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Business and Human Rights (138 found)
Open Letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao Calling to Stop Myitsone Dam
Dear President Hu,
On behalf of the communities suffering from the Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State, we appeal to you to immediately halt the forced relocation and destruction of the villages of those opposed to this project by China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation […]
What Can Gas Transparency do for Burma?
International pressure continues to mount on the oil companies Total, Chevron, and PTTEP of Thailand to practice complete revenue transparency in connection to the controversial Yadana natural gas pipeline in Burma’s Tenasserim Division. Non-governmental organizations, scholars, labour unions, investment firms, and even world leaders have urged the companies to publish over 18 years of payments to the Burmese military regime […]
• •News Flash: Oil Companies Sometimes Lie
As America’s environmental catastrophe continues to surface in the oil-slicked Gulf of Mexico, critics of the petroleum industry are rightfully coming out of the woodwork. Whether it’s shoddy safety records, toxic pollution, or fueling conflict and corruption, oil companies have unarguably contributed to some of the most serious and damaging corporate activities around the globe.
Yet there is another inconvenient truth to the unseemly resume of the oil giants: Oil companies sometimes lie.
In Burma (Myanmar), over the last twenty years, Chevron, Total, and the Thai company PTTEP — operators of the forced labor plagued Yadana natural gas pipeline — have made hundreds of millions, if not billions, in undisclosed payments to the ruling military junta […]
A Call for Total, Chevron, and PTTEP to Practice Revenue Transparency in Burma
The oil companies Total, Chevron, and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production
(PTTEP) have an opportunity to promote transparency and accountability in the extractives sector in Burma
by becoming the first oil companies to voluntarily publish their payments to the Burmese authorities. We the
undersigned policy leaders, non-governmental organizations, unions, investment firms, and academics call
on Total, Chevron, and PTTEP to seize this opportunity and publish detailed information about their revenue
payments to the Burmese authorities since 1992 […]
Junta Adamant About Continuing Dam Project Despite Blast
The Burmese military junta is adamant about continuing with the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project in Kachin State despite the serial bomb blasts at the site yesterday, which killed four Chinese workers and injured 12.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after the explosion […]
Four Killed, 12 Injured in Bomb Blasts in Irrawaddy-Myitsone Dam Site
Four people died and over 12 people were injured when exploding bombs for the first time rocked the Myitsone dam project in Irrawaddy River in Kachin State, northern Burma, said local residents. Most of the dead and injured were Chinese workers.
At least three bombs exploded in quick succession in front of Asia World Company’s office, one of the implementing agencies of the dam project in Lungga Zup, 18 miles north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, at about 4:45 a.m. Burma Standard Time, residents said […]
The UN Singles Out Big Oil in Burma, With Good Reason
By Matthew Smith, Coordinator of the Burma Project, EarthRights International
In a surprising report last month to the UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on human rights Tomás Quintana recommended an official “commission of inquiry” into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar).
Although the call for such a commission was widely covered in media and policy circles, a critical section of the report went completely overlooked and unreported: Quintana actually became the first UNSR to take specific aim at the ruling State Peace and Development Council’s corporate partners, singling out problematic foreign oil companies operating in the country […]
Dam Debate Looms Large over Mekong Summit
By Rachel O’Brien
Leaders of Southeast Asian nations straddling the shrinking lower Mekong River are set to lean on China at landmark talks as controversy builds over the cause of the waterway’s lowest levels in decades.
Beijing’s Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao will join the premiers of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin to discuss management of the vast river, on which more than 60 million people depend […]
Salween Rally Calls on Burma’s Neighbors to Halt Dam Plans
Hundreds of villagers from both Burma and Thailand joined affected peoples from around the world in marking International Day of Action for Rivers yesterday as plans by China, Thailand and India steam ahead to dam all of Burma’s major rivers.
Five hundred farmers and fisher-folk gathered on the Salween River and shared their concerns about the impending construction of five massive dams planned on the river with performances and prayers to protect the Salween. […]
The Shwe Natural Gas Pipeline in Burma: Human Rights Violations Increase as Project Moves Forward
EarthRights International (ERI) has confirmed that serious human rights abuses have increased in connection to the multi-billion dollar Shwe natural gas pipeline project in military-ruled Burma, including recent reports of land confiscation on Maday Island. Compensation for local villagers on the island was reportedly promised by the Burmese authorities and the Asia World Company (whose […]
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