Human Rights : Activists

The coalition is urging President Islam Karimov to take "decisive and immediate actions to end the use of forced child labour in the cotton fields" in the world's second largest cotton exporter.

The most recent US state department human rights report on Uzbekistan, published in March last year, noted that there was "large-scale compulsory mobilisation of youth and students to help in the fall cotton harvest . . . in most rural areas".

Read more on Uzbek child labor here.  

Farmers and other campaigners are stepping up protests against a number of proposed factory developments across India, affecting companies such as Tata Motors, POSCO, and Vedanta Resources.

Farmers in the east of West Bengal state have stepped up protests against the car factory currently slated to be the home of Tata Motors 'Nano', which was previewed recently as the world's cheapest car and one which would improve pollution problems in many Indian cities. The factory is to be built on farmland which was compulsory purchased.

Farmers are also to campaign against South Korean steel firm POSCO which was granted permission by the Supreme Court to use forest land to build a $12bn factory, and Vedanta Resources which has won court agreement to mine bauxite on the Niyamgiri mountain which has been regarded as sacred by the Kondh tribe.

The contract signed at Splendor Flowers last week brings to a triumphant close the most publicized battle for labor rights in Colombia’s recent history. Last year, Dole, Splendor’s owner, closed one of the subsidiary’s two farms in response to the strong union organizing that was going on there. Even with the drop in morale caused by the obliteration of the country’s strongest union, the union at the other farm, Splendor El Rosal, continued negotiations with the company.

The chocolate industry has failed to provide consumers with a reasonable assurance that the chocolate they buy was made without exploited and trafficked child labor.  Major chocolate companies signed what is referred to as the Harkin-Engel Protocol in 2001, promising to eliminate the worst forms of child labor from their supply chains, after media stories emerged depicting the widespread use of forced child labor and trafficking on West African cocoa farms. After failing to meet their July 1, 2005 commitments, the Protocol was weakened and extended to July 1, 2008. Once again, the industry has missed the deadline.

An anti-globalisation campaign group has asked the Swiss authorities to investigate claims that global food giant Nestle hired an employee of Securitas to spy on the group at its private meetings.

According to the group Attac, the person attended its meetings between the end of 2003 and mid 2004, at a point when it was working on an anti-Nestle book that criticised the company's position on genetic engineering and other key public policy issues.

Nestle has said that it worked with the security firm in order to
ensure the safety of its staff during a G8 summit of world leaders, but had done so within the law.

The Burma Campaign UK produced a list of 154 companies that it accuses of helping to finance Burma's military dictatorship through a presence in the country, which includes 50 companies that are new to the campaigns 'dirty list'.

The new companies, including Toyota, Tata, BBC Worldwide and Kuoni, were accused as having commitments to corporate social responsibility that were "a hollow sham."

A number of the companies protested the severity of the charge. BBC Worldwide found itself on the list because it has taken a stake in the Lonely Planet guidebooks. Lonely Planet said that the act of producing a guidebook about the country was not the same as supporting the regime there. Toyota said that it sold around 40 vehicles in Burma, mostly to embassies.

The International Labor Rights Forum is hosting the Mother’s Day Roses Raffle to offer people throughout the United States a chance to send a special gift to a loved one while also advancing the rights of women in the Latin American rose industry.

There are 40,000 flower workers in Ecuador and over 100,000 in Colombia, working to grow, harvest, and package the roses and carnations sold in the United States. More than half of them are women who commonly face labor rights violations including sexual harassment, pesticide-related illnesses, and forced pregnancy testing. Proceeds from the raffle will support the legal, health and safety, and advocacy work done through ILRF's Fairness in Flowers Campaign.

For more information, please click here.

A report released by EarthRights International (ERI) documents the ongoing human rights abuses, including the use of forced labor, in the Yadana pipeline region of southern Burma (Myanmar).

The first in-depth look at conditions in the pipeline region since Chevron Corporation joined the Yadana Project in 2005, the report details Chevron’s role in financing the military regime in Burma and highlights Chevron’s continuing legal liability for abuses associated with the pipeline. Chevron acquired its stake in the pipeline by purchasing Unocal Corporation, shortly after Unocal paid compensation to settle a lawsuit over its own complicity in Yadana Project abuses. Chevron remains the largest U.S. investor in Burma.

Click here for the full report.

Giant purchasers like Wal-Mart and the States of Ohio and Michigan should implement policies that protect the rights of workers, rather than abuse them, two sweatshop workers told hundreds of people at events throughout the Midwest during a tour that took them to churches, universities, and union halls in 10 cities. The event was co-sponsored by the International Labor Rights Forum and SweatFree Communities.

“Because the United States imports many products from Costa Rica, I want people here, like consumers and governments, to know that their bananas and pineapples are produced in inhumane conditions with very low wages, in total violation of environmental and labor laws, and causing major health problems and other difficulties in life for the workers in these industries,” said Didier Leiton, who spent 18 years picking pineapples and bananas for Del Monte in Costa Rica. Wal-Mart sells Del Monte products in its stores. “The companies don’t pay enough for us to buy food and support our children’s education. We earn less than the minimum wage.”  

The workers joined human rights and labor organizations in calling on Wal-Mart and Governors Ted Strickland and Jennifer Granholm to address ongoing problems by enforcing policies that require fair wages, a healthy workplace, and a voice on the job. Specifically, the groups invited the Governor to join the emerging State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium, which would stop tax dollar support for sweatshops. The States of Pennsylvania and Maine are currently leading the Consortium effort.

To read the full release, please click here .

Human rights protestors in Paris once again won a symbolic victory by forcing authorities to extinguish the Olympic torch in Paris. The protests are being driven by alleged human rights violations by China in the quelling of demonstrations calling for a reinstatement of Tibet’s autonomy.

 

To read the full story, please visit: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/07/oly.torchrelay/index.html