[nasional_list] [ppiindia] 12 Perusahaan Pelanggar Hak Asasi Manusia
- From: A Nizami <nizaminz@xxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:45:53 -0800 (PST)
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** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral
scholarship, kunjungi
http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **Berikut daftar 12 perusahaan pelanggar
HAM yang
diterbitkan oleh Global Exchange. Di antaranya:
1. Caterpillar yang menyediakan buldozer kepada
pemerintah Israel untuk menggusur puluhan ribu rumah
bangsa Palestina.
2. Chevron yang merusak lingkungan dengan limbah
kimianya.
3. Coca-cola yang melanggar HAM pekerjanya
4. Nestle yang mempekerjakan buruh anak-anak
"Most Wanted" Corporate Human Rights Violators of 2005
Take Action for International Human Rights Day!
By Global Exchange
(Click here to read about our definition of human
rights.)
INTRODUCTION
Corporations carry out some of the most horrific human
rights abuses of modern times, but it is increasingly
difficult to hold them to account. Economic
globalization and the rise of transnational corporate
power have created a favorable climate for corporate
human rights abusers, which are governed principally
by the codes of supply and demand and show genuine
loyalty only to their stockholders.
Though it isn't easy, we can check the power of
corporations?and citizens around the world are
stepping up to do it. Global Exchange developed this
list of some of the world's worst corporate abusers to
illustrate that on issues as diverse as assassination,
torture, kidnapping, environmental degradation,
abusing public funds, violently repressing political
rights, releasing toxins into pristine environments,
destroying homes, discrimination, and causing
widespread health problems, familiar companies like
Dow Chemical, Coca Cola, Caterpillar, Lockheed, Philip
Morris, and Wal-Mart play a big role. Now we need you
to take action!
Several of the companies below are being sued under
the Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that allows citizens
of any nationality to sue in US federal courts for
violations of international rights or treaties. When
corporations act like criminals, we have the right and
the power to stop them, holding leaders and
multinational corporations alike to the accords they
have signed. Around the world?in Venezuela, Argentina,
India, and right here in the United States?citizens
are stepping up to create democracy and hold
corporations accountable to international law.
This list of "MOST WANTED" corporate criminals gives
you information about the abusive behavior of this
year's top fourteen worst corporations, tells you who
is responsible, and how to connect with and support
people who are doing something about it. The more you
know, the less these corporations can continue their
abuses out of public eyesight: so share this
information with your friends, get on the phone with
the CEOs themselves, and exercise your rights as a
citizen and consumer today.
CATERPILLAR
CEO: James Owens
Contact the Corporation: Caterpillar Inc.
100 NE Adams St.
Peoria, IL 61629
Phone: 309-675-1000
Fax: 309-675-1182
Human Rights Abuses: contracting with known violators
of human rights, enabling house demolition, supplying
equipment that kills Palestinian civilians and
American peace activists
For years, the Caterpillar Company has provided Israel
with the bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes.
Despite worldwide condemnation, Caterpillar has
refused to end their corporate participation house
demolition by cutting off sales of specially modified
D9 and D10 bulldozers to the Israeli military.
Israel seeks to portray the destruction of homes as
necessary to its self-defense, but nothing could be
further from the truth. 9As the Israeli Committee
Against Home Demolitions has rigorously documented,
house destruction is part of Israel's intention to
turn the annexation of East Jerusalem and other
occupied areas into a concrete fact
(http://www.icahd.org/eng/).
In a letter to Caterpillar CEO James Owens The Office
of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights said:
"allowing the delivery of your. . . bulldozers to the
Israeli army. . . in the certain knowledge that they
are being used for such action, might involve
complicity or acceptance on the part of your company
to actual and potential violations of human rights..."
9
Peace activist Rachel Corrie was killed by a
Caterpillar, D-9, military bulldozer in 2003. She was
run over while attempting to block the destruction a
family's home in Gaza. Her family filed suit against
Caterpillar in March 2005 charging that Caterpillar
knowingly sold machines used to violate human rights.
Since Rachel's death at least three more Palestinians
have been killed in their homes by Israeli bulldozer
demolitions.
Who's working on it:
? Amnesty International
? Jewish Voice for Peace
? Human Rights Watch
? US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation
CHEVRON
Chairman and CEO: David O'Reilly
Contact the Corporation: Chevron Corp.
6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd.
