EarthRights International

The Shwe Natural Gas Pipeline in Burma: Human Rights Violations Increase as Project Moves Forward

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:12:30 +0000

EarthRights International (ERI) has confirmed that serious human rights abuses have increased in connection to the multi-billion dollar Shwe natural gas pipeline project in military-ruled Burma, including recent reports of land confiscation on Maday Island. Compensation for local villagers on the island was reportedly promised by the Burmese authorities and the Asia World Company (whose Managing Director is on the United States sanctions blacklist), a Burmese conglomerate providing services related to the construction of the Shwe project. To date, no compensation has been provided to local people.

More human rights abuses in western Burma and along the pipeline’s route to China are likely in the near future; the Burmese junta recently issued a letter to hundreds of villagers in western Burma ordering them to vacate their land to make room for the energy project.

The companies involved and their home governments continue to be undeterred. In February, South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's largest shipbuilder, signed a deal with Daewoo International to build the offshore and onshore Shwe gas production facilities in Arakan State and the Bay of Bengal, to be completed by March 2013. Also in February, the Indian government permitted its state-owned oil and gas companies ONGC Videsh and GAIL, both partner to the Shwe consortium, to proceed with their stake in the cross-country gas pipeline to China – operated by China National Petroleum Corporation. The Indian government also authorized the companies to invest a reported US$1 billion to further develop the offshore gas fields operated by Daewoo. These decisions were formalized by India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, headed by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The project’s human rights impacts were reportedly not discussed.

The Shwe gas project will generate approximately US$29 billion dollars for the Burmese authorities over 30 years, according to the Shwe Gas Movement, a civil society network from Burma advocating for the companies to postpone the project. Production is scheduled to begin in 2013.

In late 2008, ERI, the Shwe Gas Movement, and nine co-complainants filed a 48-page OECD complaint with the Korean government under the OECD’s Specific Instance procedure, alleging that Daewoo International and KOGAS were in violation of several of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises through their investment in the Shwe project. India and China are not OECD countries.

The complaint alleged that the Korean companies failed to practice due diligence to prevent negative human rights and environmental impacts of the Shwe Project, and that the companies were currently and potentially in violation of at least six of the Guidelines, including a failure to respect human rights and a failure to disclose vital information about the project.

The ERI/SGM complaint was summarily rejected by the National Contact Point (NCP) in Korea in what was regarded by complainants as a deeply flawed decision. The Korean NCP is located in the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which is tasked with promoting overseas energy investments, and also provided a sizable multi-million dollar loan to Daewoo to proceed with the Shwe project in Burma, raising critical questions of structural conflicts of interest.

As an OECD-member country, South Korean companies are bound to follow the OECD Guidelines, which are the world’s only comprehensive, multilaterally endorsed rules negotiated by nation-states to govern corporate behavior. In this case, the companies not only failed to uphold the Guidelines, but they were not held to account by the Government of Korea for their blatant violations, violations which continue to date.

Korea’s misinterpretations of the OECD Guidelines and its failure to promote them in this case were documented in a 24-page follow-up report by ERI and SGM, entitled A Governance Gap (June 2009), which was submitted to the OECD headquarters in Paris on June 15, 2009 as human rights abuses continued in Burma.

Today, increasing numbers of local people are being affected by the Shwe project. They continue to withstand adverse impacts with no redress or ready access to justice.

South Korea’s Daewoo International and Korea Gas Corporation, and India’s ONGC Videsh and GAIL represent the consortium operating the offshore component of the Shwe project, while China National Petroleum Corporation will be the operator of the trans-national pipeline transporting the gas overland to China. The Daewoo-led consortium will hold a 49 percent stake in the cross-country pipeline, as well.

Indigenous Achuar Face Off Against Occidental Petroleum in Amazon Pollution Case

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:24:40 +0000

On March 3, 2010, EarthRights International (ERI) argued to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the landmark environmental and public health case brought by indigenous Peruvian Achuar and the U.S. NGO Amazon Watch against Los Angeles-based oil giant Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), Maynas Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum, should be litigated in Los Angeles, where Oxy is headquartered. The case challenges Oxy’s 30 year-old legacy of massive pollution in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon, and the appeals court will be deciding whether the oil giant will face suit in its own hometown or whether the case will move to Peru.

