THE CHEVRON CASE AGAINST CORPORATE IMPUNITY

More information and contact:

UDAPT is an active member of the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity

DAMAGE IN FIGURES

TEXACO TOXICO.NET @Chevron_Toxico 21st MAY, ANTI-CHEVRON DAY

CHRONOLOGY OF THE VERDICTThis is the world's largest environmental justice case. More than 235,000 pages of information have been accumulated, 80,000 chemical analyses were performed; more than 25 years of process.

The Court has confirmed the existence of 880 graves (similar excavations Olympic- sized swimming pools, 50 by 25 meters by two meters deep). Each pit filled with solid waste.

Chevron shed 60 billion gallons of toxic water in streams, rivers and lakes in the region; plus 650 thousand barrels of crude were spilled in the jungle and pathways; It covered with oil more than 1,500 kilometres of roads in the Amazon.

Chevron employs more than 2,000 lawyers to defend and attack the affected population. So far the oil has spent more than two billion dollars in its defence.

The Chevron-Texaco case, promoted in Ecua-dor by UDAPT (Union of People Affected by Texaco’s oil operations, including more than

30 thousand members) is an example of the structure of global impunity that benefits Transnational Corpo-rations (TNC’s) in the violation of Human Rights worldwide and in particular in the developing countries.

After 25 years trial, the reparation award against Chevron (for-merly Texaco) ratified at every level of Ecuador’s justice sys-tem could still not be enforced. As Chevron (formerly Texaco) removed all its assets from Ecuador, the affected communi-ties turned to foreign courts to homologate and enforce their verdict. In Brazil and Argentina their lawsuit was dismissed. In Canada, the case is still pending. As an attempt to stop these legal abuses, the affected people have also filed without suc-cess a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC)-

The transnationals have a system that guarantees impuni-ty throughout the world. For the communities many obsta-cles raised by this system sometimes seem insurmounta-ble. Chevron uses the legal structure of its subsidiaries to evade responsibility. The company uses its economic power to blackmail governments with investment offers. It uses its country of origin to protect it, bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and international arbitration systems as a lifesaver. It takes advantage of a weak or non-existent international jus-tice system to judge corporations. It uses domestic justice systems to pressure and turn them against those affected. It uses the media to put its truth and defame those affected. It uses the legal structure of the world to evade responsibility and not to be held accountable for its crimes. Despite this reality, those affected grouped in UDAPT continue to hope to break the system of corporate impunity and access jus-tice anywhere in the world.

On November 3 1993, the legal proceedings against Chevron (formerly Texaco) were established. The demands were raised on behalf of the 30,000 affected indigenous and peasants in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in the Court of the United States.On August 16 2002, under the company pressure, the Court of Appeals of New York sent the case to Ecua-dor. The plaintiffs decided to continue the action and on May 7th 2003 it was submitted again in the Superior Court of Nueva Loja (Lago Agrio).On February 14 2011, Chevron was sentenced to pay 9.5 USD billion to be used for the repair of environ-mental, cultural and social damages caused in the Ecuadorian Amazon between 1964 and 1992.On November 12 2013, the National Court of Justice (Supreme Court) of Ecuador unanimously ratified the sentence for the damages caused by Chevron and its obligation to pay 9.5 USD billion.On September 4 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada allowed the affected communities to seek enforce-ment of the Ecuadorian judgment in Canada. This is a global precedent for access to justice in a third country.On October 31 2017, the Court for Appeal of Ontario dismissed Chevron’s claim to order security costs to be paid by the affected communities. In May 2018 the Court for Appeal for Ontario ruled that the Canadian subsidiary cannot be held liable for the award against Chevron. The case is still pending.On June 27 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador (CC) dismissed the Protection Action initiated by Chevron Corporation and ratified the reparation verdict against the company. With this sentence Chevron has no further instances to appeal the case.On August, 2018. An International Private Arbitration Panel issued an award in favour of Chevron. The arbi-trators retroactively applied the BIT between Ecuador and the United States and found that Ecuador violated Article 2 of the BIT. In a clear example of abuse of rights and favouring the transnational, the arbitrators ordered the Ecuadorian State to annul the sentence that condemned Chevron to pay 9,500 billion dollars to repair the disaster in the Amazon; and to prevent the Ecuadorian plaintiffs from executing the sentence outside Ecuador. Finally, it ordered Ecuador to pay Chevron for the damage caused to the company by the victims’ lawsuit. These provisions are inapplicable in Ecuador. If the government tries to apply the arbitration award, it would be violating its own constitution, nullifying the constitutional rights of the 30,000 affected and openly favouring Chevron’s interests. In other words, the government would comply something illegal and illegitimate in order to break the legitimacy and rights of the affected communities and of nature.