San Ramon, CA 94583
Human Rights Abuses: environmental destruction, health
violations, and violent killings
The petrochemical company Chevron is guilty of some of
the worst environmental and human rights abuses in the
world. From 1964 to 1992, Texaco (which transferred
operations to Chevron after being bought out in 2001)
unleashed a toxic "Rainforest Chernobyl" in Ecuador by
leaving more than 600 unlined oil pits in pristine
northern Amazon rainforest and dumping 18 billion
gallons of toxic production water into rivers used for
bathing water. The toxic crude oil and formation water
seeped into the subsoil, contaminating surrounding
freshwater and farmland. As a result, local
communities have suffered severe health effects,
including cancer, skin lesions, birth defects, and
spontaneous abortions. Indigenous communities have
been dispossessed of their lands, and millions of
hectares of rainforest have been destroyed to make way
for the company's pipelines and oil wells.
Chevron is also responsible for the violent repression
of nonviolent opposition to oil extraction. In
Nigeria, Chevron has collaborated with the Nigerian
police and military who have opened fire on peaceful
protestors who oppose oil extraction in the Niger
Delta. In 1998, two indigenous Ilaje activists were
killed by Nigerian military officers flown in by the
company while protesting at an oil platform in Ondo
state. In 1999, two people from Opia village were
killed by military personnel paid by Chevron, after
soliciting a meeting to complain about the company's
harmful effects on local fishing. And in 2005,
Nigerian soldiers fired upon protestors at Escravos
oil terminal, leaving one protestor dead.
Additionally Chevron is responsible for widespread
health problems in Richmond, California, where one of
Chevron's largest refineries is located. Processing
350,000 barrels of oil a day, the Richmond refinery
produces oil flares and toxic waste in the 9Richmond
area. As a result, local residents suffer from high
rates of lupus, skin rashes, rheumatic fever, liver
problems, kidney problems, tumors, cancer, asthma, and
eye problems.
In December 2004, the Unocal Corporation, which
recently became a subsidiary of Chevron, settled a
lawsuit filed by 15 Burmese villagers, in which the
villagers alleged Unocal's complicity in a range of
human rights violations in Burma, including rape,
summary execution, torture, forced labor and forced
migration. Despite the settlement, human rights abuses
continue along the oil pipeline in Burma, which is
still "secured" by the Burmese military. Chevron is
responsible for the risks associated with this
pipeline.
Who's working on it:
? Acción Ecológica
? Amazon Watch
? Amazon Defense Front
? Amnesty International
? Center for Constitutional Rights
? EarthRights International
? Human Rights Watch
? Oil Change International
? Oil Watch International
? Richmond Greens
COCA-COLA
CEO: E. Neville Isdell
Contact the Corporation: Coca-Cola
One Coca Cola Plaza
P.O. Box 1734
Atlanta, GA 30301
Phone: 404-676-2121
Human Rights Abuses: violent killings, kidnap and
torture, water privatization, health violations, and
discriminatory practices
Coca-Cola Company is perhaps the most widely
recognized corporate symbol on the planet. The company
also leads in the abuse of workers' rights,
assassinations, water privatization, and worker
discrimination. Between 1989 and 2002, eight union
leaders from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia
were killed after protesting the company's labor
practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola workers who
have joined or considered joining the Colombian union
SINALTRAINAL have been kidnapped, tortured, and
detained by paramilitaries who intimidate workers to
prevent them from unionizing. In Turkey, 14 Coca-Cola
truck drivers and their families were beaten severely
by Turkish police hired by the company, while
protesting a layoff of 1,000 workers from a local
bottling plant in 2005.
In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by
privatizing the country's water resources. In
Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola extracted 1.5 million
liters of deep well water, which they bottled and sold
under the names Dasani and BonAqua. The groundwater
was severely depleted, affecting thousands of
communities with water shortages and destroying
agricultural activity. As a result, the remaining
water became contaminated with high chloride and
bacteria levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and
stomach aches in the local population. Water shortages
have occurred in Varanasi, Thane, and Tamil Nadu as
well. The company is also guilty of reselling its
plants' industrial waste to farmers as fertilizers,
despite its containing hazardous lead and cadmium.
Coca-Cola is one of the most discriminatory employers
in the world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American
employees in the U.S. sued the company for race-based
disparities in pay and promotions. In México,
Coca-Cola FEMSA, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in
Latin America, fired a senior bottling manager for
being gay. Finally, by regularly denying health
insurance to employees and their families, Coca Cola
has failed to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa.
The company is one of the continent's largest private
employers, yet only partially covers expensive
medicines, while not covering generic medicines at
all.
Who's working on it:
? Coke Watch
? Corp Watch
? India Resource Center
? Killer Coke
? Polaris Institute
? Public Citizen
? Students Against Sweatshops
? USLEAP
DOW CHEMICAL
CEO: Andrew N. Liveris
Contact the Corporation: Dow Chemical Co.