ERI’s Legal Director, Marco Simons, argued the appeal for the Achuar and Amazon Watch, telling the court that the Achuar came to Los Angeles after Oxy pulled out of Peru, leaving its contamination behind, and that Oxy should have no problem defending a suit in its own backyard. Judges on the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel expressed skepticism of Oxy’s motives for attempting to move the case to Peru under the doctrine of forum non conveniens (“inconvenient forum”), and asked numerous probing questions of Oxy’s counsel. “This is highly unusual, for a firm that’s headquartered here, decision-makers here, lawyers here, documents and witnesses here, to make this kind of a forum non conveniens motion,” said Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw. (Listen to an audio recording of the argument.)

Although the Achuar came to the United States because they believed that Oxy’s home was the most appropriate place to seek justice, ERI will assist them in pursuing their claims wherever they need to do so. Lily la Torre, the Peruvian indigenous rights lawyer who has been the Achuar’s legal advisor for many years, noted, “The plaintiffs are fully prepared to litigate this case, here in the U.S., or in Peru, and Oxy will be held liable for their decades of toxic contamination and for causing the Achuar people so much harm and suffering.”

Oxy’s environmental practices in Peru’s Corrientes River Basin, where the Achuar live, were extensively documented in the 2007 report, A Legacy of Harm: Occidental Petroleum in Indigenous Territory in the Peruvian Amazon, which ERI co-authored with Racimos de Ungurahui and Amazon Watch. The report found that Oxy’s contamination of the Achuar’s pristine rainforest environment has led to an epidemic of heavy metal poisoning, include lead and cadmium poisoning, among the Achuar. Other main findings of the report, which are now allegations in the lawsuit, include:

Oxy dumped over nine billion barrels of “formation waters,” a toxic oil byproduct, directly into rivers and streams used by the Achuar for drinking, bathing, washing, and fishing – an average of 850,000 barrels per day.
Oxy used earthen pits, prohibited by U.S. standards, to store drilling fluids, crude oil, and crude by-products. These pits, dug directly into the ground, were open, unlined, and routinely overflowed onto the ground and into surface waters, leaching into the surrounding soil and groundwater.
Oxy’s inadequate infrastructure and poor maintenance led to numerous oil spills directly into the environment.
Oxy violated several international rights norms – including several in the American Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights – in its actions on Achuar territory, including the right to life, the right to health, the right to a healthy environment, and indigenous people’s rights.
Oxy violated Peru’s General Water Law and General Health Law, as well as environmental statutes meant to be applied in the hydrocarbon sector.

Moving the case to Peru may not serve Oxy’s interests. “When Chevron was sued for similar toxic pollution in the Amazon, they succeeded in moving the case to Ecuador,” said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. “Now Chevron has a $27 billion damages claim in the Ecuadorian court in a decision that is likely to go against the company in the coming months. A similar protracted litigation may well afflict Oxy if the case moves to Peru.”

The Achuar case, Maynas Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum, No. CV-07-5068, was filed in May 2007. In April of 2008, Judge Philip Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that the case is more appropriately heard in Peru under the legal doctrine of forum non conveniens. Along with ERI, the plaintiffs are represented by the Los Angeles firm Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP and San Francisco lawyer Natalie Bridgeman. A decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to be issued in late 2010 or 2011.

MLAI Lawyers Working for Justice and Rule of Law in the Mekong Region

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:18:33 +0000

ERI's Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute (MLAI) convened for the second time in Chiang Mai, from January 17 to 24, 2010. Most regional lawyers who attended the first session were there, and a few new lawyers joined us for the second session. Training and strategizing were vigorous and comprehensive, and plans for future actions moved forward with the mutual agreement of all.

Public interest lawyers from Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Cambodia heard from international legal experts Judith Chomsky, Dana Clark, Natalie Bugalski, Jingjing Jhang, Carl Middleton and many others on such wide ranging issues as World Bank and IFI accountability mechanisms; legal standards and tools to address involuntary resettlement; new national laws and regional developments such as China’s new environmental tort laws, transboundary environmental impact assessments, and the ongoing processes to address human rights and environmental impacts of proposed Mekong Dams. Experts from Internews, Bridges Across Borders-Southeast Asia and Open Society Institute helped participants hone their skills in negotiation and alternative dispute resolution; personal safety for human rights defenders; and fundraising for social change.

