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    The Ongoing Persecution of Steven Donziger

    The environmentalist lawyer marks 600 days under house arrest — with no end in sight

    The Nation | Chevron's strategy could be backfiring. Over the past few months, a global movement has grown to defend Donziger and his Ecuadorean clients. Some 55 Nobel Prize winners signed a letter defending Donziger; 475 lawyers and human rights defenders released a similar appeal. A blue-ribbon legal Monitoring Committee is closely following Donziger's case;...

    March 30, 2021
    1,668 views
    6 min read

    “I’ve Been Targeted With Probably the Most Vicious Corporate Counterattack in American History”

    Steven Donziger has been under house arrest for over 580 days, awaiting trial on a misdemeanor charge. It's all, he says, because he beat a multinational energy corporation in court.

    Esquire | Donziger is a human rights lawyer who, for more than 27 years, has represented the Indigenous peoples and rural farmers of Ecuador against Texaco – since acquired by Chevron – which was accused of dumping at least 16 billion gallons of toxic waste into the area of the Amazon rainforest in which they live. Cancer is now highly prevalent in the...

    March 18, 2021
    4,168 views
    12 min read

    Ecuador Court Orders End to Gas Flaring by Oil Industry in Amazon

    In the Ecuadoran Amazon, at least 447 flares have been burning gas for decades. Local communities say these flares are responsible for the high cancer rates in the area.

    Mongabay | "I'm very happy because, finally, justice has been served. We're going to restore nature, for all the sick children, for the people, for the parents who have fought to stay healthy, for the families that have also kept fighting if only to grow a few crops, for the families who live under the flares and have had to abandon their land," says 10-year...

    March 9, 2021
    3,171 views
    6 min read

    Overt Racism Fuels Chevron’s Big Lie

    The two-sides narrative is a lie promoted by an admitted global polluter doing anything it can to change the story

    First, let’s acknowledge that it is extremely detrimental to the ongoing effort for justice for the people of Ecuador that the press routinely ignores that Chevron admitted to deliberately dumping over 16 billion gallons of toxic oil-waste into the Amazon as a cost-saving measure over the course of decades while operating under its Texaco brand...

    March 9, 2021
    4,185 views
    5 min read

    Amazon Watch is building on more than 28 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.

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    Ten Years Ago, Ecuadorian Communities Won a Historic $9.5B Victory Against Chevron

    Imbalance of power and environmental racism have so far allowed them to escape paying up

    February 14, 2011, was a monumental day in the history of environmental justice, corporate accountability, and human rights. This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of an Ecuadorian court's groundbreaking judgment holding Chevron, one of the world's largest corporations, accountable for deliberate pollution in the Amazon. This civil court victory...

    February 11, 2021
    980 views
    8 min read

    What Do You Get When You Beat Chevron in Court? 500 Days of Home Detention

    "As my physical world has shrunk, the online world has expanded by multiples of thousands. And once I get through this, I have no doubt that Chevron will be paying this judgment such that thousands of Indigenous people and rural communities will have a clean environment and thousands of lives will be saved. That's what this is ultimately about."

    December 22, 2020
    3,026 views
    4 min read

    Chevron Is Refusing to Pay for the "Amazon Chernobyl"

    The lawyer challenging the oil company's toxic waste dump in Ecuador is under house arrest. We need a boycott.

    The Guardian | At a time when so many black Americans, Indigenous peoples, people of color, and white allies are protesting at systemic racism, we'd like to highlight a different story of marginalized people speaking truth to power on behalf of their most basic human rights. It's the story of how "big oil" is now using Harvey Weinstein-like destroy-the-accuser...

    September 17, 2020
    4,436 views
    5 min read

    A New Justice Movement Emerges to Defend Steven Donziger

    The lawyer who helped win a historic Amazon cleanup deal faces six months in prison, but will still not have a jury trial

    The Nation | In 2013 Donziger helped win a landmark legal case in Ecuador against Chevron for contaminating a vast stretch of rain forest in the Amazon headwaters larger than the state of Rhode Island. The Ecuadorean courts awarded the 30,000 plaintiffs, who are poor rural farmers and indigenous people, $9.5 billion to clean up the damage. Instead of obeying...