2030 Dow Center
Midland, MI 48674
Human rights abuses: creation of chemical weapons,
marketing poisonous chemicals, illegal dumping of
toxins into populated areas, environmental
destruction, health problems, death
Dow Chemical has been destroying lives and poisoning
the planet for decades. The company is best known for
the ravages and health disaster for millions of
Vietnamese and U.S. Veterans caused by its lethal
Vietnam War defoliant, Agent Orange. Dow's "invent
first, ask questions later" standard of business led
the multinational company to develop and perfect
Napalm, a brutal chemical weapon that burned many
innocents to death in Vietnam and other wars. In 1988,
Dow provided pesticides to Saddam Hussein despite
warnings that they could be used to produce chemical
weapons.
In 2001, Dow inherited the toxic legacy of the worst
peacetime chemical disaster in history when it
acquired Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and its
outstanding liabilities in Bhopal, India. As the
Students for Bhopal website recounts, "On December
3rd, 1984, thousands of people in Bhopal, India were
gassed to death after a catastrophic chemical leak at
a UCC pesticide plant. More than 150,000 people were
left severely disabled-of whom 22,000 have since died
of their injuries-in a disaster now widely
acknowledged as the world's worst ever."
Dow refuses to address its liabilities in Bhopal or
even admit its existence, continuing in Union
Carbide's tradition of profiting from extreme
corporate irresponsibility. In India, Dow's subsidiary
faces manslaughter charges and is considered a
fugitive from justice for a pending criminal case
related to the 1984 xhemical explosion. Dow and UCC's
lack of accountability in the disaster continue to
affect the lives in Bhopal to this day.
World wide, Dow is involved in human rights abuses:
environmental destruction, water and ground
contamination, health violations, chemical poisoning,
and chemical warfare. Dow Chemical's impact is felt
globally from their Midland, Michigan headquarters to
New Plymouth, New Zealand. In Midland, Dow has been
producing chlorinated chemicals and burning and
burying its waste including chemicals that make up
Agent Orange. In New Plymouth, New Zealand, 500,000
gallons of Agent Orange were produced and thousands of
tons of dioxin-laced waste was dumped in agricultural
fields. Dow's toxic legacies of human rights 9abuses
traverse to agricultural fields in Central America
where Dow exported EPA-banned pesticide DBCP for use
on banana and pineapple crops. As a result, thousands
of banana workers were exposed to DBCP and became
sterile. In retail markets across the world Dow's
dangerous chemicals are present as common household
solvents, plastics, paints and pharmaceuticals.
Who's working on it:
? Dow Accountability Network
? EarthRights International
? Vietnam Relief and Responsibility Campaign
? Fund for Reconciliation and Development
? The Vietnam Dioxin Collective
? International Campaign for Justice In Bhopal
? Students For Bhopal ? Amnesty International-USA
? Greenpeace International
? Ecology Center
? Tittabawassee River Watch
? Beyond Pesticides
DYNCORP/CSC
CEO: Van Honeycutt
Contact the corporation: DynCorp/CSC
2100 East Grand Avenue
El Segundo, CA 90245 USA
Phone: 310.615.0311
Human rights abuses: causing health problems,
environmental devastation and death; endangering
lives; physically abusing individuals; sex trafficking
Private security contractors have become the
fastest-growing sector of the global economy during
the last decade?a $100-billion-a-year, nearly
unregulated industry. DynCorp, one of the providers of
these mercenary services, demonstrates the industry's
power and potential to abuse human rights. While
guarding Afghani statesmen and African oil fields,
training Iraqi police forces, eradicating Colombian
coca plants, and protecting business interests in
hurricane-devastated New Orleans, these hired guns
bolster the security of governments and organizations
at the expense of many people's human rights.
DynCorp's fumigation of coca crops along the
Colombian-Ecuadorian border led Ecuadorian peasants to
sue DynCorp in 2001. Plaintiffs argued that DynCorp
knew?or should have known?that the herbicides were
highly toxic, and should therefore be held accountable
for health problems and death among local people and
widespread environmental damage to their subsistence
agriculture. A Colombian newsweekly called
DynCorp?which also sprays herbicides in Peru and
Bolivia?"lawless Rambos."
DynCorp's questionable actions in Haiti include its
training of the national police force after the first
coup against President Aristide, paving the way for
(Tonton Macaoutes) to return to power.