Midweek, MLAI traveled to the Mae Moh coal-burning power plant in Thailand to hear first hand of the successful legal struggles by local villagers against this ADB-financed project that has led to hundreds of pollution-related deaths and countless ongoing illnesses and environmental harms. Maliwan Najwirot, Secretary of the Occupational Health Patients Rights Network of Mae Moh, gave an impassioned and inspiring presentation about innovative legal strategies that villagers successfully used against Thailand’s energy utility, EGAT, in spite of the ongoing challenges and the David vs. Goliath nature of their struggle.

The final two days of our second session included strategizing for future actions, including plans to encourage the respect for human rights, environment and the rule of law in conjunction with the eleven large dams proposed for the Mekong River’s mainstream. In 2009, MLAI engaged the Mekong River Commission’s Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment process with a legal analysis of the dams, and published its findings. As follow up MLAI will produce a legal briefing paper that will be translated into local languages and accessible to affected people.

A regional exchange between Chinese, Vietnamese and Lao environmental lawyers and is currently being planned, in order for Chinese experts to share and explain their experience with improving environmental laws and creating environmental courts in China.

MLAI wrapped up the week with a dinner cruise on the Ping River, and all involved were excited to get to work on these and other important projects. The next session, scheduled for summer 2010, promises to push forward MLAI’s agenda of protecting the environment and promoting human rights in the Mekong Region.

ERI Releases French & Burmese Translations of "Total Impact" & "Getting It Wrong"

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:12:02 +0000

On January 28, EarthRights International (ERI) released French and Burmese language translations of the Executive Summary and Recommendations from the ERI reports Total Impact and Getting it Wrong, which were originally published in September 2009. The reports connect the oil giants Total and Chevron to forced labor, killings, high-level corruption, and authoritarianism in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar).

"ERI's findings demonstrate Total and Chevron’s complicity in abuses associated with one of the most controversial development projects in history," said ERI Coordinator Naing Htoo, a principal author of the reports. "A wider audience now has information about the true cost of the companies' impacts in Burma."

The reports found that despite the efforts of local communities and groups like ERI, serious and widespread human rights abuses continues to be associated with the Yadana natural gas pipeline in Burma and Total and Chevron continue to misrepresent their impacts in the country. In October 2009, Total published a 12-page categorical rejection of ERI’s September findings. ERI responded in turn in December 2009 with its third report of last year related to Total and Chevron’s impacts in Burma, entitled Total Impact 2.0: A Response to the French Oil Company Total Regarding its Yadana Natural Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar). That report clarifies how Total’s response to ERI failed to refute ERI’s research and documentation of widespread human rights abuses in the company’s gas project area. Total Impact 2.0 re-issues key recommendations to Total, Chevron, PTTEP and other companies in the oil and gas sector, the international community, the ruling State Peace and Development Council, and investors.

"These new translations amplify local voices from the pipeline area in French and Burmese-speaking societies," added ERI Coordinator Matthew Smith, "which compliments ongoing work toward corporate accountability, human rights and environmental protection, and revenue transparency in Burma’s extractive industries."

Notably, Total Impact calculates that the companies’ 40-mile (60-km) natural gas pipeline in Burma has generated over US$7.5 billion dollars in revenue since 2000. Rather than benefiting the people of Burma, ERI has discovered that a significant portion of the military junta’s share of this revenue is located in non-government accounts in two leading banks in Singapore. ERI is working with a range of actors internationally to combat the corruption associated with Burma’s gas sector.

Upon their original publication in September 2009, the reports generated widespread attention from governments and international media. ERI is building on the momentum of these reports to advocate for meaningful changes associated with the human rights, environmental, and revenue-related impacts of large-scale extractive industry projects in Burma, for the benefit of both local and national communities in the country.

ERI would like to thank the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for their generous support in the French translations.

Mr. Watson: Do the Right Thing in Ecuador!

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:27:25 +0000

Last week, John S. Watson took over as new Chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation. EarthRights International’s allies at Amazon Watch are launching a major initiative to ensure that Mr. Watson hears the growing chorus of people demanding justice for the indigenous and campesino people of the Ecuadorian Amazon who have suffered from Chevron's massive oil contamination of their rainforest communities. This case is indicative of Chevron’s global record of disregarding the land and people in their areas of operation.