    September 10, 2020
    2,403 views
    6 min read

    Leading Anti-SLAPP Coalition Denounces Chevron for Corruption and Legal Bullying

    Protect the Protest task force members file amicus brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

    "Steven Donziger is being criminally prosecuted not only for his advocacy but by the very targets of his advocacy. Chevron has not merely sued its adversary; it is pulling the strings of a criminal prosecution. That the prosecutor of Chevron's nemesis is Chevron's former law firm not only undermines confidence in the prosecutor's impartiality; it...

    June 30, 2020
    5,249 views
    3 min read

    Chevron Is a Champion of Environmental Racism

    The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have catalyzed a seismic and long-overdue shift in support for the Movement for Black Lives and to defund the police. At the same time, the climate justice movement has finally begun to gain momentum because of the increasing recognition that overcoming our environmental crisis requires addressing and...

    June 15, 2020
    5,869 views
    7 min read

    Chevron's Move to Hold Online Annual Shareholder's Meeting Provided No Respite from Intense Criticism

    CEO Wirth Never Before Confronted by Such Prominent Group of Voices Including Alec Baldwin, Roger Waters, and Nobel Laureate Jody Williams

    Chevron's annual shareholder's meeting took place online this year due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Ironically, by holding a virtual meeting, Chevron opened itself up to greater participation in what is usually a closed-door ticketed event. Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams and world-renowned actor and producer Alec Baldwin both stood...

    May 27, 2020
    2,813 views
    6 min read

    Investor Eye on the Amazon

    A primer for shareholders concerned about rainforest protection and human rights

    The Investor Eye on the Amazon newsletter serves as a resource for socially-responsible investors, industry analysts, and researchers looking to better understand the risks associated with financing climate-damaging industries in the Amazon, and what they can do to protect the region.

    Spring 2020
    3,758 views
    1 min read

    Nobel Laureates Condemn "Judicial Harassment" of Environmental Lawyer

    Chevron's treatment of Steven Donziger branded "an exceptionally bad case of intimidation"

    The Guardian | Twenty-nine Nobel laureates have condemned alleged "judicial harassment" by Chevron and urged the release of a US environmental lawyer who was put under house arrest for pursuing oil-spill compensation claims on behalf of Indigenous tribes in the Amazon.

    April 18, 2020
    2,816 views
    3 min read

    Alec Baldwin, Roger Waters, and 29 Nobel Laureates Demand Justice for Ecuadorians

    New effort launched to demand that Chevron clean up its deliberate pollution of the Amazon and call for an end to the house arrest of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger

    We must stand together to call for justice for Ecuadorians, because if we do, corporations like Chevron will never win. We know Chevron's ultimate goal is to divide and conquer, but this growing upswell of support from celebrities, Nobel laureates, and international activists affirms that Ecuadorians are not alone in their pursuit for justice.

    April 17, 2020
    3,087 views
    4 min read

    Nobel Laureates Condemn Rare Judge-Ordered Prosecution

    Steven Donziger got a head start on home confinement when a federal judge ordered criminal charges that prosecutors declined to bring

    Courthouse News Service | "Environmental activism in many countries results in murder," the petition from the prize winners states. "Chevron's strategy is death by a thousand cuts through the manipulation of a legal system it has managed to stack in its favor. Its goal is to intimidate and disempower the victims of its pollution and a lawyer who has worked for decades on...

    April 16, 2020
    5,501 views
    5 min read

    29 Nobel Laureates Condemn Chevron and Demand Freedom for Human Rights Lawyer

    Alec Baldwin, Roger Waters, and other activists join Nobel laureates in their demand that Chevron clean up its pollution, pay court-ordered compensation, and cease the persecution of Donziger, who has been under house arrest for 255 days

    "Chevron's strategy is death by a thousand cuts through the manipulation of a legal system it has managed to stack in its favor. Its goal is to intimidate and disempower the victims of its pollution and a lawyer who has worked for decades on their behalf."