In 2001, a mechanic with DynCorp blew the whistle on
DynCorp employees in Bosnia for rape and trading girls
as young as 12 into sex slavery. According to a
lawsuit filed by the mechanic, "employees and
supervisors were engaging in perverse, illegal and
inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal
weapons, women, [and] forged passports." The mechanic
observed DynCorp employees buying and selling women
and bragging about the ages and talents of their
female slaves. DynCorp fired the whistleblower, who
later claimed that "DynCorp is just as immoral and
elite as possible, and any rule they can break they
do." The company transferred the employees accused of
sex trading out of the country, eventually firing
some. None were prosecuted.
Who's working on it:
? CorpWatch
? International Labor Rights Fund and the Law Offices
of Cristobal Bonifaz are handling the Ecuadorians'
suit, with help from EarthRights International, Amazon
Alliance, and Friends of the Earth.
FORD MOTOR COMPANY
CEO: William Clay Ford, Jr.
Contact the Corporation: Ford Motor Company
P.O. Box 685
Dearborn, MI 48126-0685
Email: wford@xxxxxxxx
Human rights violations: environmental degradation,
climate change, fueling wars for oil
The US automobile industry is fueling America's
addiction to oil. Automobiles are the single largest
consumer of oil in the US, a country that constitutes
less than five percent of the world's population but
consumes 25 percent of its oil. The US addiction to
oil is linked with a host of human rights and
environmental problems, including human rights abuses
in countries such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Sudan, South
Africa and Indonesia. The US oil addiction has
prompted the US government to cozy up to human rights
violating governments such as that of Saudi Arabia. It
has pushed indigenous people off their land and
destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of
rainforests, which are home to half the planet and
animal species on the planet. It has fueled wars for
oil, such as the war in Iraq, which has so far caused
the deaths of more than 2,100 US troops and an
estimated 27,000 to 100,000 Iraqis. It has polluted
cities, endangering the health of millions of people
who live in high-ozone communities and leading to
hundreds of thousands of cases of childhood asthma.
And, by being a major contributor to global warming,
has increased the likelihood of extreme weather events
like Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,289
people.
Among automakers, Ford Motor Company is the worst.
Every year since 1999, the US Environmental Protection
Agency has ranked Ford cars, trucks and SUVs as having
the worst overall fuel economy of any American
automaker. Ford's current car and truck fleet has a
lower average fuel efficiency than the original Ford
Model-T.
Ford is also in last place when it comes to vehicle
greenhouse gas emissions. According to a recent report
by the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ford has "the
absolute worst heat-trapping gas emissions performance
of all the Big Six automakers." In fact, if Ford were
a country, it would be the 10th largest global warming
polluter worldwide, behind Italy.
Amazingly, despite the company's recent greenwashing
PR campaign, its record has actually worsened.
According to Ford's own sustainability report, between
2003 and 2004, the company's US fleet-wide fuel
economy decreased and its CO2 emissions went up. Ford
is also lobbying to prevent the U.S. and state
governments from improving the situation: the company
has lobbied against lawmakers' efforts to increase
fuel economy standards at the national level and is
also involved in a lawsuit against California's fuel
economy standards.
Who's working on it:
? Bluewater Action Network
? Energy Action
? Jumpstart Ford, a coalition of Global Exchange,
Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society
KBR (KELLOGG, BROWN, AND ROOT): A SUBSIDIARY OF
HALLIBURTON CORPORATION
President and CEO: CEO Andrew Lane
Contact the Corporation: KBR
601 Jefferson Street
Houston, TX 77002
Phone. (713) 753-2000
Human rights violations: Overcharging and providing
unnecessary services on taxpayer's dollar, bribery,
exploiting third country nationals
KBR is a private company that provides military
support services. Notorious for its questionable
bookkeeping, dishonest billing practices, and no-bid
contracts, KBR has violated human rights on the U.S.
dollar.
KBR provides key logistical support for war,
occupation and unlawful detention. The company
provides the critical support services US troops need
to be able to continue their occupation of Iraq. KBR
also constructed the detention facility in Guantanamo
Bay, where hundreds of detainees have languished for
more than three years, many of whom have suffered
abuse and torture.
KBR's dubious accounting in Iraq came to light in
December 2003 when Pentagon auditors questioned
possible overcharges for imported gasoline. Former
employees have testified about KBR's billing for $100
laundry bags and $45 cases of soda, failing to provide
simple mechanical parts such as oil filters, feeding
soldiers outdated rations, and charging for meals
never served. In June 2005, a previously secret
Pentagon audit criticized $1.4 billion in "questioned"
and "unsupported" expenditures.
