May 5, 2002	Sunday	Safar 21, 1423

WASHINGTON: Frustrated by what it sees as foot-dragging by US companies that say they will commit to international human rights standards, Amnesty International USA has decided to explore a new form of activism: shareholder resolutions.

For the first time in the organization’s history, the US branch of the international watchdog has filed a shareholder resolution that asks ExxonMobil Corporation, the world’s largest oil company, to adopt a human rights policy that includes a specific commitment to uphold the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Shareholder resolutions are not legally binding and generally have little chance of being approved by the majority of shareholders. But concerned investors and activists use the proposals to attract management’s attention when dialogue with the company seems to yield little results.

Morton Winston, chair of Amnesty USA’s business and economic relations group, says that Texas-based ExxonMobil can no longer ignore that it operates in a number of countries - including Chad, Cameroon, Angola, Colombia and Indonesia - with serious human rights problems, which are often closely linked to the presence of multinational companies in the energy and mining industry sectors.

“Amnesty International USA sees shareholder activism as an effective means of bringing this message directly to America’s corporate boardrooms,” says Winston.

The resolution will be voted on at the company’s shareholder meeting in Dallas, Texas on May 29. At least 10 other activist investment firms and organisations, including the AFL-CIO, the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System and Trillium Asset Management have signed on as co-filers of the resolution.

Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil’s chair and CEO, has said that the company recognises human rights problems in the countries where it operates. In a speech made in April last year he said, “In countries where there are local insurgencies and armed conflict, we have made it clear that we condemn any violations of human rights and we try to be a positive example by treating our employees with dignity and respect.”

But Winston, citing various examples at ExxonMobil’s operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America, says more specific policies are needed.

Rights groups and environmentalists have criticised the Texas-based oil company for leading a consortium that will build a 1,070-kilometre-long oil pipeline from the Doba oil fields in southern land-locked Chad through forests in Cameroon to the Atlantic coast.

Critics point to Chad’s poor record on human rights, which includes the alleged killing by security forces of more than 200 unarmed civilians in the oil-producing region.

The US State Department’s 2002 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Chad, says that last year state security forces “committed extrajudicial killings and disappearances, and they continued to torture, beat, and abuse persons.”

Winston says that ExxonMobil cannot be neutral in countries where it operates that are known to violate human rights.

“In particular, protection of facilities and operations frequently results in interactions with security forces, armed groups or private security personnel that have poor records on human rights,” he said in a statement released by Amnesty USA.

A Washington-based labour rights group is suing ExxonMobil for allegedly paying and directing government forces that committed atrocities while protecting the company’s facilities in Indonesia.

The suit, filed by the International Labour Rights Fund, alleges that villagers and their family members were murdered, tortured, raped and kidnapped by members of an Indonesian military unit guarding ExxonMobil’s local operations. The company denies any wrongdoing.

In 1998, Amnesty International tried to engage in dialogue with Mobil (which hadn’t yet merged with Exxon) over its operations in Nigeria. Together with Trillium Asset Management, a Boston-based “socially responsible” investment firm, Amnesty requested that Mobil take up the case of two political prisoners: Frank Kokori and Milton Dabibi, leaders of the Nigerian oil workers union.

Even though the company refused, Amnesty continued to dialogue with Mobil after it was purchased by Exxon, says Simon Billenness, senior analyst for Trillium.

Amnesty USA says that if ExxonMobil adopted a human rights policy it would ultimately be good for the company’s bottom line.—Dawn/InterPress Service.