CCR Annual Report 2005 - Center for Constitutional Rights

COPORATEACCOUNTABILITY
20
CCR v Profit at Any Cost
Eight years of persistent litigation by CCR and a team of human rights lawyers and
activists in the U.S. and Thailand against the Unocal Corporation for human rights
violations in Burma culminated in an historic milestone in the movement for corporate
accountability this year. In December the company agreed to a confidential settlement
in Doe v. Unocal, one of the earliest suits filed against a private corporation under the
Alien Tort Statute (ATS). Burmese villagers sued Unocal, alleging its complicity in human
rights violations by the notoriously brutal Burmese military, including slave labor and
widespread rape during the construction of a natural gas pipeline.
November 10, 2005, marks the 10th anniversary of the summary execution of Ken Saro-
Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders who led peaceful protests against Royal Dutch/Shell
for their human rights violations and environmental degradation in Nigeria. CCR’s suit
against Royal Dutch/Shell was brought in 1996 and triumphed over numerous attempts
by the defendants to end the case on legal grounds. CCR anticipates that its case alleging
that the companies were complicit in the deaths of the Ogoni 9 will go to trial in one to
two years.
In March 2005, CCR launched a suit against heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar,
Inc., arguing that the company unlawfully provided bulldozers to the Israeli military that
it knew would be used to tear down homes and endanger civilians in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory. CCR has charged Caterpillar with complicity in the deaths and
injuries of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed and the death of U.S. activist Rachel
Corrie, who was killed trying to protect a home from demolition. When their homes were
bulldozed in the middle of the night, members of the Al Sho’bi family were killed and
members of the Abu Hussein family were injured. Ibrahim Khalafallah and Jamal Fayed
were killed when they were not able to get out of their homes due to disabilities.
CCR set the stage for these important cases with its pioneering victory in Filártiga v. Peña-
Irala, which established that victims of human rights violations anywhere in the world
could seek justice in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute. Twenty-five years after
Filártiga, CCR continues to spearhead the legal enforcement of corporate accountability.