Human Rights

Hell still not frozen over

This week, Shell paid $15.5m to the Ogoni people in Nigeria, an out of court settlement after a 13 year struggle. I read that Shell's lawyers apparently once said that Shell would only settle when "hell freezes over" and they were "skating on it" - (perhaps that explains why Shell is now the most carbon intensive oil company on the planet - a desperate bid to keep hell nice and cosy).

Unfortunately I have now found that this quote was in fact from Chevron's lawyer in relation to a similiar case - but I would guess there was a not entirely dissimilar sentiment involved here. (Strangely, Shell's former Group Auditor Bill Campbell also told Shell's senior execs in 2007 that "hell would freeze over" before they would appear in court to clear their names. These guys must clean up at the annual Oil Industry Buzzword Bingo convention).

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Posted by Adele at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Make a noise. Be heard.

I have a confession to make: I lead a double life. Besides being an intern at Greenpeace International, I also do a master's degree in International Law. International Human Rights Law has a prominent place in the program I follow, and I think that between this and my internship, I'm more informed than most people about what rights we have, simply by existing.

At university, I hear a lot about protecting from torture, the right to free elections, the right to life, the right to a family life. At work, I promote the right to a clean and safe environment. These rights are all equally important, they are interlinked. It's not much use to have a right to life if this life is lived under oppression. It's not much use to freely elect a government if this government is going to destroy the environment you live in. It's not much use to have a clean environment if your life is threatened every day in this environment.

The video below serves as a good reminder.

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Posted by Juliette at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Poverty and environmental justice

Today's Blog Action Day and the theme this year is poverty - so I thought I'd take the opportunity to bring up the concept of environmental justice. First a definition of environmental justice:

Environmental justice (EJ) is the confluence of social and environmental movements, which deals with the inequitable environmental burden born by groups such as racial minorities, women, or residents of developing nations...the movement seeks to redress inequitable distributions of environmental burdens (pollution, industrial facilities, crime, etc.) and access to environmental goods (nutritious food, clean air & water, parks, recreation, health care, education, transportation, safe jobs, etc.) in a variety of situations.

What's that mean in practice? Here are some examples:

It means polluting factories are often forced on people in poor areas.

It means toxic garbage (like e-waste) still gets shipped to developing countries under the guise of recycling.

It means poor countries being robbed of their fish and their forests, while locals get a pittance at best.

What can you do about it? Encourage good environmental and labor practices - in your government and the companies you buy from. I mean, you are registered to vote right? Right? Take a look at which candidate is better on environmental issues. Which is better on human rights? Which is better on labor laws? Buy organic. Buy fair trade. Ask questions about where products come from, and if the company has a take back scheme.

Posted by Andrew at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Huffington Post on the Tokyo Two

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brendan DeMelle do a regular feature called "Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report". The Tokyo Two made it into last week's edition. They noted:

Instead of investigating the crew or bureaucrats in charge of the program, Tokyo police raided Greenpeace Japan's office, seizing computers, documents and cell phones, and arrested the two activists. The pair were held for three weeks without charge before learning they are accused of theft and trespass, and face likely convictions under Japan's strict laws.

Posted by Andrew at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Merkel and Bush

My favorite headline of the G8 so far, "Bush, Merkel vow to fight poverty, disagree on climate". This follows what was apparently a very nice lunch meeting between the two of them. From the article:

"But Bush made no reference to Merkel's demands that G8 leaders commit to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 and limiting the worldwide temperature rise this century to 2 degrees Celsius.

Merkel, for her part, recognized that while the US and Germany agreed on combating poverty in Africa, there were other "areas here and there" which needed further discussion."

In perhaps not unrelated news, today German police boarded the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise - even though it was well outside the summit security zone. The police boarded without a search warrant and confined the 24 crew before seizing Greenpeace equipment including engines from inflatables, making the boats unusable, and the hull of a Greenpeace hot air balloon.

I wonder if, at any point during the lunch, Merkel and George "there ought to be limits to free speech" Bush touched on how far a government should go to ensure that leaders of the world's wealthiest nations can meet without the inconvenience of protest.

Greenpeace statement in response Merkel/Bush comments today.

From the BBC: Who are the G8 protesters?

Posted by Andrew at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy MLK Day!

In the US this is Martian Luther King day. Aside from George Washington, King is the only American who has their own federal holiday. Though it's one of the less often mentioned ones, my favorite King quote is:

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

In the end of course, the law didn't protect King, but I think he new that and persevered anyway. The Seattle Times also has a good guest column on King's life and work - with more words of wisdom from the man:

It was this co-existence of love and justice that led King to write his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in 1963. To moderate white clergymen who pleaded for patience and a reduction in tension, King wrote: "[N]onviolent direct action seeks to create ... a crisis and foster such tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue."

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Posted by Andrew at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's not happening here, but it's happening now

On the back of Brian's blogging about the "mugshot" Greenpeace ad campaign, here's an amazing Amnest International poster campaign from Switzerland. Each of the posters read "It's not happening here, but it's happening now" - but I'll shut up now, and let the pictures speak for themselves.

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Posted by Dave at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)