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Business and Human Rights: a resource website |
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Torture & ill-treatment |
See also the following sections of this website:
Websites:
Burma Action: Burmese Labor Leaders Jailed, Beaten and Tortured for Union Activism (Labor Rights Now!)
2003:
US firm faces $1bn claim for complicity [South Africa] - Fluor, the biggest US publicly traded engineering and construction company, faces a $1 billion claim by black former workers who allege they were discriminated against under apartheid. Anglo American, the world's second-biggest mining company, and diamond producer De Beers also face a lawsuit by former employees who say they were enslaved, beaten and tortured under apartheid. Lawyer Ed Fagan said a lawsuit would be filed today in California federal courts. The suit will argue that Fluor paid blacks less than whites and that the company helped repress workers during a 1987 strike in which two were killed. (Jonathan Rosenthal and Antony Sguazzin, Business Report [South Africa], 7 Apr. 2003)
Suit Alleging Firm Aided Genocide Proceeds - A Southern District of New York federal judge has refused to dismiss claims that a Canadian oil company abetted genocide by the government of Sudan against its own people. Talisman Energy Inc. had asked Judge Allen G. Schwartz to dismiss the case brought by plaintiffs who said the company was complicit in a campaign of kidnapping, rape, murder and land confiscation conducted by the government against non-Muslim residents who lived within a 50-mile radius of oil fields and transport systems. (Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal, in New York Lawyer, 20 Mar. 2003)
2002:
press release: China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and even execution (Amnesty International, 26 Nov. 2002)
Woes of women in work [Bangladesh] - Some 51 women workers of different factories and institutions were sexually abused, five of them were brutally killed after rape in the first six months of this year in the country. Disclosing a recent report prepared by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) on the basis of reports published in 12 national dailies, executives of the BILS told a press conference yesterday that of the total rape victims, 31 were garment workers, 10 housemaids, three were workers of fish processing units, two NGO workers and five of other sectors. (Independent [Bangladesh], 1 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)
Former Malaysian Deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim: Stop the Canning of Indonesian Workers! - Former Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Deputy Anwar Ibrahim has criticized the Malaysian government’s decision to repatriate Indonesian illegal workers. (Tempo [Indonesia], 4 Sep. 2002)
Stranded migrant workers 'selling their babies' [Malaysia] - Aid workers say Indonesian migrant workers fleeing Malaysia are selling their babies in a desperate bid to raise money. (Ananova, 3 Sep. 2002)
Mahathir's migrant labours [Malaysia] - If they refuse to go voluntarily, detain them, cane them, fine them, jail them and then deport them. That, in a nutshell, is Malaysia's new policy on illegal migrants (John Aglionby, Guardian [UK], 16 Aug. 2002)
Letter of Protest: Brazil: trade unionist tortured to death [Bartolomeu Morais da Silva, of the Federation of Agricultural Workers of Para] (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, 24 July 2002)
- company website: Fast Fact: Human Rights (Freeport-McMoRan)
- company website: Fast Fact: Benefits for the Papuan People (Freeport-McMoRan)
China 'abusing' workers, says Amnesty - China is using repressive measures in tackling protests by workers, says Amnesty International. (Damian Grammaticas, BBC News, 1 May 2002)
{···español} China: «Los trabajadores queremos comer, los trabajadores queremos un empleo» - En China se está haciendo frente al descontento creciente entre los trabajadores con medidas represivas, como la detención y la tortura, y la negación de derechos humanos fundamentales como la libertad de asociación y de expresión (Amnistía Internacional, 30 abril 2002)
Amnesty Calls Out Chinese on Labor - China is targeting labor organizers for particularly harsh treatment, the human rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday in a new report. (Ted Anthony, Associated Press, in Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2002)
Rights body may reopen probe into Marsinah case [Indonesia]: The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has uncovered enough new information to reopen the investigation into the 1993 slaying of female labor activist Marsinah...Labor activist Marsinah was found dead near Nganjuk, East Java, on May 9, 1993, after leading a strike at PT Catur Putra Surya, a watch factory in Sidoarjo, East Java. Her badly mutilated body showed signs of torture and rape. (Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Yogita Tahilramani, Jakarta Post, 20 Apr. 2002)
Harvard Students Tell Coke: Stop the Killings - Global Entourage of Coca-Cola Union Workers Visit Campus to Share Stories - Coca-Cola workers from Colombia, Guatemala, the Philippines, Zimbabwe and the U.S. visited Harvard today to share their stories of kidnapping, torture and harassment of trade union members at Coca-Cola production, bottling and distribution centers. (International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 15 Apr. 2002)
Hoffa Tells Coke: Protect Your Workers - Teamsters President Urges Coke CEO to Resolve Global Human Rights Issues - James P. Hoffa, Teamsters General President, on Tuesday told Douglas N. Daft, Coca-Cola Company Chief Executive Officer, to protect workers who produce, bottle and distribute Coca-Cola products – including those in Guatemala where eight union leaders were assassinated in the late 1970s. Hoffa’s letter to Daft was prompted by problems between union workers in Guatemala and the bottling company PANAMCO, which also bottles Coke products in Colombia, where union workers have been tortured, kidnapped and murdered. (CokeWatch.org - Campaign for Justice at Coca Cola, 14 Feb. 2002)
2001:
Litigation Update: A Summary of Recent Developments in U.S. Cases Brought Under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Protection Act [includes update on lawsuit against Coca-Cola for conduct in Colombia] (Jennifer Green [staff attorney at Center for Constitutional Rights] and Paul Hoffman [civil rights attorney and editor of ACLU International Civil Liberties Report], in ACLU International Civil Liberties Report 2001 [American Civil Liberties Union], Dec. 2001)