The Norwegian Government has been given a second chance to put its money where its ethical mouth is. Earlier this week, a coalition of scientists, environmentalists, and Nigerian community representatives petitioned Norway’s Government Pension Fund to divest from Royal Dutch Petroleum, claiming that the company is violating the Fund’s Ethical Guidelines by causing severe environmental damage through oil spills in the Niger Delta. Norway should accept the complaint and divest, or risk undermining its public commitment to responsible investment and breaching its own Ethical Guidelines. Read more »
In an effort to protect a landmark U.S. anti-bribery law from industry attack, EarthRights International and over 30 civil society organizations and socially responsible investors sent letters to all U.S. House and Senate members yesterday, urging them to reject proposals to amend and weaken the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This letter was drafted in response to intense lobbying by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who reportedly spent $700,000 in 2011 in efforts to cut back on anti-bribery protections found in the law. Based on this intense lobbying effort, legislators on both sides of the aisle and in both Houses of Congress are considering introducing legislation that would restrict U.S. Read more »
Today is International Anti-Corruption Day, so it seems like a great moment to think about what we can all do to assist in the fight against global corruption, which makes products more expensive and less reliable for consumers, increases business costs, and undermines governance in resource-rich countries, exacting an estimated cost of one trillion dollars annually. As I’ll explain below, one thing we can do is contact Democratic Senators who are planning to propose legislation that could radically undermine U.S. anti-corruption efforts.
There have been lots of positive developments in the fight against global corruption, including: Read more »
I usually think of Scandinavian countries as great examples of responsible international engagement – they’re known for protecting the environment, promoting human rights, and not tolerating corruption. That’s why I was so disappointed with a decision coming out of the Norwegian Ministry of Finance this week. The Ministry elevated corporate fiction and energy politics over ethical obligations this week by rejecting the findings of its own expert consultants, who recommended that Norway’s public pension fund divest from PetroChina, concluding that the Chinese oil company is linked to severe human rights abuses around Burma’s Shwe Gas Project and a crude oil pipeline under construction across the breadth of Burma. Read more »
In a troubling setback for both socially responsible investing and corporate accountability, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance defied its Council on Ethics and announced it will retain holdings in PetroChina, despite the unacceptable risk of ongoing and likely human rights abuses connected with the onshore Shwe Gas and Burma-China Crude Oil pipelines currently under construction in Burma. The Norwegian Council on Ethics (“Council”) found that PetroChina and its parent, the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) operate as “one single unit”, and thus, CNPC’s complicity in abuses, as operator of the pipelines runs to PetroChina. Read more »
If you read our blog regularly, you know that we frequently comment on human rights cases and campaigns from all over the world, particularly those involving large energy development projects. For instance, in the last few months we’ve written about campaigns to stop the Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River in Burma, the Xayaburi Dam on the lower Mekong River in Laos, and the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in Brazil.
It’s far more rare, however, that we write about similar developments in the U.S. and Canada, so I wanted to mix things up by calling attention to three pieces of encouraging domestic news that have caught my eye in the last few days… Read more »
Construction on the controversial US$11 billion Xingu River dam construction project — the so-called Belo Monte dam — was temporarily halted by a Brazilian federal judge last month due to concerns over the impact on local fisheries. The judge ruled the dam’s environmental license violates the constitutional rights of indigenous communities and is therefore illegal. An appeal is expected in the case. Read more »
Last week, James Anaya, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People, delivered a written report and statement to the UN General Assembly, summarizing the first three years of his mandate and outlining his plans for the next three years. His report and statements highlighted four themes: the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, nation states’ duty to consult indigenous peoples, corporate responsibility with respect to indigenous and human rights and, of particular interest to us here at ERI, the impacts of extractive industries operating in or near indigenous territories: Read more »
The global movement for transparency in the management of natural resource revenues took a major step forward today as the European Union announced a new directive requiring extractive companies to report their payments to governments on a project-by-project basis. This EU initiative picks up the momentum started when the U.S. Congress enacted disclosure requirements as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. It also decisively rejects the oil industry’s attempts to block the rising tide of transparency. Read more »
The last few weeks have seen a flurry of contradictory events in Burma, and I am trying to make sense of what they mean for the people of my long-suffering country. As media and policy-makers from around the world rush to embrace these changes, those of us who have seen first-hand the duplicity of Burma's authorities hope for the best, but have come to expect the worst. Read more »
The power of law and the power of people
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ERI staff, February 2010
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