$£ €tm

Rc

DISMANTLE CORPORATE

POWER

$£ €tm

Rc

STOPTNCIMPUNITY

STOPCORPORATEIMPUNITYFACEBOOK.COM/

The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity

Mónica Vargas

For more information Contact:campaign@stopcorporateimpunity.org

See our full programme of activities at:

m.vargas@tni.org

The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (Global Campaign) is a network of over 200 social movements, networks, organisations and affected communities re-sisting the land grabs, extractive mining, exploitative wages and environmental destruction of transnation-al corporations (TNCs) in different global regions, par-ticularly Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Campaign is a peoples global structural response to unaccounta-ble corporate power. It provides facilitation for dialogue, strategizing, exchanging information and experiences and acts as a space to make resistance visible and deep-en solidarity and support for struggles against TNCs. At the same time the Campaign:

✱ Proposes an International Peoples Treaty which pro-vides a political framework to support the local, na-tional and international movements and communities in their resistances and practices of alternatives to corporate power and the TNC model of the economy.

✱ Participates in the campaign for UN Binding Treaty to regulate TNCs, stop human rights violations, end impu-nity and ensure access to justice for affected communi-ties. The Global Campaign has built its own proposal of Treaty that can be consulted in our Website.

The Global Campaign has also supported from 2017 the implementation of a Global Interparliamentary network in support to the UN Binding Treaty (bind-ingtreaty.org) and collaborates with the Treaty Alliance (http://treatymovement.com/)

Why is the Global Campaign mobilized towards a UN Binding Treaty for Transnational Corporations on Human Rights? THE NEED TO CONFRONT THE ARCHITECTURE OF IMPUNITY

Between transnational corporations, states and peoples, there is an unde-niable asymmetry:• On one hand: with the complicity of states that are in that are interested

in guaranteeing that they are “attracting investment”, transnational cor-porations have been covering themselves with a solid armour made up of free trade and investment protection agreements and their respective sanctioning mechanisms. Institutions such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) constitute clear examples of the privatisation of justice, as well as any ISDS mechanism.

• On the other hand, violations of human rights and the rights of peoples and nature have become inherent to transnational corporations oper-ations, as well as systematic. But at the international level there is no binding rule for corporations on Human Rights.

In 2018, the Global Campaign convenes to the Week of Peoples Mobilisation in Geneva (13 – 20 October 2018), at the occasion of the 4th Session of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group mandated to develop a UN Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations and other business enter-prises with respect to Human Rights (OEIGWG). As in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 we are back in Geneva in order to continue pressuring governments to keep the process of building the Binding Treaty and moving forward.

What are we planning during the Week of Peoples Mobilisation?✱At the UN Square: we will launch the Week

of Peoples Mobilisation jointly with repre-sentatives of the Global Inter-Parliamentary network, affected communities, movements, trade unions and other networks and organi-sations. We will also organise Workshops un-der the Tent of the Global Campaign.

✱ Inside the UN: as in other years, there will be co-ordinated participation inside the OEIGWG Plena-ry, where we will be seeking in particular testimo-nies of affected communities, both in Side Events and in focussed advocacy with governments.

✱ In the city of Geneva: in coordination with the local University Students Union (Conférence Universitaire des Associations d’Etudiant/Es – CUAE), with local organisations and move-ments, we’ll co-organise 3 Public Events at the University of Geneva and the Maison des As-sociations, and participate in a Public Demon-stration for Climate Justice.

Who we are