Amazon Watch's new video (below) and accompanying petition appeal to Mr. Watson to turn over a new leaf at Chevron by finally cleaning up its massive oil contamination in Ecuador, and providing compensation for the epidemic of cancer, birth defects, and other ailments the pollution has caused. Please view this heartfelt two-minute video-message from local communities to Chevron’s new CEO. We hope this brief but powerful video will earn attention for the petition and the communities' message.

ERI Releases Report Clarifying French Oil Giant Total’s Impacts in Burma: Company Still Linked to Grave Human Rights Abuses, Corruption in Burma

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:00:00 +0000

In Burma, big oil's problems won't disappear. According to Total Impact 2.0: A Response to the French Oil Company Total Regarding Its Yadana Natural Gas Pipeline in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar), a new 35-page report released on December 16, 2009 by EarthRights International, the French oil giant Total S.A. (Total), the US-based Chevron, and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production (PTTEP) continue to be linked to killings, forced labor, and authoritarianism connected to their notorious Yadana natural gas pipeline in the military-ruled country.

Total Impact 2.0, the third publication on the Yadana project this year by ERI finds that Total continues to mislead policymakers, investors, and the general public about its direct and indirect impacts in the Southeast Asian country.

"The Yadana pipeline is one of the Burmese military regime’s largest sources of income and we continue to document its links to serious abuses by the Burma Army against local villagers," said ERI Program Coordinator Naing Htoo. "Meanwhile, Total and its partners would have the world believe they could do no wrong in Burma."

Total is the operator of the 60 kilometer Yadana onshore gas pipeline, which is secured by the Burma Army and passes through a remote ethnic region of the country en route to the Thailand border.

In August 2009, Total CEO Christophe de Margerie famously told the readers of Newsweek that critics of his company’s pipeline in Burma can "go to hell." One month later, ERI released nearly 200 pages of original research in two ERI reports on Total's pipeline, to unprecedented worldwide reception. The most recent abuses documented by ERI and committed by the Burma Army providing security for the companies and the pipeline include various forms of forced labor, killings, beatings, and violations of property rights and freedom of movement.

The pipeline has also contributed to authoritarianism in Burma through the massive revenues generated for the ruling junta. ERI has calculated that the pipeline has generated nearly US$7 billion dollars in gas sales since operations began a decade ago, and the Burmese junta takes the majority of the profits, funneling much of this revenue into two offshore banks in Singapore held by Burmese individuals connected to the regime.

At a September press conference in Bangkok, ERI co-authors Matthew Smith and Naing Htoo noted that as long as the military regime has easy access to Yadana and other gas revenues, it would have little incentive to change.

While Chevron and PTTEP have been relatively silent on ERI’s evidence of abuses and corruption, Total recently published a 12-page response to ERI's 106-page report Total Impact: The Human Rights, Environmental, and Financial Impacts of Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Project in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar) (Sept 2009), in which the company categorically denies ongoing abuses connected to the pipeline.

Today's report, Total Impact 2.0, explains in detail how Total has failed to refute ERI’s research and documentation on the human rights and financial impacts of their project."

ERI now re-issues several concrete recommendations to Total and its partners. At the forefront of these recommendations is that Total and its partners take immediate action to practice full and disaggregated revenue transparency in Burma since the first contract for the project was signed in 1992; that the company accept responsibility for the larger local impacts of its project; and that Total facilitate villagers’ option to file complaints of force labor with the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Burma has been under military rule since 1962. National elections planned for 2010 have already been widely condemned as unfair and un-free.

Total Impact 2.0 Full Report (PDF) | Press Release (PDF)

Powerful Network of Chevron Affected Communities and Organizations Speaks Out on International Human Rights Day

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:00:46 +0000

On December 10, 2009, International Human Rights Day, EarthRights International co-hosted a panel discussion in the U.S. Capitol on Corporate human rights abuses and Chevron Corporation. The panel discussed a powerful new international campaign focusing on Chevron’s human rights and environmental practices and impacts around the globe. Speakers included Antonia Juhasz, Director of the Chevron Program at Global Exchange, who discussed the emerging network of Chevron affected communities and concerned organizations, Paul Donowitz, Campaigns Director at ERI discussed Chevron’s human rights and financial impacts in Burma, as well as the importance of transparency and accountability in the extractive industry, Kate Watters, Executive Director of Crude Accountability, spoke on Chevron’s impacts in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, & Turkmenistan, and Sowore Omoyele, a Nigerian human rights activists and publisher of SaharaReporters.com, spoke on Chevron’s impacts in the Niger Delta.

