This volume is comprised of writings from three classes of EarthRights Mekong School graduates. EarthRights International’s Mekong School is a training program for civil society advocates from the Mekong Region (Yunnan/China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) whose work focuses on human rights and the environment.
On September 10, 2009 EarthRights International (ERI) published almost 200 pages of new research in two publications linking the oil giants Total S.A., Chevron Corporation, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production Company Ltd. (PTTEP), and the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to forced labor, killings, high-level corruption, and authoritarianism in connection to their Yadana natural gas pipeline in military-ruled Burma.
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.
Based primarily on over two years of research, Total Impact: The Human Rights, Environmental, and Financial Impacts of Total and Chevron’s Yadana Gas Project in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar) explains that Total and Chevron’s Yadana gas project has generated US$4.83 billion dollars for the Burmese regime. The 110-page report explains how the regime would have excluded at least US$4.80 billion dollars of that revenue from the country’s national budget.
Based on seven years of research, this 84-page report describes Total and Chevron’s public relations endeavors, including impact assessments commissioned by the companies since 2002. The impact assessments were conducted by the US-based CDA Collaborative Learning Projects (CDA). ERI presents evidence proving that Total lied to the public when it claimed that the International Labour Organization (ILO) certified that the company eradicated forced labor in its project area.
This report is intended to inform the upcoming meetings of the OECD Investment Committee in Paris, France in 2009. It documents substantive errors in the Korean NCP’s interpretations of the OECD Guidelines, and its failure to achieve functional equivalence with other NCPs.
Chevron shareholders were given a full account of the true costs of Chevron’s global operations by a delegation of representatives of Chevron affected communities from the across the nation and around the world. Outside supporters filled the entryway, closing Chevron’s front gate with a vibrant rally. Representatives from Nigeria, Ecuador, Richmond and the Philippines, were joined inside by those representing communities from Burma, Kazakhstan, Iraq and Alberta to present to shareholders an alternative annual report, The True Cost of Chevron. “Chevron chose to turn a deaf ear to the communities who bear the crippling consequences of its operations,” said Paul Donowitz of EarthRights International. “Chevron’s complicity in human rights abuses in Burma, the billions in project revenues flowing to the brutal Burmese military junta who use these profits to oppress their own people are more evidence that this is a company that cares for only one thing – its bottom line.”
This collection of reports is the result of the hard work and dedication of fourteen young men and women from diverse ethnic groups and regions in Burma who attended EarthRights International’s year-long leadership school for human rights and environmental advocacy, the EarthRights School of Burma (ERSB). The students are eager to expose ongoing human rights abuses and environmental destruction in Burma under the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