However, given KBR's history, this is no surprise. In
2002 the company paid $2 million to settle a Justice
Department lawsuit that accused KBR of inflating
contract prices at Fort Ord, California. In 2000, the
GAO scrutinized KBR for overcharging and providing
unnecessary services in the Balkans. Bribes to local
officials (such as in Nigeria) or subcontractors also
appear to be part of KBR's modus operandi.
Many third-country national (TCN) laborers have been
hired by KBR to "rebuild" Iraq. Generally hailing from
impoverished Asian countries, they have unexpectedly
become part of the largest civilian workforce ever
hired in support of a U.S. war.
An intricate network of subcontractors who recruit and
employ most TCNs lowers the prime contractors' costs
and hinders any oversight by contract auditors. The
laborers often take out usurious loans to pay a
finder's fee for the overseas jobs. Once abroad, the
workers find themselves with few protections and
uncertain legal status. TCNs often sleep in crowded
trailers and wait outside in scorching heat to eat
"slop." Many lack adequate medical care and put in
hard labor seven days a week, 10 hours or more a day.
Few receive proper workplace safety equipment or
adequate protection from incoming mortars and rockets.
KBR is now accused of perpetuating the same system in
areas destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Reports have surfaced about KBR's subcontractors
exploiting TCN's (this time, Latinos), many of whom
are unpaid, unfed, living in squalid conditions and
suffering from untreated ailments.
Who's working on it:
? Corpwatch
? Center for Corporate Policy
? Halliburton Watch
? Houston Global Awareness
LOCKHEED MARTIN
CEO: Robert Stevens
Contact the corporation: Lockheed Martin Corp
6801 Rockledge Dr
Bethesda, MD 20817
Phone: (301) 897-6000
Human Rights Abuses: War profiteering, warmongering
Lockheed Martin is the world's largest military
contractor. In 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion,
the company held $21.9 billion in Pentagon contracts.
Providing satellites, planes, missiles, and other
lethal high tech items to the Pentagon keeps the
profits rolling in. Since 2000, the year Bush was
elected, the company's stock value has tripled.
A large company like Lockheed Martin has the ability
to shape it's the business environment, and marketing
war is very beneficial to the bottom line. As the
Center for Corporate Policy (www.corporatepolicy.org)
notes, it is no coincidence that Lockheed VP Bruce
Jackson?who helped draft the Republican foreign policy
platform in 2000?is a key player at the Project for a
New American Century, the intellectual incubator of
the Iraq war.
Lockheed Martin is not the only defense contractor
that goes behind the scenes to influence public
policy, but it is one of the worst. Stephen J. Hadley,
who now has Condoleeza Rice's old job as Assistant to
the President for National Security Affairs, was
formerly a partner in a big DC law firm representing
Lockheed Martin. He is only one of the beneficiaries
of the so-called revolving door between the military
industries and the "civilian" national security
apparatus. These war profiteers?the makers of the
Trident missile; aircraft like the F-16 Fighting
Falcon and the F/A-22 and the C-130 Hercules, as well
as high tech space based military components like the
DSCS-3 satellite?have a profound and illegitimate
influence our country's international policy
decisions.
9
Who's working on it:
? Brandywine Peace Community
? Center for Corporate Policy
? War Resisters League
MONSANTO
CEO: Hugh Grant
Contact the Corporation: c/o Kathleen Klepfer, Chief
of Staff for Hugh Grant
800 North Lindbergh Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63167
Phone:(314) 694-1000
Fax: (314) 694-8394
kathleen.lee.klepfer@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Human Rights Abuses: Displacement, health violations,
and child labor
Monsanto is, by far, the largest producer of
genetically engineered seeds in the world, dominating
70% to 100% of the market for crops such as soy,
cotton, wheat, and corn. The company is also one of
the most egregious abusers of the human rights of food
sovereignty, access to land, and health.
Monsanto promotes mono-culture?the practice of
covering large swaths of land with a single crop. This
practice pushes out subsistence farms and destroys
arable land by drastically decreasing soil and water
quality for years, draining soil of key nutrients. The
company also undercuts food prices by flooding
countries like Mexico, India, and Brazil with cheap,
genetically modified foods, resulting in the
displacement of millions of farm workers, who are
forced to migrate to cities or work as landless
peasants or share croppers.
Monsanto is the world's leading producer of the
herbicide glyphosate, marketed as "Roundup." Roundup
is sold to small farmers as a pesticide, yet harms
crops in the long run as the toxins accumulate in the
soil. Plants eventually become infertile, forcing
farmers to purchase genetically modified Roundup Ready
Seed, a seed that resists the herbicide. This creates
a cycle of dependency on Monsanto for both the weed
killer and the only seed that can resist it. Both
products are patented, and sold at inflated prices.