Co-sponsors of the event included: Global Exchange, EarthRights International, Crude Accountability, Justice in Nigeria Now, and the Institute for Policy Studies

Statement of Paul Donowitz – EarthRights International
International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2009

Today we observe international human rights day, a historic anniversary commemorating the day the nations of the world proclaimed their support for the fundamental human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Today is also the day on which the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, and this year that honor goes to President Obama, and we all wish him well in the many challenges he faces. Not the least of these challenges are the rights of the poorest and most marginalized people of the world, who often suffer the adverse consequences of globalization. Today we have heard about how corporations, particularly energy companies factor into this dynamic, and specifically how one company, Chevron is affecting the lives of millions of peoples around the world.

When substances of value are found, local people usually suffer, particularly in unstable countries with weak governance and high levels of corruption. This pattern has repeated itself many times over where oil and gas have been found and Chevron has a particularly troubling record of human and environmental harms in areas they operate.

Antonia mentioned the corrosive and pervasive role of big oil in the formation of US policy, and the report put out last year by a coalition of groups, The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report, detailed harms caused by Chevron's operations around the globe.

Whether through gas flaring in Nigeria - which is a major greenhouse gas emitter while contributing to acid rain and the pollution of the local environment, causing health impacts and the loss of livelihood for people living in the area – or destructive tar sands operations in Canada - turning vast boreal forests into toxic waste tailing ponds and a charred landscape - Chevron is a leading emitter of greenhouse gases contributing to our severe climate crisis. The Alternative Annual Report contains the stories of numerous communities affected by Chevron’s operation, both domestically and around the globe. When CEO David O’Reilly was asked about the report at last years AGM, he said that he had heard of it, not read it, thought it was an insult to his employees and should be thrown in the trash. So much for listening to the communities in which you operate.

Chevron in Burma

I am going to talk for a few minutes about Chevron’s role in Burma. For the last 15 years, ERI has been documenting the human rights impact of Chevron’s Yadana gas project in southern Burma a project that began in the early 1990s. This project, operated by the French oil company Total S.A., in partnership with Chevron, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production, and the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the Burmese state owned oil company, transports natural gas from the Andaman Sea, across the Tennesarim Division of southern Burma into Thailand, where it provides electricity for the Bangkok area. Collecting information from inside Burma and in the Thai-Burma border areas, ERI has documented systematic and widespread human rights abuses committed against the mostly local Mon, Karen, and Tavoian populations. In the early phases of the project, the Burma Army, providing protection to the project and related infrastructure and personnel, committed severe human rights abuses against the nearby residents, included forced portering, entire villages were displaced, land confiscation, killings, rapes . . .and other abuses. Subsequent to these human rights abuses coming to light, lawsuits were filed against Unocal (now Chevron) and Total in US and French courts by victims of these abuses. Legal settlements followed in 2005.

Since that time, ERI has issued three reports documenting current conditions in the Yadana area. One of the reports, issued this past September, Total Impact, links Chevron and their partners in the Yadana gas project to forced labor, killings, high-level corruption and authoritarianism in Burma. The reports critical findings, based on more than two years of dedicated research and collecting information from 40 villages and hundreds of individuals in the area, indicates that human rights abuses committed by the Burma army providing protection for pipeline security continue.

While the form of the abuses has changed since the construction phase, our findings indicate that forced labor remains the most common type of abuse. There are four primary types of forced labor: forced security for army barracks and on local roads; forced security in villages and over portions of the pipeline itself (including forced labor to build security facilities such as sentry huts; required attendance at abusive security trainings; forced sentry duties in the villages; and forced sentry duty along the pipeline); forced labor on Burma Army plantations in the area (Jatropha); and forced labor in the form of taxes paid in-kind by local villagers to the army.

While the Yadana companies have exerted some pressure on the local army battalions to reduce the use of forced labor in areas directly adjacent or quite close to the pipeline (what the companies identify as the pipeline corridor), the demand for forced labor remains, and thus we have seen an increase in forced labor in villages just outside of the company designated corridor. We have also documented violations of the right to freedom of movement; violations of property rights; and killings, torture and other ill-treatment. All of these abuses are committed by Burma Army personnel providing security for the Yadana project and companies, and the companies continue to benefit from these abuses while reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.

