agreed in order to control anti-competitive merger activity across, as well as within, countries.
	National and international tax laws must be tightened to ensure that corporations pay fair taxes in all those countries in which they operate.
	Corporations which commit criminal offences must be open to prosecution at both national and international levels.
	All these measures must be backed by strong and effective sanctions, which might include expulsion from a particular national market, jail sentences for accountable directors, suspension of stock-market listings, removal of corporate charters or withdrawal of financial privileges such as access to Government subsidies and export credits.

Concerning International Financial Relations:

	There should be no further liberalization of the international financial system and no pressure for liberalization on the national level. Specifically, the proposed amendment of the IMF articles of agreement, according to which the IMF would receive the right to enforce capital account liberalizations in its member states, should not go ahead.
	Short-term financial flows should be taxed and regulated in order to prevent further speculative attacks on national currencies. · The multilateral development banks, the official export credit agencies and the private banks should adopt binding policies in order to ensure that their projects comply with international environmental, labour and human rights standards. Governments should establish an overall framework for such standards, e.g. as part of the Rio + 10 process.
	International financial institutions should be democratised and should be made more accountable to all stakeholders. Concerning International Trade Policies: · Any trade agreements must respect international environmental and human rights standards.
	No further trade liberalization measures should be carried pending an independent investigation into the impacts of existing WTO agreements on human rights, social equity and the environment. Such an examination should have a special focus on the impact of international trade agreements on the poor, especially women, children and indigenous peoples.
	No pressure should be put on poorer countries to open their markets, be it by multilateral institutions or by bilateral agreements.
	The patenting of all living-forms, micro-organisms, plants, animals, including all their parts, whether they are genes, gene sequences, cells, cell lines, proteins or seeds, must not be allowed.

As long as economic policies are shaped in private elite gatherings like the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, the Public Eye will be on Davos.

The Public Eye on Davos is a joint project of the Berne Declaration (co-ordination), the South American Network "Asociación Lationamericana de Organizaciones de Promoción" (ALOP), Focus on the Global South, Friends of the Earth International (and its Swiss affiliate Pro Natura), Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), the Tebtebba Foundation, the World Development Movement and the Network Women in Development Europe (WIDE).