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.
Energy Security Through Transparency Act of 2009 (Introduced in Senate)
S 1700 IS
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1700
To require certain issuers to disclose payments to foreign governments for the commercial development of oil, natural gas, and minerals, to express the sense of Congress that the President should disclose any payment relating to the commercial development of oil, natural gas, and minerals on Federal land, and for other purposes.
The Energy Security Through Transparency Act (ESTT) (S.1700) was introduced in the Senate in 2009 by Senators Lugar (R-IN), Cardin (D-MD), Schumer (D-NY), Wicker (R-MS), Feingold (D-WI), and Whitehouse (D-RI), and is currently in the Senate Banking Committee. This critical legislation seeks to amend Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 USC 78m) (“Periodical and Other Reports”) by adding a new section (m) “Disclosure of Payment by Resource Extraction Issuers” and would require companies registered with the U.S.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Burma to "double output" of gas by 2020, Democratic Voice of Burma, 19 Nov 2009
China's Burma Oil Bonanza, Asia Sentinel, 18 Nov 2009
Daewoo Named in Human Rights Complaint, The Irrawaddy, 4 Nov 2008
ERI released two reports in September about the Yadana pipeline that link the oil giants Total and Chevron to forced labor, killings, high-level corruption and authoritarianism in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar).
