Blog

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling limiting the ability of human rights victims to seek accountability for human rights abuses abroad.

By Natalie Bridgeman Fields Today, the U.S. Supreme Court harshly limited cases that may be brought in U.S. courts against corporations that commit human rights abuses abroad.  The Supreme Court’s Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum decision has significant implications for our work at Accountability Counsel, where we assist victims of human rights…

Today, Accountability Counsel and 30 other civil society organizations sent a letter to World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim regarding the ongoing concerns and key recommendations related to the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia’s South Gobi desert.

Today, the Chairperson of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie, release a Report of the Forum held at the UN in December 2012.  The proceedings cite Accountability Counsel’s intervention, noting that “it [is] unrealistic to assume that vulnerable communities could access international grievance mechanisms on their own, and noted that communities must be given every possible advantage to help them to be on equal footing with the company they are filing a complaint against.” Para. 53.

In late 2012, as a direct result of Accountability Counsel’s work, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Office of Accountability agreed to a public and transparent review of the policies governing their office.  To follow this victory for accountability and our work to ensure that the review is fair, please see our OPIC OA policy page.

Today, OT Watch, Accountability Counsel and an international coalition of advocacy groups published a critique of Rio Tinto’s deeply flawed ESIA of its Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in the South Gobi desert.

Just one week after its grim warning during the UN climate talks in Doha that the world is on a path towards a four degree-rise in global temperatures, the World Bank is set to approve financing for yet another coal plant. The plant will power a giant mining complex in…

We are pleased to present Accountability Counsel’s first Annual Report, covering our work from our founding in 2009 to the end of our most recent fiscal year in August 2012.

Tomorrow, the Inter-American Development Bank (“IDB”) Board of Directors will discuss an audit report finding that an IDB hydroelectric power project violates Bank policy and threatens the life of a major river in Western Panama and the communities that depend on the river for survival.

The President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) responded to the Compliance Appraisal Report of the Office of Accountability in our Mexico Cerro de Oro case.  OPIC Management agree that changes to OPIC practice are important to ensure social and environmental compliance with OPIC policy and to verify that project level grievance mechanisms function properly.  More on this important victory is found on our Cerro de Oro case page.

Accountability Counsel and 5 other organizations filed a joint press release about planned international financing of the Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper mine in the South Gobi desert.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights obligations related to environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and waste issued a report in July focusing on the adverse human rights impacts of extractive industries.  The report cited our Peru case against Maple Energy as an example of violations to the rights to adequate health and life.  Read more about our Peru case here.

Accountability Counsel and 13 other organizations from around the world submitted joint comments to the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (“CAO”) regarding their draft revised Operational Guidelines.  Read more.

Today, with support from Accountability Counsel and Pacific Environment, Sakhalin Environment Watch filed a complaint on behalf of community members living adjacent to a highly polluting liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) plant and oil and gas export terminals.  The complaint was filed with the Dutch and UK National Contact Points (“NCPs”) against Royal Dutch Shell and three of the largest UK banks: Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered and Barclays.  Read the joint press release and learn more under the “Oil and Gas Development, Sakhalin Island, Russia” tab here.

Accountability Counsel’s Executive Director, Natalie Bridgeman Fields, discussed what communities can do when the World Bank finances land grabs with Kaitlin Y. Cordes, creator of the website Righting Food.

On July 15, 2012, Accountability Counsel submitted comments voicing our concern that the Bank’s Results-Based Financing may weaken the application of its safeguard policies and limit accessibility to the ADB accountability mechanism.  Read our comments here.

The Guide contains information on the Asian Development Bank’s 2012 Accountability Mechanism Policy, as well as updates on the the European Investment Bank, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the OECD National Contact Points, among others. Please see our Accountability Resource Guide page for more information.

Accountability Counsel’s campaign succeeded in ensuring a public review of the OA’s procedures.  We commend the OPIC OA for its positive response to the April 2012 letter sent by AC and 18 civil society partners denouncing the OA’s planned private, non-transparent review process.  We look forward to participating in the OA’s public review process, and we will continue to work with the OA and civil society to make sure that the process is fair, independent and transparent.  More details.

Accountability Counsel is pleased to announce our Communities initiative, which supports communities that have local capacity but are in need of specific help learning about, accessing or leveraging accountability mechanisms.  Through this initiative we are currently working in Panama, India, Mongolia, Kenya, and Russia, and recently completed a successful collaboration with Law Students for Environmental and Economic Justice, a student-led organization at Berkeley Law.

Accountability Counsel submitted comments on June 18, 2012 to the United Nations Development Programme (“UNDP”) on the Proposal for Environmental and Social Compliance Review and Grievance Processes.  The UNDP’s Proposal and Accountability Counsel’s comments are available here.