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   Business complicity in human rights abuses   

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Occidental Sued in Human Rights Case - The oil firm, accused of aiding a deadly military assault in Colombia, joins list of U.S. firms charged in overseas incidents. - The list of corporations sued in American courts for their alleged involvement in human rights violations in foreign countries grew longer Thursday, when Occidental Petroleum Corp. was accused of aiding a deadly military assault on a Colombian village. (Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2003)

Human rights groups sue Occidental over 1998 Colombia bombing - International human rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Occidental Petroleum and one of its security contractors over a 1998 bombing that killed 17 civilians in a Colombian village...The lawsuit names Los Angeles-based Occidental and Rockledge, Fla.-based Airscan Inc., an aviation security firm, as defendants and accuses the companies of aiding the raid with the Colombian military. (Paul Chavez, Associated Press, 24 Apr. 2003)

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2003:

Occidental Sued in Human Rights Case - The oil firm, accused of aiding a deadly military assault in Colombia, joins list of U.S. firms charged in overseas incidents. - The list of corporations sued in American courts for their alleged involvement in human rights violations in foreign countries grew longer Thursday, when Occidental Petroleum Corp. was accused of aiding a deadly military assault on a Colombian village. (Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2003)

Human rights groups sue Occidental over 1998 Colombia bombing - International human rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Occidental Petroleum and one of its security contractors over a 1998 bombing that killed 17 civilians in a Colombian village...The lawsuit names Los Angeles-based Occidental and Rockledge, Fla.-based Airscan Inc., an aviation security firm, as defendants and accuses the companies of aiding the raid with the Colombian military. (Paul Chavez, Associated Press, 24 Apr. 2003)

Keller Rohrback Announces International Law Suit Filed on Behalf of Apartheid Victims--Makhetha, et al. v. Credit Commercial De France, et al. - The law firm of Keller Rohrback, L.L.P. and other firms in the United States, filed a complaint that seeks to hold French and Swiss banks and other financial institutions responsible for allegedly aiding and abetting the apartheid regime in South Africa...The suit alleges that these banks provided the funding that enabled South Africa to expand its police and security apparatus. (Keller Rohrback L.L.P., 30 Mar. 2003)

Unocal adopts company-wide principles - Unocal Corporation has announced the adoption of new corporate principles covering fundamental rights, such as freedom from discrimination in employment, the elimination of child labour and freedom of association and collective bargaining. The move was welcomed by the Amalgamated Bank, which was one of the company's investors that had urged the company to take the step in a shareholder resolution that won 32.8 percent support at the company's AGM - at the time the largest ever such vote of support recorded for a human rights motion...Unocal has been the focus of criticism due to its business activities in Myanmar - particularly alleged complicity with the actions of security services who committed various human rights violations. (Business Respect newsletter No. 52, 15 Mar. 2003)

Intrepid Travel targeted over return to Burma - The Burma Campaign UK today strongly condemned Intrepid Travel for its decision to return to Burma. Intrepid Travel, an Australian travel company with offices in the UK, USA and Canada, pulled out of Burma in 1999 saying it was concerned that its presence was not only benefiting Burma’s dictatorship financially, but also amounted to a tacit approval of the regime. (Burma Campaign UK, 10 Mar. 2003)

2002:

NGO Launches US Apartheid Reparations Law Suit [lawsuit in U.S. court against companies for past conduct in South Africa] - A non-governmental organisation has filed a lawsuit against 21 multinational corporations and leading international banks for helping prop up the apartheid state...The companies and banks named in the lawsuit are: Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, Caltex Petroleum, Fluor Corporation, Ford, General Motors and IBM in the United States; German-based Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, DaimlerChrysler, and Rheinmetall; Credit Suisse and UBS in Switzerland; Barclays Bank; British Petroleum, Rio Tinto and Fujitsu ICL in the United Kingdom; Total-Fina-Elf from France and Royal Dutch Shell from the Netherlands.  The list was expected to grow by at least 100 names. (South African Press Association, 12 Nov. 2002)

Burma boycott campaign stepped up -...The group [ICFTU] believes that any foreign company doing business in Burma is providing support to "one of the world's most savage dictatorships". It says the military junta approves foreign investments individually, and is directly responsible for the widespread and growing use of forced labour, often on infrastructure projects connected to the needs of foreign firms. (BBC News, 28 Oct. 2002)