Total and Chevron claim abuses have stopped in connection to their project but it’s simply untrue. Forced labor, killings and other abuses are being committed by Total and Chevron’s security forces while the companies mislead and lie to the international community about their impacts. The international community must take another look at these companies complicity in these abuses.

We are also very concerned that, as one of the first major foreign run resource extraction projects in Burma, Chevron and its partners are sending a dangerous message to other companies considering projects in Burma. What we know is that major new resource projects cannot go forward without Burma military and security personnel involvement, and that when the Burma Army and related personnel are involved, abuses follow. An area is militarized, villages are relocated closer to the roads and other infrastructure constructed to facilitate ease of security, forced labor, land confiscation, killings and other abuses follow. In fact, we are beginning to see this again now with the Shwe gas pipeline that will transport natural gas from the Bay of Bengal through Burma to China, where it will provide electricity for Yunnan Province. This project has already lead to serious human rights abuses, and we call on the Korean company, Daewoo International, the operator of the gas fields, and the Chinese National Petrolium Corporation, the operator of the pipeline and the buyer of the gas, to suspend the project until safeguards can be put in place to mitigate harms and ensure the local communities living along the pipeline have provided free, prior and informed consent. This is another example of how Chevron and its partners are hurting the people of Burma. In fact, we know from Daewoo itself it has looked at the Yadana project as a model for doing business in Burma.

We want to be clear: ERI is not calling on Total and Chevron to divest, but instead maximize their positive impacts and mitigate their negative ones in Burma. Chevron and its partners should publish all of the payments they has made to the Burmese authorities since 1992, acknowledge their sphere or responsibility is much larger than the 25 villages in the company-defined “pipeline corridor” and pressure their partners, the Burma Army to cease human rights abuses, and facilitate complaints of forced labor to the ILO in Burma. We also support efforts of Chevron shareholders, including the Teamsters who have re-filed a SH resolution that would require Chevron develop and disclose its policy for investment in, continued operations, and withdrawal from countries based on human rights standards. This proposal received over 25% of the votes at last year’s meeting, a strong indicator that Chevron’s own shareholders recognize the importance of these issues to the company’s reputation and long-term financial outlook.

Revenue Transparency

I also want to also speak for a few minutes about the critical role that revenue transparency plays in the promotion and protection of human rights. Often referred to as the resource curse, the concept that massive revenues from natural resources leads to worse development outcomes for local people is not a new concept. Nor is the understanding of the corrosive role these revenues have in terms of corruption and good governance.

Burma is a text-book example of this theory in practice. The revenues from the Yadana project, estimated at more than $7 billion since payments commenced in the late 1990s, have not been spent on health care or education for the people of Burma, who continue to receive less than 2% of public spending on these sectors, while military spending skyrockets. The IMF this past year said of Burma’s economy, “Per capita GDP has stagnated . . . social development indicators are below regional standards, and poverty remains widespread. Very low levels of public expenditures on health and education limit progress on human capital development.” Instead, revenues have gone to enrich and entrench the generals ruling Burma, expand the military which continues to commit systematic and widespread abuses against the people of Burma, including oppression of dissent (as was seen in the crushing of protests in 2008 over rising gas prices), and criminal mismanagement of the relief operations after cyclone Nargis. ERI has also learned through confidential sources that a significant portion of Burma’s gas revenues ends up in banks in Singapore, further enriching the military and their cronies while the people of Burma continue to suffer.

Here in the US, ERI is proud to be a member of the PWYP US Coalition, a coalition of organizations concerned over the lack of transparency in the extractive sector. We are supporting a bill currently before the US Senate, the Energy Security Through Transparency Act (ESTT), which would require all extractive companies filing with the SEC to disclose their payments to host governments on country-by-country and a disaggregated basis. The bill is before the Senate Banking Committee, and we encourage the Committee and its Chairman, Senator Dodd, to hold hearings on the bill in 2010.

