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Article

4 Dic 2014

Author:
Sif Thorgeirsson, Manager, Corporate Legal Accountability Project, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Access to justice for victims of human rights abuses needs to be strengthened

‘Closing the courtroom door: where can victims of human rights abuse by business find justice?’, 1 Dec 2014

…[M]any victims of business-related human rights abuse have no access to judicial remedy in their home country…The majority of cases of abuse we see at Business & Human Rights Resource Centre occur in weak governance zones, which often do not have an independent judiciary, and sometimes lack fully functioning courts…Of the 108 legal cases the Centre has profiled,…[54%] are related to extraterritorial claims…[but t]he effect [of Kiobel] has been a near-freeze on victims seeking justice through this…avenue. At the time of…Kiobel…, there were at least 19 corporate Alien Tort cases pending in US courts.  Since then, only one new…case has been filed…While the scope for remedy from US and English courts is narrowing…there have been three cases filed in Canadian courts addressing extraterritorial business-related human rights abuse...[and]…cases…have been filed in France, Switzerland and Germany…Concerted action is needed by governments and others to reverse the trend toward closing…avenues to justice…[Also refers to Occidental Petroleum, Cisco Systems, Drummond, Chiquita, Rio Tinto,  Daimler, ExxonMobil, Nestle, CACI, L-3 Titan, Nevsun, Hudbay Minerals and Tahoe Resources]

Part of the following timelines

Rio Tinto lawsuit (re Papua New Guinea)

ExxonMobil lawsuit (re Aceh)

Apartheid reparations lawsuits (re So. Africa)

Abu Ghraib lawsuits against CACI, Titan (now L-3)

Cisco Systems lawsuits (re China)

Nestlé lawsuit (re Colombia)

Daimler lawsuit (re Argentina)

Nevsun lawsuit (re Bisha mine, Eritrea)

Tahoe Resources lawsuit (re Guatemala)