ABSTRACT
In recent years a number of peoples' tribunals have been organized throughout Latin America to expose different forms of harm and violence associated with the growing power of transnational corporations (TNCs). These grassroots initiatives are part of an increasingly visible transnational corporate accountability movement in the region, which has roots in the resistance mobilizations to the free trade agenda that began in the 1990s in the form of the Free Trade Area of the Americas projects and bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) (Saguier 2007). Peoples' tribunals focus on cases of corporate-related human rights abuses - increasingly related to socio-environmental conflicts in connection with extractive industries (De Echave et al. 2009). Tribunals locate victims' demands for justice at the centre of global political dynamics over the creation of emerging international norms and institutions for business regulation.