Disclosure of payments by companies to host governments is a critical component of full revenue transparency (including government disclosure of payments received), and we have reached out to Chevron and other energy companies around this bill. I can report that unfortunately, Chevron is opposing this simple measure of corporate accountability, preferring to keep their contracts and payments with host governments out of the hands of the citizens of the countries they operate, ensuring that these revenues and their use remain unknown. We are proud that Newmont Mining has signaled its support for the legislation, and encourage other companies to embrace revenue transparency in their operations as an emerging best practice in the industry.

We ARE pleased that Chevron’s own shareholders understand the importance of these issues. A Shareholder Resolution filed today by Oxfam America will be voted on at the annual shareholder meeting in May that would require Chevron to disclose such information on an annual basis and we encourage shareholder to support this proposal. A copy of the SH resolution is available at the rear of the room.

Corporate Accountability and Liability: Access to Justice

I will conclude by talking about the critical role remedies and access to justice has for victims of corporate human right abuses. Access to justice ensures that corporations that are complicit in human rights abuses can be held to account for their actions (or inactions). Enforceable mechanisms of accountability, including laws and forums for those who suffer such abuses are developing and we have seen that access to justice and the very real threat of legal and financial liability for complicity in abuses is pushing companies in the extractive industry to adopt policies and practices which limit their liability. While we would like to see this accomplished through changes in practices which lead to better outcomes for affected communities, we see a real divergence between actual changed behavior and public relations campaigns aimed at burnishing a companies’ image. We also see efforts to create complex corporate structures to immunize companies from liability which is of great concern.

In the US, we have the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign victims of serious human rights abuses to bring cases against corporations in the US for these abuses. This statute has allowed victims of abuse from Burma to Sudan to seek justice in our courts where none is available in theirs, and has in fact changed corporate practices. We hope other countries will follow suit, so that no company, no matter where it operates or is based, can escape liability for complicity in serious human rights abuses.

Conclusion

Antonia mentioned some of the efforts Chevron has gone to try and convince the public and their shareholders that they are leading the way in sustainable business practices. However, when we look at actual conditions in their areas they operate, we continue to see serious human rights abuses, often committed by State security services protecting their operations. We see a company polluting, emitting greenhouse gases while profiting from the oil extracted from poor and marginalized communities. A company jumping headlong into the dirties source of fuels on the planet in tar sands, and a company that continues to profit to the tunes of hundreds of millions of dollars, from Burmese gas, while enriching a brutal military junta while local people suffer the consequences.

We have an expectation that our biggest corporations, those with the most global reach and influence, will take a leading role in the fight to promote and protect the human rights of those living in areas where they operate, take efforts to promote responsible management of the tremendous revenues their projects generate, and take a leading role in reducing the harmful social and environmental costs of their industry. Today we call on Chevron to put into practice their rhetoric, embrace responsible social, environmental and financial practices, and really listen to the voices of the communities in which they operate. On this day of human rights, we ask Chevron, will you join US?

-end-

Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute and Samreth Law Group Lead Effort to Enforce National Laws Related to Mekong Dams

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:40:22 +0000

On December 1st, 2009, lawyers with EarthRights International’s Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute (MLAI) and the Cambodian Samreth Law Group submitted an in-depth legal analysis to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) regarding proposals to build up to 11 dams on the lower mainstream of the Mekong River. This marks the first time a multi-national team of lawyers has addressed the MRC on the dam plans, and promises to bring a new perspective on the proper role of lawyers and the necessity of rule-of-law to provide justice to all the people who rely on the Mekong River for their daily livelihoods.

The legal analysis covered national laws related to dam construction and operations for each of the countries on the Mekong: China, Burma, Lao, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Five important legal issues were addressed for each country: public participation, access to information, environmental impact assessment, preventing or mitigating environmental damage and land confiscation, and compensation and resettlement.

The submission noted that, in general, each country (apart from Burma) has laws that address all five issues. Unfortunately, the commitment to enforce these laws, and the resources provided for enforcement, varies as widely as the Mekong River itself. For example, Thailand includes strong provisions for each of these issues in its 2007 constitution. Although corruption and official impunity continue, Thailand’s courts are gaining traction in enforcing the Constitution and other protective laws, as happened in Map Ta Phut.

Unfortunately, other Mekong countries such as Vietnam, Lao and China continue to override national laws in favor of powerful development forces. Lawyers and activists are regularly targeted when they try to participate, and the result is a loss of livelihoods and economic opportunities for millions of local people.

