Human Rights

Not everybody is convinced that Turkmenistan will be the source of a future pipeline in Central Asia. Joseph Naemi, another Iranian born businessmen who splits his time between Sydney, Australia, and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is working on the possibility that Afghanistan's other major northern neighbor may be a better business bet Read More

Is the US War on Terrorism in Afghanistan really a war for a natural gas pipeline? Fossil fuel corporations and the World Bank are expressing cautious interest. Activists are concerned. Read More

June 24, 2002 -- "The failure of governments from seven of the Group of Eight (G8) largest economies -- the USA, the Russian Federation, France, the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Italy and Canada -- to regulate arms transfers is contributing to grave human rights abuses in developing countries and the destruction of millions of lives, particularly in Africa," Amnesty International said today. Read More

Victims of apartheid are demanding $50 billion from American and Swiss banks in compensation for profiteering from the "blood and misery" caused by white South Africa. The lawsuit -- which was filed on June 16, the 26th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising -- accuses Swiss companies, Credit Suisse and UBS, and U.S.-based Citicorp of providing loans to the apartheid government in violation of UN-imposed economic sanctions. The suit is spearheaded by Ed Fagan, a U.S. lawyer who forced Swiss banks to pay $1.25 billion to World War II victims of the Nazi Holocaust in 1998. Read More

Labor unions around the world faced a difficult year in 2001 due both to direct and sometimes violent repression, as well as the continuing pursuit by major multinational corporations of cheap labor in poor countries, according to the latest in a series of annual reports by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). Read More

A soft drinks factory set up by Coca Cola in Plachimada, Kerala, three years ago has sucked the local aquifers dry. The Coke-induced water scarcity has hit the indigenous peoples (adivasis) belonging to the Eravalar and Malasar tribes, and the Dalit (oppressed castes) community who live around the factory the worst. The people of Plachimada have seen their wells dry out even as truck loads of soft drinks made their way from the factory to distant markets. Read More

A lawsuit claiming US energy giant UNOCAL was complicit in human rights abuses committed by Myanmar's military regime will go ahead in California in September, lawyers said. Read More

Today, Oxfam America, in collaboration with the Global Mining Campaign, launches a new, international, online popular action to support the local people of Tambogrande, a small agricultural town in Peru, in their ongoing struggle against a proposed mining project. The campaign asks individuals around the globe to tell the mining company, Manhattan Minerals, to respect the local people's way of life. To join the online action, visit www.OxfamAmerica.org. For information on the Global Mining Campaign, see www.GlobalMiningCampaign.org. Read More

Maya Indian Eligorio Sho will join Canadian environmentalists in Newfoundland this week to urge Fortis shareholders to scrap their company's plans for a hydro scheme that would flood Belize's Macal River Valley. Read More

Calgary (April 30, 2002) -- Rights and Democracy advised oil corporation Talisman today that future complicity in Sudanese human rights abuses could be liable for prosecution by the impending International Criminal Court. Read More