Shell faces litigation - Fourteen individual plaintiffs filed a class action suit [in a U.S. court] against Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport, plc, on September 20 for alleged human rights abuses in Ogoniland, Nigeria...the complaint alleges that Shell knowingly instigated, planned and facilitated in unprovoked attacks by the former Nigerian military government against the unarmed residents of Ogoniland, resulting in murder and gross human rights abuses. (Tomorrow: Your sustainable business toolkit, 26 Sep. 2002)

Court Tells Unocal to Face Rights Charges - An appellate court said today that the Unocal Corporation must face a trial in the United States over claims of human-rights abuses involving villagers in Myanmar who worked on the company's $1.2 billion pipeline there. (Bloomberg News, in New York Times, 18 Sep. 2002)

Yahoo! Risks Abusing Rights in China - Yahoo! Inc. risks complicity in rights abuses if it remains a signatory to China's "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry," Human Rights Watch said today...Signatories to the voluntary pledge agree to investigate all websites to which they provide links, block anything the Chinese government would consider "harmful information," and report those sites to Chinese authorities. (Human Rights Watch, 9 Aug. 2002)

U.S./Indonesia: Bush Backtracks on Corporate Responsibility - The U.S. State Department has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the Exxon Mobil Corporation for its alleged complicity in human rights violations in Indonesia, raising questions about the Bush administration's commitment to corporate responsibility, Human Rights Watch said today..."It is the height of hypocrisy for the State Department to publicly promote human rights principles for the oil and gas industry and then tell a judge that scrutiny of an oil company's human rights record runs counter to foreign policy," said Roth [Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch] (Human Rights Watch, 7 Aug. 2002)

Statement by Human Rights Watch to the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’ Working Group on the Working Methods and Activities of Transnational Corporations -...many companies still argue that they do not bear any responsibility for human rights in the places where they trade, invest, and operate. In this context, Human Rights Watch sees the development of the "Human Rights Principles and Responsibilities for Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises" by the Working Group as a very important step in addressing complicity of multinational enterprises in human rights violations. (Human Rights Watch, 1 Aug. 2002)

A Long Way to Find Justice: What Are Burmese Villagers Doing in a California Court? -...American judges have embraced the opportunity to hold multinational corporations responsible for perceived abuses that result from international trade and investment [includes reference to cases against Unocal, Gap Inc., J.C. Penney, Levi Strauss, the Limited]...Companies need to scrutinize the practices of their business partners -- how they treat workers and the environment, how they interact with local military and political authorities -- to determine whether they violate international standards or offend the conscience of U.S. courts. (Elliot Schrage, former Senior Vice President of Global Affairs at Gap Inc., in Washington Post, 14 July 2002)

Apartheid victims sue big business -...A team of American and South African lawyers is about to file a $50bn class action suit in New York against Swiss and US banks accused of backing the former apartheid regime [suing Citigroup, Credit Suisse & UBS for allegedly profiting from loans to the white South African government while a UN embargo was in force] (BBC News, 17 June 2002)

Human Rights in China Files Lawsuit Against the Bank of China -...charging that the BOC [Bank of China] assisted the government of China in the confiscation of humanitarian funds destined for the surviving families of the victims of the Tiananmen Massacre. (Human Rights in China, 14 June 2002)

Unocal Faces Trial For Rights Abuses -...Yesterday in California, a judge asserted international jurisdiction in a way that some U.S. companies may not be so happy about. A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles ordered Unocal to stand trial for human rights abuses allegedly committed in association with a pipeline project in Myanmar. Judge Victoria Chaney denied a Unocal motion for summary judgment (Dan Ackman, Forbes, 12 June 2002)

ExxonMobil Fights Indonesia Rights Suit - ExxonMobil Corp is trying to persuade a [U.S.] federal court to dismiss a year-old lawsuit against it that alleges complicity in atrocities in Indonesia, court documents showed. (Agence France Presse, 30 May 2002)

TotalFinaElf faces lawsuit by Myanmar refugees over govt human rights abuses - Four refugees from Myanmar are seeking to take legal action in Belgium against TotalFinaElf for alleged complicity with Myanmar's military regime, human rights advocates said (AFX News, 8 May 2002)

