We… believe that the United Nations (UN) is currently the most democratic and appropriate global institution for international negotiations…However, we have strong concerns about the growing influence of major corporations and business lobby groups within the UN…Many UN agencies, including UNICEF, UNDP, WHO and UNESCO, have engaged in partnerships with major transnational companies...UNEP has established partnerships with ExxonMobil, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Shell...Other examples include: Coca Cola and UNDP on water resource protection, and BASF and Coca Cola with UN-HABITAT on sustainable urbanisation. Such partnerships not only damage the credibility of the UN, they also undermine its ability and willingness to respond to and regulate the business sector where it is involved in social, environmental and human rights violations…