Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business group, issued a report on "out-of-court tactics" used in relation to transnational litigation in the United States. The basic observation of the report, titled "Think Globally, Sue Locally,"is that corporate defendants in transnational cases, which typically challenge human rights abuses or environmental damage, are also frequently subject to public education and outreach campaigns, including reports, videos, shareholder advocacy, and media outreach. ERI agrees with this observation; when an abuse is serious enough to merit a lawsuit, it is also serious enough that we want to educate the public, shareholders, and policymakers about the problem so that the victims can obtain justice and similar abuses do not happen again. Read more »
As a dissenter to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United States stands nearly alone. On July 15, 2010, ERI urged the Obama Administration to join the rest of the world in endorsing the Declaration, lending its voice in support of a State Department review process that may change the U.S. position and take an important step in the retreat from “American exceptionalism” on human rights issues. Read more »
Five lawyers from EarthRights International, as well as their co-counsel on the team that litigated Wiwa v. Shell and brought the case to a landmark settlement in June 2009, have been named finalists for the 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award granted by the organization Public Justice. Public Justice utilizes a nationwide network of trial lawyers to pursue litigation in the public interest, including cases involving civil rights, access to justice, and environmental protection. The award is intended for the attorneys who made the greatest contribution to the public interest within the past year by trying or settling a precedent-setting or socially significant case. Read more »
For over 10 years, ERI has been representing Nigerian villagers in their quest for justice against Chevron Corporation, after a brutal attack on unarmed protestors in 1998 left two Nigerians dead, several others shot and wounded, and still others tortured by Nigerian military and police. The villagers from Nigeria's Ilaje ethnic group, who occupied Chevron's Parabe platform and an adjacent barge in protest of environmental and economic devastation of their communities, were attacked by security forces flown to the platform by Chevron helicopters and paid by Chevron after the assault. Their continuing search for accountability reached another milestone today, as lawyers for the Nigerian plaintiffs argued an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking a new trial against the oil giant. (Audio recording from the appeal.) Read more »
In cases in which we are not counsel, EarthRights International often submits amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs on important issues. Most often, these amicus briefs are submitted in cases brought under the Alien Tort Statute (like ERI's cases against Unocal, Chevron and Shell), where a decision in the case could have a wide-ranging impact on other cases. Typically, ERI submits such briefs to elaborate on a particular legal issue on which we have expertise; in other cases, ERI might submit a brief if the facts of the case are especially relevant to our work. These briefs form an important part of international human rights and environmental litigation, and other organizations have also submitted amicus briefs in ERI's cases where appropriate.
As the law in New York’s federal courts stands now, a company can knowingly provide fuel and runways for government bombing raids against civilians and support the murderous displacement of entire communities, without having any responsibility for the injuries made possible by their assistance of gross human rights abuses committed in part for their own benefit. On May 20, 2010, EarthRights International (ERI) filed an amicus brief in the case of Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc., urging the U.S. Supreme Court to consider and overturn the incorrect and unjust ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that condones such behavior. Read more »
Leaders of Achuar indigenous communities from the Peruvian Amazon addressed the annual shareholder meeting of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) in Los Angeles today, expressing their hope that Oxy would soon resolve the ongoing issues arising out of its thirty years of oil production in Achuar territory. EarthRights International (ERI) represents five Achuar communities in the U.S. lawsuit Maynas Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum, which alleges environmental pollution from oil spills and toxic wastewater discharges, as well as heavy metal poisoning which the Achuar believe has resulted from exposure to these toxins. Read more »
EarthRights International submitted two reports to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights today, in connection with the U.N. Human Rights Council’s periodic review of the human rights obligations of the United States. The first submission, a coalition report coauthored by ERI, the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Western Shoshone Defense Project, evaluates the United States’ performance on corporate accountability for activities abroad or affecting indigenous people’s rights, including the areas of protecting against human rights abuses by corporations and providing remedies for corporate abuses. The second report, submitted by ERI alone, focuses on the United States government’s approach in human rights litigation in U.S. courts. Read more »
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. Read more »
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. Read more »