Canada's silence on Sudan is a vote for oppression - Put simply, the question is: Are Canadians prepared to ignore the continuing corporate complicity, indirect or otherwise, of Calgary's Talisman Energy in the oil-driven destruction of southern Sudan? (Gary Kenny, Africa human-rights researcher/policy advocate for KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, a partnership of 10 national churches and church organizations, in Globe and Mail [Canada], 1 May 2002)

Talisman Advised - Further Abuses Could Result In Prosecution In International Criminal Court - Rights & Democracy advised oil corporation Talisman today that future complicity in Sudanese human rights abuses could be liable for prosecution by the impending International Criminal Court. (Rights & Democracy, 30 Apr. 2002)

BP Complicity in China's Exploitation of Tibet: Campaigners Set Sights on company AGM after BP stonewalls rights groups - Tibet campaigners have pledged to highlight at this week's BP AGM (18 April) how the company's collaboration with PetroChina makes BP complicit in abusive policies in Chinese occupied Tibet. (Free Tibet Campaign, 16 Apr. 2002)

Guatemala: the lethal legacy of impunity...The case of Edgar Ordóñez is illustrative of human rights violations committed in modern-day Guatemala in the context of the so-called "corporate mafia state" in which certain economic actors, including subsidiaries of some multinational corporations, collude with sectors of the police and military and common criminals to pursue their mutual economic interests (Amnesty International, 28 Feb. 2002)

human rights attorneys... announced the filing of an amended complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Talisman Energy Inc., adding the Islamic Government of Sudan as a co-defendant. The complaint alleges that Talisman and the government are violating the human rights of Christian and other non-Muslim minorities in Southern Sudan by conducting a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing to clear the land for oil exploitation. (Carey R. D'Avino and Stephen A. Whinston of Berger & Montague, PC, 25 Feb. 2002)

Moving beyond the voluntary code: HUMAN RIGHTS: Self-regulation for international business is the norm when it comes to rights. But a new study says this is slowly giving way to legal obligations [article about new report: Beyond Voluntarism: Human rights and the developing international legal obligations of companies, prepared by International Council on Human Rights Policy] (Alison Maitland, Financial Times, 18 Feb. 2002)

Beyond Voluntarism: Human rights and the developing international legal obligations of companies [full report, and summary] (International Council on Human Rights Policy, Jan. 2002)

Corporate Complicity From Nuremberg to Rangoon: An Examination of Forced Labor Cases and Their Impact on the Liability of Multinational Corporations - Abstract: The article looks at nature and degree of complicity that gives rise to liability on the part of multinational corporations (MNCs) that operate in countries with repressive regimes. Specifically, it examines lawsuits in United States against these MNCs for violations of public international law under the federal Alien Torts Claim Act (ATCA). It also views the historical origins of corporate complicity, and examines the outcomes of British and American war crimes tribunal set up after the Second World War. Further, the article compares and contrasts these historical cases with the recent case brought in the federal district court against Unocal Corporation for alleged use of force labor in its pipeline project in Burma. (Professor Anita Ramasastry, University of Washington School of Law, in Berkeley Journal of International Law, vol. 20 no. 1, 2002)

Doe v. Unocal: Forced Labor and Corporate Liability [Burma] - Burmese villagers brought a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court charging the consortium with profiting from forced labor. "Doe v. Unocal: Forced Labor and Corporate Liability" presents a legal issue: whether Unocal is liable for the human rights violations of its government joint venture partner. (Howard Tolley, Jr. & Anne Lawrence, THRO - Teaching Human Rights Online, Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, 2002)

2001:

It's the real thing—murders at Coke [Colombia: regarding the case brought in U.S. court alleging Coca Cola, Panamerican Beverages & Bebidas y Alimentos were complicit in the assassination of Colombian union leaders] (David Bacon, Labor Advocate Online, 24 Nov. 2001)

Talisman faces suit over Sudan: A US anti-slavery group yesterday filed a Dollars 1bn (Pounds 600m) lawsuit against Talisman, the Canadian oil company, alleging its operations in Sudan have contributed to an ethnic cleansing campaign against civilians in the country's south. The class action suit, led by a southern Sudanese church leader, also seeks an injunction to prevent Talisman from continuing to co-operate with the Sudanese government, which has been involved in a 20-year war with southern rebels. (Edward Alden & Ken Warn, Financial Times, 9 Nov. 2001)

