"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...
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.
Oakland, CA – Two environmental NGOs filed formal petitions this week before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the New York Bar opposing Chevron's attempts to use the legal system to attack those pushing the company to address its toxic legacy in the Amazon.
"It is absurd that an international trade tribunal can circumvent a sovereign democratic nation's independent judiciary. Ecuadorian courts were essentially found guilty of considering the evidence against Chevron and holding the company to account," said Amazon Watch Associate Director Paul Paz y Miño.
CSR and Business Ethics | The saga of cases of litigation initiated by Chevron following serious pollution in the Amazonian region of Ecuador is an infamous illustration of such legal tactic. The serious pollution created by oil spillage has led to a series of multiple country-based legal strategies by Chevron to avoid resp onsibility. After losing a case in Ecuador where...
In the end, Chevron's unethical legal thuggery will circle back to bite the new CEO Michael Wirth not only because it's based on false evidence and lies, but also because it has exposed him as someone no better than the executives at Texaco who made the fateful decision to deliberately pollute the Amazon in the first place.
Greenpeace | In perhaps the most vindictive SLAPP in history, Chevron – one of the world's largest corporations, with over $260 billion in assets – found a sympathetic New York judge to accept a RICO lawsuit against the victims of its vast oil pollution in Ecuador's Amazon basin.
A hearing in a critically important case for the future of environmental protection, corporate accountability, and human rights took place in Toronto, Canada last week. At issue was an argument essential to corporate accountability: can individuals harmed by a corporation "pierce the corporate veil" to force it to account for judgements from...
Over ten years, I have been privileged to play a role in most of the organization's major campaign initiatives. While the moments of exhilaration, frustration, learning, anger, and beauty could fill a book, I want to share ten snapshots of key experiences that represent what serving with Amazon Watch has meant to me.
"It's a fundamental question of whether corporations like Chevron should be allowed to use their financial muscle to destroy people with an absolutely vital claim to reparations for damages that were caused to them over many years."
After seven dreadful years, Chevron CEO John Watson recently made a surprise announcement that he is finally slinking off with his tail between his legs. Yet the world will continue to suffer from the disastrous effects of his terrible decisions for many years to come.
There are countless actions that Chevron can and should take to be a less terrible neighbor and a better actor on the world stage. Two straightforward ones: stop purchasing and refining Amazon crude and stop fighting a greenhouse gas emissions cap on its Richmond refinery.
Last year, about 10% of the oil processed by California refineries came from the Amazon basin. This represents about half of the oil exported from the region. In other words, California refineries are collectively the largest consumers of Amazon oil in the world.
It may seem like this is stating the obvious, but it's a crime to bribe a witness to a U.S. federal court. Funny thing, though; Chevron has done just that, to the tune of $2 million dollars. Yet no one inside Chevron has demanded an explanation for this – until now.
For nearly three decades, Ecuadorian communities have tried to hold Texaco (now Chevron) accountable for the company's legacy of oil pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The saga has stretched across the globe, across multiple court rooms and tribunals, and yet justice for the Ecuadorian victims remains elusive.
Communities in Ecuador moved another important step closer to justice last week when an Ontario court ruled that they have the right to go to trial in Canada against Chevron, the oil company responsible for deliberately dumping - and then refusing to clean up - 18 billion gallons of toxic waste in their Amazon rainforest homeland.
Last Wednesday Amazon Watch received a very disturbing call: the headquarters of CONFENIAE, the regional organization of eleven indigenous peoples which represents nearly 1,500 communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, was being taken by storm.
One of the worst oil-related disasters in history occurred when Texaco, later purchased by oil giant Chevron, deliberately dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into the Ecuadorian Amazon over the course of decades. Amazon Watch spent four days last week in a courthouse in Toronto to witness the latest, and hopefully last, chapter in this epic...
This chapter in the ongoing saga of Chevron's toxic contamination in Ecuador highlights one of the most grievous threats to the notion of justice in the face of crimes committed by corporations anywhere in the world.
Some of Canada's largest environmental, labor and civil society organizations have now joined the growing international community demanding that Chevron clean up its toxic waste in the Ecuadorian Amazon and cease selling its assets in Canada while a debt collection action proceeds to force the company to comply with its US $10 billion liability to...
Amazon Watch is extremely disappointed by the decision of the 2nd Circuit Appeals court to uphold Chevron's RICO SLAPP suit filed in retaliation for the unprecedented victory of contaminated Ecuadorian communities over Chevron in Ecuador.
Accompany Nina Gualinga, an indigenous youth from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku as she tours former oil fields of Chevron and gets an up close look at one of the worst oil disasters on the planet.
Chevron sending up massive flares in Richmond is not the only sign things are getting hot for the oil giant on the run from a $11 billion verdict.
After six years as Chevron CEO and Chair of the Board John Watson has been unable to resolve major shareholder unrest over his leadership. In one of its strongest rebukes to date, thirty percent of Chevron shareholders representing $57.6 billion of assets under management sent a clear message to Watson and his team on the Ecuador issue: your...
A coalition of local, national and international environmental and human rights rights organizations once again demand that Chevron Corp be held to account over its environmental and human rights abuses in the Amazon rainforest, at its Richmond refinery, and everywhere the corporation operates.
We don't have access to Chevron's internal communications, but if we did, this "memo" is what we imagine we might see.
A growing coalition of communities affected by Chevron's operations and environmental organizations will announce plans to return to Chevron's Annual Shareholders Meeting to denounce the company's pattern of human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and attacks on democracy. Hundreds of thousands of signatures will be delivered to Chevron's...
Chevron's unprecedented $11 billion pollution liability in Ecuador and its refusal to address climate change are set to dominate the company's annual meeting as CEO John Watson faces increasing pressure from his own shareholders, court rulings, and environmental groups who are accusing the company of trying to intimidate critics and evade its...
Geneva, Switzerland – Ecuadorian indigenous villagers who braved death threats in their battle with Chevron have teamed up with a leading international organization to demand that the United Nations block the oil giant from continuing an intimidation campaign targeting the human rights advocates who obtained a legally-binding $10 billion...