Roundup Ultra, a version of the pesticide that is
unavailable on the commercial market, is regularly
employed in fumigation of areas of illicit crop
production. However, as it destroys fields of drug
plants, it also destroys subsistence crops like
banana, palm heart, and coffee. Exposure to the
pesticide is documented to cause cancers, skin
disorders, spontaneous abortions, premature births,
and damage to the gastrointestinal and nervous
systems.
According to the India Committee of the Netherlands
and the International Labor Rights Fund, Monsanto also
employs child labor. In India, an estimated 12,375
children work in cottonseed production for farmers
paid by Indian and multinational seed companies,
including Monsanto. A number of children have died or
became seriously ill due to exposure to pesticides.
Monsanto's yearly profits are $5.4 billion.
Who's working on it:
? Food First
? GM Watch
? GRAIN
? India Resource Center
? Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
? Landless Workers' Movement
? Organic Consumers' Association
? Via Campesina
NESTLÉ USA
CEO: Joe Weller
Contact the Corporation: Nestlé USA
800 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
Phone: 818-549-6000
Fax: 818-549-6952
Human Rights Violations: Abusive child labor,
repression of worker rights, aggressive marketing of
harmful products, violation of national health and
environmental laws
There's a secret in the chocolate industry, and once
people find out about it, their chocolate doesn't
taste as sweet any more: Much of the chocolate eaten
all over the world is made of cocoa beans that have
been harvested by illegal child labor, including child
slave labor.
The problem of illegal and forced child labor is
rampant in the chocolate industry, because more than
forty percent of the world's cocoa supply comes from
the Ivory Coast, a country that the US State
Department estimates had approximately 109,000 child
laborers working in hazardous conditions on cocoa
farms in what's been described as the worst form of
child labor. In 2001, Save the Children Canada
reported that 15,000 children between 9 and 12 years
old, many from impoverished Mali, had been tricked or
sold into slavery on West African cocoa farms, many
for just $30 each. Just this summer, the International
Labor Rights Fund and a Birmingham law firm filed a
class-action lawsuit against Nestlé and several of its
suppliers on behalf of former child slaves.
Nestlé is the target of this lawsuit and is singled
out by corporate campaigners, because it is the third
largest buyer of cocoa from the Ivory Coast, has
processing, storage and export facilities there, and
is well aware of the tragically unjust labor practices
taking place on the farms with which it continues to
do business. Nestlé and other chocolate manufacturers
agreed to end the use of abusive and forced child
labor on cocoa farms by July 1, 2005, but they failed
to do so.
Nestlé is also notorious for its aggressive marketing
of infant formula in poor countries the 1980s, which
may have led to the deaths of countless children who
did not receive the nutrients that would have been
present in breast milk. Because of this practice,
Nestlé is still one of the most boycotted corporations
in the world, and its infant formula is still
controversial. In Italy in 2005, police seized more
than two million liters of Nestlé infant formula that
was contaminated with the chemical
isopropylthioxanthone (ITX), a component in the
packaging's ink. It turned out the company knew about
the contamination for months, but did not recall the
formula.
Additionally, violations of labor rights are reported
from Nestlé factories in numerous countries. In
Colombia, Nestlé replaced the entire factory staff
with lower-wage workers and did not renew the
collective employment contract. In Cabuyao Laguna,
Philippines, a 3-year strike against Nestlé was
partially precipitated by Nestlé's refusal to include
the retirement benefits of the workers in the
collective bargaining agreement, despite the Supreme
Court's ruling in favor of the workers. The company
has brutally attempted to break the strike; this year,
two unionists, including prominent labor leader
Diosdado Fortuna, have been murdered.
Who's working on it:
? Global Exchange
? International Baby Milk Action
? International Labor Rights Fund
PHILIP MORRIS USA and PHILIP MORRIS INTERNATIONAL
(a.k.a. the Altria Group Inc.)
Chairman and CEO: Louis C. Camilleri
Contact the Corporation: Philip Morris USA
Consumer Response Center
P.O. Box 26603
Richmond, Virginia 23261
http://www.philipmorrisusa.com
Email form:
http://www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/contact_us/contact_us_by_email.asp?action=init
Philip Morris International
Consumer Service
Case Postale 1171
1001 Lausanne, Switzerland
http://www.philipmorrisinternational.com
Human Rights Abuse: aggressively marketing lethal
products
According to the World Health Organization, tobacco is
the second major cause of preventable death in the
world. Nearly five million lives per year are claimed
by the tobacco industry, whose products results in
premature death for half the people who use them.
