Choc vs. Hud Bay

In the same vein as the Zapatista post yesterday, this was brought to my attention today. A Guatemalan community leader was murdered (hacked to death and shot) by a mining company's security forces in disputes over a community's land being in the way of a multinational mining company's interests. He was unarmed and had been invited by the mining company to come to their compound to talk about a peaceful resolution to the community's disputes over their land.

Read about it here: http://www.chocversushudbay.com/about.

This especially touched me because of a recent US appeals court ruling to uphold a September decision preventing US companies who have committed international human rights violations from being tried in US courts. Therefore, Shell can support and participate in an authoritarian regime's violent suppression of protests against oil exploration. Read about it here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/shell-nigeria-idUSN0424468420110204

This also happened in Ecuador, when Texaco dumped tens of thousands of gallons of oil into the Ecuadorian jungle. An estimated 1,400 people have since died from cancer related to the pollution, according to a recent report by a court appointed expert and geologist. Ecuadorians have since tried to sue the oil giant, and have been losing. Read about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/business/global/15chevron.html

International human rights law is so frustrating. It currently protects those who have the money, allowing the continual exploitation of people like this Guatemalan man, and the Nigerians Shell is complicit in killing in the 90s. The US isn't even a signatory of the International Criminal Court, meaning that we don't support the international body capable of bringing international human rights law offenders to justice. Why aren't we? It's a good question. Many have said that it's because we don't want the international community to be able to bring people like Rumsfeld and Cheney to court for alleged human rights violations in Iraq.

"The first duty of government is to protect the powerless against the powerful." -The Code of Hammurabi