NEW YORK (AFP)--A spate of U.S. court cases is lighting a fire
under the feet of powerful corporations doing business in countries
that commit human-rights abuses, analysts said Thursday.
General Motors Corp. (GM) and International Business Machines
Corp. (IBM) are among the latest in the firing line after a federal
court ruled Wednesday that apartheid victims can sue the corporate
giants for aiding the former white South African regime.
Next month Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) will be in court,
defending itself against charges of complicity in horrific
government abuses against Nigeria's Ogoni people, including the
1995 execution of renowned activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Other cases include claims from Iraqis against controversial
U.S.-based contractors like Blackwater (now known as Xe), accused
of aiding and abetting abuses during the conflict in Iraq.
In each instance, victims are taking advantage of a U.S. law
known as the Alien Tort Claims Act that requires companies with a
substantial presence in the U.S. to obey U.S. law - everywhere in
the world.
Little used to date, the law has put on notice companies
operating in the rougher corners of the globe.
"There is a progression," said Jennie Green at the Center for
Constitutional Rights.
"It is changing the landscape...it's adding to the list of legal
restrictions that they have to obey."
In Wednesday's ruling, Judge Shira Scheindlin said that the
South African plaintiffs could pursue claims against Daimler, GM
and Ford Motor Co. (F) "for aiding and abetting torture ...
extrajudicial killing, and apartheid."
Scheindlin also cleared the way for lawsuits against IBM for
"aiding and abetting arbitrary denationalization and apartheid,"
and against Rheinmetall - the German parent company of Swiss-based
arms manufacturer Oerlikon - for "aiding and abetting extrajudicial
killing and apartheid."
Michael Hausfeld, one of the attorneys representing the
apartheid victims, hailed "a major advancement in international
law."
"I think it's a landmark decision, extremely significant in the
field of corporate responsibility and human rights violations," he
said.
"The court upheld a standard for determining when and under what
circumstances a corporation could be held accountable for aiding
and abetting a violation of customary international law."
Peter Rosenblum, a Columbia University law professor
specializing in human rights, said the Alien Tort Statute is too
narrowly defined to risk inundating corporations with claims.
"You're very limited to the kind of cases you can bring. They
have to be flagrant violations," he said.
But coming in the same week that former Peruvian president
Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years prison for death-squad
crimes, such cases demonstrate that the world's powerful - whether
politicians or companies - aren't untouchable.
"These things don't just expire. In that sense, there's
accountability," Rosenblum said.
"There is a lot going on in the world of corporations in human
rights and there is attention to it...they say there's nothing like
a law suit to focus the mind."