Among tobacco companies, Philip Morris is notorious.
Now called Altria, it is the world's largest and most
profitable cigarette corporation and maker of
Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament, Basic and many
other brands of cigarettes. Philip Morris is also a
leader in pushing smoking with young people around the
world.
Philip Morris has consistently misled consumers about
the dangers of its products. Documents uncovered in a
lawsuit filed against the tobacco industry by the
state of Minnesota showed that Philip Morris and other
leading tobacco corporations knew very well of the
dangers of tobacco products and the addictiveness of
nicotine, yet they continued to deny these realities
in public until the internal company documents were
brought to light. To this day, Philip Morris deceives
consumers about the harm of its products by offering
light, mild and low-tar cigarettes that give consumers
the illusion that these brands are "healthier" than
traditional cigarettes.
Philip Morris has actively targeted the world's youth
by researching smoking patterns and attitudes and
targeting youth as potential customers. Marlboro
cigarettes are the top brand for youth in the United
States. Although the company says it doesn't want kids
to smoke, it spends millions of dollars every day
marketing and promoting cigarettes to youth. Overseas,
it has even hired underage Marlboro girls to
distribute free cigarettes to other children and
sponsored concerts where cigarettes were handed out to
minors.
As anti-tobacco campaigns and government regulations
are slowing tobacco use in Western countries, Philip
Morris has aggressively moved into developing country
markets, where smoking and smoking-related deaths are
on the rise. According to a study by the Harvard
School of Public Health, tobacco's killing fields are
shifting to the developing world and Eastern Europe,
where most of the world's smokers now live.
Preliminary numbers released by the World Health
Organization predict global deaths due to
smoking-related illnesses will nearly double by 2020,
with more than three-quarters of those deaths in the
developing world.
Meanwhile, Philip Morris' profits continue to grow. In
the third quarter of 2005 alone, Altria's net revenue
was $25 billion, up from 2004 in large part due to the
high performance of Philip Morris USA and Philip
Morris International.
Who's working on it:
? Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
? Essential Action
? Framework Convention Alliance
? World Health Organization
PFIZER
CEO: Henry A. McKinnell
Contact the Company: Pfizer
235 East 42nd Street
NY, NY 10017-5755
Phone: 212-573-1000 (switchboard)
Fax: 212-573-7851
Human Rights Abuse: Killer price-gouging
Pfizer is one of the largest and most profitable
pharmaceutical companies in the world with revenues of
$52.5 billion in 2004. In addition to Viagra, Zoloft,
Zithromax, and Norvasc, Pfizer produces the
HIV/AIDS-related drugs Rescriptor, Viracept and
Diflucan (fluconazole). Like other drug companies,
they sell these drugs at prices poor people cannot
afford and aggressively fight efforts to make it
easier for generic drugs to enter the market. They
have even cut off drug shipments to Canadian
pharmacies that sold Pfizer drugs to patients in the
United States for costs more affordable than those
offered in US pharmacies.
To ensure its profits, Pfizer invests heavily in US
campaign contributions. Though it can't seem to afford
to offer life-saving drugs at affordable prices, it
was able to scrounge up $544,900 for mostly Republican
candidates in election cycle 2006 (still in progress)
and $1,630,556 in the 2004 election cycle.
Drug companies' refusal to put human beings' health
ahead of their own greed and profits is especially
deadly for people with HIV/AIDS. AIDS killed 3.1
million people in 2004, a shocking death rate that
could be greatly reduced if treatment was made
available to people who right now cannot afford it.
Pfizer and other drug companies have refused to grant
generic licenses for HIV/AIDS drugs to countries like
Brazil, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic,
where patients are forced to pay $20 per weekly pill
for drugs like fluconazole, though the average
national wage is only $120 per month.
Instead of helping eradicate the world's worst
pandemic in history, the World Trade Organization has
made matters worse. Beginning in 1995, the agreement
on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS) protected companies by stopping WTO
member countries from making generic versions of their
drugs. Because of public pressure, the WTO announced a
new agreement in 2003 to allow poor countries to
access cheap generic antiretroviral drugs, but in
practice, the drugs are just as inaccessible to poor
countries as they were before.
Who's working on it:
? ACTUP: New York, Philadelphia, Paris
? Consumer Project on Technology
? Doctors Without Borders
? Generics Now
? Health GAP
? Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
? Treatment Action Campaign
SUEZ-LYONNAISE DES EAUX (SLDE)
CEO: Mr. Gérard Mestrallet
Contact the Corporation: Suez
16, rue de la Ville-l 'Evêque
75383 PARIS Cedex 08
France
Phone: +33 1 40 06 64 00
gerard.mestrallet@xxxxxxxx
Human rights abuse: Water privatization
The privatization of water has had a disastrous impact
on the human right to clean water, and the French
company Suez is the worst perpetrator of this abuse.