Most unfortunate is Burma, where the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) rules by diktat and many people, especially along the rivers, constantly fear forced relocation. Failure to relocate is often followed by violence, especially against women. This lawlessness was pointed out to MRC, and MLAI will strenuously work for justice for affected communities.

MRC and its members, the Governments of Lao, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, are moving ahead with their plans to dam the mainstream of the Mekong River. This is in spite of known irreversible impacts to fisheries that feed people in six countries, water essential for agriculture and other life needs, and the loss of opportunities for millions of riparian villagers.

MLAI and Samreth, along with all of our lawyers and allies, have taken a first step toward ensuring that the local people are protected by the laws of their own countries. We pledge that advocacy and action will continue as long as it is needed.

A Legacy of Harm: Twenty five years after the Bhopal disaster, affected communities are still suffering

Sarah — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:39:28 +0000

December 3, 2009 is the 25th Anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster. On the early morning of December 3rd, 1984, a cloud of toxic gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, spreading Methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases through the city. Thousand died that day, and over 20,000 had since perished in what is widely recognized as the world’s worst industrial catastrophe. Estimates indicate that over 100,000 people are still suffering health related effects from the disaster, and the former Union Carbide factory continues to pollute the local area, with poisonous chemical leaching into groundwater of the 25,000 residents of the nearby area.

Union Carbide was acquired by U.S.-based Dow Chemical in 2001, and since that time, Dow has continued to resist efforts to clean up the factory site, adequately address the continuing health impacts of the disaster, and submit to criminal prosecution in India, where Union Carbide and its former CEO Warren Anderson face manslaughter charges in a Bhopal court. EarthRights International represents residents of Bhopal who are suing Union Carbide for on-going toxic pollution and water contamination from the disaster site.

To mark the anniversary, communities in Bhopal and around the world are holding an International Day of Action with a series of events to mark the anniversary including calls on Dow Chemicals to account for the disaster and the on-going pollution affecting local communities.

The on-going Bhopal tragedy is unfortunately not an isolated incident. Corporations around the globe continue to pollute the environment and ignore the basic human rights of communities living in the shadows of their operations.

From Burma to Nigeria, the Amazon to Papua New Guinea, from Richmond California to Kazakhstan, multinational corporations too often dictate policies or are complicit with unaccountable regimes that care less about the impacts of corporate activities and more about profits for their companies, shareholders and corrupt government officials.

Today we honor the thousands of survivors of the Bhopal disaster who continue to bear the heavy burden of the on-going pollution while refusing to accept defeat. Against all odds, these communities and their supporters continue to demand justice and accountability for the crimes committed.

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Wiwa v Shell: A Night of Celebration and Remembrance

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:47:19 +0000

On the fourteenth anniversary of the shocking and unjust executions of the Ogoni 9, plaintiffs, lawyers, campaigners, and long-time supporters came together for an evening in Washington, DC to honor the legacy of the those brave Ogoni leaders and celebrate the landmark settlement in the case against Royal Dutch Shell.

While recognizing that the historic settlement is only a step towards the resolution of still outstanding issues between Shell and the Ogoni people, the case brought to a close a 14 year struggle for justice and accountability for the plaintiffs. The case also has had far-reaching implications in the development of legal norms for corporate human rights abuses, while inspiring communities around the globe struggling against corporate abuses.

Guests reminisced over the many long days working on the case and campaign for justice, the victories won, and the continuing struggle of the Ogoni people for a just share of their oil wealth and their right to a healthy environment. Elizabeth Bast from Friends of the Earth and Shell Guilty spoke on the need to end gas flaring, which continues unabated in the Niger Delta, contributing to poor localized health outcomes as well as global climate change.

Ken Wiwa Jr. (left) remarked that, after 14 years, we can finally start celebrating his father's life rather than mourning his loss. He also talked about recent developments in the Niger Delta, with a mixture of hope and caution over companies' and the government's approach to local communities and the environment.

The evening concluded with Oronto Douglas (right, with Judith Chomsky, lawyer for the plaintiffs), one of Ken Saro-Wiwa's lawyers from the 1995 tribunal proceedings, reminding all that this case was not just about the Ogoni, but about all those communities in the Niger Delta affected by resource extraction, and that, while this case has concluded, the struggle continues.

"Lord take my soul but the struggle continues"
Ken Sao-Wiwa before his execution on November 14, 2005