The much anticipated report, “Shock and Law: George W. Bush’s Attack on Law and Universal Human Rights,” details the Bush Administration’s assault on international law, domestic law, and international treaties, and sets out a program to ensure that, in 2008, explicit hostility toward human rights is no longer a winning campaign message.

Download: Shock and Law: George W. Bush's Attack on Law and Universal Human Rights

Mining presents serious obstacles to policy makers, activists, and affected communities interested in mitigating the industry’s negative impacts around the world. Of all the obstacles, perhaps the most serious one is the gap that exists between 1) what these three different groups know; 2) how they conceptualize and talk about their respective concerns; and 3) what resources each group is able to mobilize to take action. This gap, which is a significant obstacle to long-lasting and successful forms of collaboration, is rarely recognized for a simple reason: each partner assumes that everyone else defines the problems in much the same way and, as a result, desires the same solutions. These assumptions appear most forcefully around the question of gender.

Buenos Aires has unexpectedly become the new stage for a long-standing battle between an Argentine oil company and an Ecuadorian indigenous community fighting to defend its ancestral land rights in the Amazon rainforest. Read more here.

Another Yadana, sadly, is in the making. In January 2004, with the approval of the Burmese government, a consortium of South Korean and Indian companies announced plans to develop a massive natural gas field in the Gulf of Bengal, off the coast of western Burma. This new project, known as Shwe, which means “gold” in Burmese, is still in its early planning stages. In EarthRights International’s (ERI) view, an alarming number of similarities already exist between the Yadana Pipeline and the proposed Shwe Pipeline. If nothing is done, it appears likely that history will repeat itself. Forced labor and human rights abuses are still an ongoing problem throughout Burma, and it can be assumed that these violations will continue at any major development project site.

OneWorld United States 

Bringing together representative leaders of multiple indigenous and campesino groups throughout Central and South America, the fourth session of the Amazon School, a joint initiative by CDES, AP's partner in Ecuador, and EarthRights International, begins the first week of August.  Read full text.

This report released by EarthRights International in July 2004 summarizes the history, jurisprudence and politics of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) in order to explain how this relatively obscure law became a lightning rod in the world of business and human rights, and the target of an attack by business and the Bush Administration, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2004 decision in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain.  

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In Our Court (9.75 Mb)

This report by EarthRights International (ERI) and Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) illustrates how trade in timber, gems, and gold is financing violent conflict, including widespread and gross human rights violations and environmental destruction, in Burma.

This memo, which is more comprehensive than previous analyses of Executive Order 13303, confirms that the Order is extraordinarily broad and possibly illegal. It lends credence to the suspicion that the Iraq War was in fact fought at least part for control of Iraq’s oil.

In a recent investigation inside Burma, EarthRights International has detailed just how the systematic practice of forced labor operates and continues in the country. Using rare interviews with local village heads, the report, entitled Entrenched, provides an in-depth look into one small rural area, including the involvement of high-ranking military officers in the practice of forced labor. The rare testimonies illustrate how forced labor—a modern form of slavery—remains prevalent in an area of active military conflict in eastern Burma.

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Entrenched 334.91 Kb

(40-page report)

This report released by Refugees International (RI) documents rape by Burma’s army against women from a variety of ethnic minority groups. The report, whose primary author is Betsy Apple, EarthRights International's (ERI) Women’s Rights Project Director serving as a consultant to RI, seeks to show that rape by Burma’s soldiers is not isolated to a particular ethnic group.

The international community has recently directed a great deal of attention to the problem of rape by Burma’s soldiers against ethnic Shan women, as documented in an important report entitled "License to Rape". RI’s new report, entitled "No Safe Place: Burma’s Army and the Rape of Ethnic Women", expands our understanding of the scope of problem by documenting rape against women from the Karen, Karenni, Mon, and Tavoyan groups in addition to the Shan.

"No Safe Place" documents the facts that the rapes are committed with impunity, frequently by officers, and often on military property. While Burma has not ratified the Rome Statute authorizing the creation of an International Criminal Court, and is therefore not subject to the jurisdiction of this new Court, the rapes likely constitute crimes against humanity nonetheless.

Download: No Safe Place