The company's billions of dollars in profit come at
the expense of poor people living in countries where
thousands lack access to potable water, and, because
of private water contracts, are also facing
skyrocketing water prices.
Suez goes by many names around the world?Ondeo, SITA,
and others?to mask its worldwide net of controversial
activities. But no sleight of hand can hide the fact
that Suez, which is one of the largest water companies
in the world, has been a leader in turning the human
right to water into an unaffordable luxury. According
to Public Citizen, Suez has raised water rates, cut
off the water of people unable to pay, refused to
extend services to poverty-stricken neighborhoods, and
then threatened legal action when contracts are
terminated.
For example, in Manila, Philippines, after seven years
of water privatization under a Suez company (Maynilad
Water) contract, studies showed that water rates
increased in some neighborhoods by 400 to 700 percent.
These studies also showed that the negligence of the
company resulted in cholera and gastroenteritis
outbreaks that killed six people and severely sickened
725 in Manila's Tondo district.
In Argentina, Suez mixed companies have refused to
make promised investments in the water infrastructure,
which has resulted in serious water pollution
problems. They also charge high consumer rates and cut
off water access for citizens unable to pay, leaving
those most in need without access to a life-sustaining
natural resource.
In Bolivia, a Suez company (Aguas de Illimani) left
200,000 people without access to water and caused a
revolt when it tried to charge between $335 and $445
to connect a private home to the water supply.
Countless people were unable to afford this charge in
a country whose yearly per capita GDP is $915.
Unfortunately, the IMF and World Bank are playing a
key role in pushing water privatization all over the
world. Many countries have been required to open up
their water supply to private companies as a condition
for receiving IMF loans, and the World Bank has
approved millions of dollars in loans for the
privatization of water systems.
Who's working on it:
? Corporate Accountability International
? Food and Water Watch
? Stop Suez
WAL-MART
CEO: Lee Scott
Contact the Corporation: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 Southwest 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716
Tel. (479) 273-4000
Email corporate headquarters:
http://walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=221
Human Rights Abuses: worker rights violations, labor
discrimination, union busting
Wal-Mart is the biggest corporation in the world. It
owns 5,100 stores worldwide and employs 1.3 million
workers in the United States and 400,000 abroad, as
well as a millions more in the factories of its
suppliers. Because of the company's enormity, its
business model has a huge influence on workers and
businesses around the world; so far Wal-Mart has used
that influence to ruthlessly drive down costs as a
means of making profit, violating a vast array of
human rights and labor rights along the way.
Many people have heard of the way that Wal-Mart
steamrolls its way into every possible town,
destroying local supermarkets and countless small
businesses. We have also heard about Wal-Mart's long
track record of worker abuse, from forced overtime to
sex discrimination to illegal child labor to
relentless union busting. Wal-Mart also notoriously
fails to provide health insurance to over half of its
employees, who are then left to rely on themselves or
taxpayers, who provide for a portion of their
healthcare needs through government Medicaid.
Less well known is the fact that Wal-Mart maintains
its low price level by allowing substandard labor
conditions at the overseas factories producing most of
its goods. The company continually demands lower
prices from its suppliers, who, in turn, make more
outrageous and abusive demands on their workers in
order to meet Wal-Mart's requirements. In September
2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a
lawsuit on behalf of Wal-Mart supplier sweatshop
workers in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nicaragua and
Swaziland. The workers were denied minimum wages,
forced to work overtime without compensation, and were
denied legally mandated health care. Other worker
rights violations that have been found in foreign
factories that produce goods for Wal-Mart include
locked bathrooms, starvation wages, pregnancy tests,
denial of access to health care, and workers being
fired and blacklisted if they try to defend their
rights.
Additionally, nearly 70% of Wal-Mart's goods are made
in factories in China, a country where garment workers
are often kept under 24-hour-a-day surveillance and
can be fired for even discussing factory conditions.
The Chinese government does not allow independent
human rights groups to exist, and all attempts to form
independent unions have been crushed. Wal-Mart refuses
to reveal its Chinese contractors and will not allow
independent, unannounced inspections of its
contractors' facilities.
Who's working on it:
? Wal-Mart Watch
? ACORN
? Business Ethics International
? Sierra Club
? Wake-Up Wal-Mart
? International Labor Rights Fund
? United Students Against Sweatshops
http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/corporateHRviolators.html
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