    April 16, 2020
    1,327 views
    6 min read

    How a Human Rights Lawyer Went from Hero to House Arrest

    Lawyer Steven Donziger helped win a $9.5 billion judgment for rain forest cleanup. Then Chevron hit back.

    The Nation | "Steven is totally the opposite of how Chevron portrays him," said Luis Yanza of the Amazon Defense Coalition. "He's dedicated his life – a great part of his life – to defending people in our poor communities."

    March 31, 2020
    1,837 views
    11 min read

    How the Lawyer Who Beat Chevron Lost Everything

    The Intercept | “He has effectively been convicted of bribery by the finding of a single judge in a case in which bribery wasn’t even the charge,” said Charles Nesson, an attorney and Harvard Law School professor.

    January 29, 2020
    4,397 views
    10 min read

    Global Human Rights and Environmental Communities Condemn the House Arrest of U.S. Human Rights Lawyer Steven Donziger

    Prominent organizations call for Donziger's immediate release and warn of chilling effect on other human rights lawyers who stand up to corporate polluters

    "A human rights lawyer has been imprisoned in his own home for 100 days at the hands of the country's third largest corporation, and there has been very little attention to this chilling attack on his freedom," said Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch.

    November 14, 2019
    3,050 views
    6 min read

    Chevron's Legal Thuggery Run Amok

    When corporations and U.S. judges team up to silence human rights advocates, we're all in danger

    "The Chevron’s case rested on the paid testimony of a witness who was paid over $1 million. He admitted to changing his story multiple times, to sweetening his deal with Chevron. That was the star witness for Chevron in this case. I can’t think of any other case that I have worked on that I think is as great a travesty of justice to a particular...

    October 1, 2019
    5,201 views
    8 min read

    Summer 2019 Investor Eye on the Amazon

    A primer for shareholders concerned about rainforest protection and human rights

    The Investor Eye on the Amazon provides an update on our campaigns targeting corporations with ties to dirty industry in the Amazon, and it aims to serve as a resource for socially-responsible investors, industry analysts, and researchers looking to better understand the risks associated with investment in extractive industries - and their own...

    Summer 2019
    1,797 views
    1 min read

    Chevron’s Corrupt Legal Practices Called Out by Leading Human Rights and Environmental NGOs

    "It is also extremely concerning to us that Chevron has been able to leverage this apparently paid and largely false witness testimony to target the reputation of Mr. Donziger, who has worked for more than two decades with the affected communities in Ecuador to try to hold Chevron accountable for what is considered one of the worst oil-related...

    June 25, 2019
    5,336 views
    5 min read

    Excessive Judicial Order Demanding That Steven Donziger Surrender His Passport

    "Chevron, with Kaplan's help is trying to make an example of Donziger as part of its strategy to escape justice for the worst oil-related environmental crime in history. The human rights community stands together in defense of Mr. Donziger's right to travel and speak out and continue to advocate for his clients about the injustices of this case."

    June 12, 2019
    3,253 views
    3 min read

    The Chevron Way: Admit Nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.

    Every year, a larger band of human rights and environmental activists show up at the Chevron shareholders meeting to stubbornly speak truth to power. It's essential to do so, as this is the one time that the Chevron CEO, board, and senior management are forced to listen to us.

    May 30, 2019
    6,151 views
    3 min read

    Chevron CEO Confronted at Annual Meeting

    Five shareholder resolutions call on company to end its environmental destruction and rights abuses

    "We will continue to denounce the crime that Chevron committed until it takes responsibility for the environmental damage for which Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – is wholly responsible. We want you to understand that we – the affected indigenous and campesino communities will not falter until we have achieved our goal that your...

    May 29, 2019
    4,187 views
    7 min read