Oxy’s Disturbing Human Rights Record in Colombia Highlighted in Permanent People’s Tribunal | Amazon Watch
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Oxy’s Disturbing Human Rights Record in Colombia Highlighted in Permanent People’s Tribunal

August 5, 2008 | Campaign Update

For the past three years, the Italy-based Permanent People’s Tribunal has examined in detail the role transnational corporations have played in Colombia’s on-going civil conflict. According to the Tribunal, “Transnational businesses that operate in Colombia . . . have been involved in practices violating the most basic human rights, joining forces with violent networks that have roots in State strategies and encouraged by hemispheric policies that search to legitimize themselves in the imperative to provide security for large investors and business people.”

The Tribunal’s mission is “to guarantee a space of visibility, of speaking out, of justice for massive human rights violations – individual, collective, and of entire populations – for which there is no institutional response at a national or international level.” Leading up to the final session (held in Bogotá July 21 – 23rd), there were six thematic hearings focusing on transnational agri-business, mining, and oil companies, among others. Over thirty multinational companies were investigated, including Coca-Cola, Chiquita Brands, and British Petroleum.

In their final judgment, the Tribunal “considers fundamentally important the moral and ethical denunciation, on a global level, of the transnational corporations for grave, clear, and persistent violations of the general norms and principles and international conventions which protect the civil, political, economical, social, and cultural rights of communities, nationalities, peoples, families, and individuals within the population of Latin America.”

Occidental Petroleum, with long-term investments in Colombia, merited special mention. “If we had to elect one company particularly implicated in this “drama of death”, perhaps the most significant would be Occidental Corporation, which operates in Colombia through its affiliates Occidental of Colombia and Occidental Andina and is generally known as Oxy. This company was a promoter of the “Plan for Peace, Prosperity, and Strengthening of the State”, also known as “Plan Colombia.” As a direct beneficiary of the military assistance provided in the context of this Plan, the company possess landing strips which are used in military operations. The company, unique among the other companies mentioned here, is part of official mechanisms for coordination of the military strategy of Plan Colombia, such as the Center for Coordination of Integrated Action, along with the Colombian government, the United State Embassy, USAID, Southern Command of the U.S. Army, among other institutions.”

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