UK Govt ‘Caved’ In Pushing US Supreme Court To Prioritize Corporations Over Human Rights
Extracts from an article by Carey L. Biron published 21 April 2014 by MINTPRESS NEWS
“In the cases against Shell and Rio Tinto, business interests won over the human rights interests of the plaintiffs in the cases who had legitimate claims of torture and murder…”
WASHINGTON — Newly released internal memoranda and emails detail the process behind the British government’s intervention in a landmark ruling last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, which limited a pioneering law that had allowed the U.S. legal system to be used to prosecute overseas corporate human rights abuses. The documents — 63 pages of which were released through Freedom of Information Act requests and made public earlier this month following years of requests — come from 2011 and 2012. They focus on a U.S. Supreme Court case called Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., the company known in the United States as Shell Oil. The case was brought by communities in the Niger Delta, who claim that Shell-hired security groups, including the Nigerian military, tortured and killed environmentalists opposing the company’s operations during the 1990s.
Shell sweeteners (bribes) distributed in Ireland
By John Donovan
OSSL is the former Shell “Mr Fixit” company best known for delivering Shell sponsored Christmas alcohol gifts to the Irish cops. The company has today circulated to Shell senior execs and partners in the controversial Corrib Gas Project (Statoil and Vermillion Energy), an interesting list of the sweeteners (bribes) it claims to have distributed on the express instructions of Shell EP Ireland.
Sheep pens…. cash…. holidays…. kitchens….. televisions…… double glazing….. police booze…. barbecues….. cars….. mowers….. block paving….. bed and breakfast signs…. carpets…. gas cookers ….. house make overs…. pick up trucks…. Septic tanks…. garden centre visits…. school fees….
Shell also distributed sweeteners (bribes) directly to the Irish news media at Christmas time.
Such a remarkably generous company.
Union protest at Royal Dutch Shell Plc Dutch HQ
By John Donovan
More than a 1,000 cleaners are on strike today so that they can participate in a protest at Shell’s Dutch headquarters at 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan in The Hague. The action is organized by the FNV union and is part of a nationwide campaign by the cleaners seeking better working conditions. The union is threatening to mount a long term strike. Not even a deep clean would erase the dark history associated with the address.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE: Photograph shows Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
The TRUTH will set you FREE.