Human Rights

BRUSSELS (October 28 2002) -- On 28 October, on behalf of the Global Unions Group, the ICFTU is releasing a new database of over 325 foreign companies with business links to Burma -- links that help to sustain the brutal and repressive dictatorship in that country. While some prominent companies have withdrawn since the initial release of the database one year ago, Global Unions have added a further 92 companies which continue to do business with Burma or have been pursuing business links with the junta. Read More

French oil giant TotalFina-Elf flatly rejected accusations by a global trade union body Monday that its investments in Myanmar (formerly Burma) were directly linked to forced labor used for road-building and other heavy work around the Yadana oil pipeline off the country's southwest coast. Read More

A U.S. State Department report on aerial spraying of coca crops in Colombia fails to prove that the pesticide program does not harm the environmentor pose safety risks to humans, charge six independent reviews released Monday by scientists and advocacy groups. The groups argue that the U.S. cannot authorize more funds for the controversial program until it can rule out health and environmental risks from the spraying. Read More

CO. CLARE, Ireland (September 30) -- From October 1st, 2002, the De Beers Industrial Diamonds group of companies (Debid) including Drukker International, will become Element Six. The new corporate and brand name is derived from the fact that diamond is a form of carbon, and carbon is the sixth element in the periodic table. The companies feel that the choice of this name encompasses their several businesses in an imaginative and differentiating way, reflecting the modern industrial diamond industry. Read More

Americans know that corporate excess is about more than flawed accounting. It corrupts democracy, drives a wedge between rich and poor, degrades the environment, and disrupts communities. So what might we the people do? Read More

A New Yorker looks at the squandered opportunities to make desperately needed changes in the American psyche and global policy following last September 11th. Read More

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Privacy International yesterday released the fifth annual Privacy and Human Rights survey. The report reviews the state of privacy in over fifty countries around the world. It was released at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Read More

Until 1998 Sherri Bufkin happily worked as a manager for Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, N.C. But in 1997, when workers in the giant meatpacking plant there began to organize a union, her superiors - she has testified - forced her to join their campaign to "do whatever was necessary to keep [the union] out." Read More

Confectionery giant Cadbury's has committed a gaffe of epic proportions after comparing a brand of chocolate to the disputed territory of Kashmir and describing both as "too good to share". Read More

In the decade between the Rio and Johannesburg Earth Summit's, Royal Dutch Shell touted green and human rights rhetoric while grossly violating those rights. Excerpted from EarthSummit.biz. Read More