Suit filed in U.S. against Talisman - Sudan class action disappoints firm - Talisman Energy Inc. is "disappointed" about a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States against the company yesterday alleging complicity in human rights abuses in Sudan, a spokesman for the company said. "Obviously, Talisman believes in and respects human rights of all individuals around the world, so we're disappointed to learn of this action," said David Mann, the company's manager of investor relations. "We believe we have actively promoted transparency, respect for human rights and an end to the civil war in Sudan." (Lily Nguyen, Globe & Mail [Canada], 9 Nov. 2001) 

Antislavery group to sue Talisman oil for $1 bln: A director of a U.S. antislavery group plans to file a $1-billion class action lawsuit against Talisman Energy Inc., alleging the Canadian oil company participated in human rights abuses in Sudan...The American Anti-Slavery Group said in a statement the suit, scheduled to be filed on Thursday, charges Talisman "with violations of international law for participating in the ethnic cleansing of black and non-Muslim minorities in southern Sudan."...The suit charges that: "Talisman, in an effort to protect its oil fields in Sudan, aided and abetted the fundamentalist Islamic government in its ongoing and self-proclaimed 'jihad' -- a campaign that has resulted in massive civilian displacement; the burning of villages, churches and crops; and the murder and enslavement of innocent civilians" (Reuters, 7 Nov. 2001)

IBM must apologize and open its archives: My book, IBM and the Holocaust, documents IBM's strategic business and consultative alliance with Nazi Germany beginning at the first moment of the Hitler regime in 1933 and continuing right into the war. It was this joint planning and custom production of billions of punch cards per year that endowed the Third Reich with the technology it needed to dramatically accelerate and automate all phases of its Jewish persecution. (Edwin Black, in Star-Telegram [Fort Worth, Texas], 22 Oct. 2001)

{···français} Elf est poursuivie pour son soutien au président congolais Sassou Nguesso [Republic of Congo]: Une plainte a été déposée à Bruxelles pour complicité de crimes - La société TotalFinaElf est citée au côté de l'ancien président du Congo-Brazzaville Denis Sassou Nguesso dans une plainte pour "crimes contre l'humanité" commis pendant la guerre civile de 1997 [download under heading Total Fina Elf (II)] (Le Monde, 18 Oct. 2001)

Hereros Sue German Firms for Reparations: The Herero community in Namibia has instituted a legal claim against three German companies for $2bn in reparations. The Hereros' Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako, who heads the Chief Hosea Kutako Foundation, said yesterday that the lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, Terex Corporation and Woermann Line (now known as SAFmarine) in Washington DC, US, would be followed by one against the German government. They accuse the three German companies of forming a "brutal alliance" with imperial Germany to exterminate more than 65000 Hereros between 1904 and 1907. (Business Day [Johannesburg], 6 Sep. 2001)

Weir Group stands firm over Sudan: Weir Group [Glasgow-based maker of pumps vital for moving oil through pipelines] yesterday hit out at criticism from human rights groups of its business in war-torn Sudan and said it would consider further projects there...Human rights groups, led by Christian Aid, have castigated Weir for its involvement and charged that this makes it "complicit" in the Khartoum government's violent campaign against its own people in the south of the country. (Saeed Shah, Independent [UK], 23 Aug. 2001) 

Categories of Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Abuses - Based on a background paper for the Global Compact dialogue on "The role of the private sector in zones of conflict", New York, 21-22 March 2001 (Andrew Clapham and Scott Jerbi, Aug. 2001)

Enforcing international humanitarian law: Catching the accomplices - Literally within days of the adoption of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the end of the Rome Conference in July 1998 the Financial Times...published an article warning "commercial lawyers" that the treaty's accomplice liability provision "could create international criminal liability for employees, officers and directors of corporations"...The Financial Times was therefore quite right to warn business executives that a new world was dawning with the adoption of the Rome Statute. (William A. Schabas, Professor of Human Rights Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, in International Review of the Red Cross No.42, 29 June 2001)

2000:

{···français} « Business», pétrole et droits humains: De la complicité avec les dictatures au «capitalisme éthique» (Roland-Pierre Paringaux, Le Monde Diplomatique, décembre 2000)