Two New Blogs on Corporate Accountability
April 22, 2013
Accountability Counsel’s Natalie Bridgeman Fields published two new blogs on corporate accountability this week, available here.
Accountability Counsel’s Work in Liberia, Mongolia, Nepal and the US
April 21, 2013
A Liberian charcoal producer harmed by a biomass project, an Accountability Counsel Strategic Support client.
Accountability Counsel staff have just returned from our work in communities in Liberia and Mongolia, where we documented human rights and environmental abuses of a biomass company and trained nomadic herders challenging Rio Tinto. We also have new cases in Nepal and West Virginia where more will be coming soon. We invite you to learn about these and all of our Strategic Support cases here.
U.S. Supreme Court Limits Corporate Accountability, Increasing Importance of Accountability Counsel’s Work
April 17, 2013
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling limiting the ability of human rights victims to seek accountability for human rights abuses abroad. Read Accountability Counsel’s reaction to the decision and what this means for our work here.
Civil Society Groups Demand That World Bank President Prevent an Environmental and Human Rights Disaster in Mongolia
February 12, 2013
Affected herder meeting with Executive Director Whitehead and his advisor in January 2013 to discuss the project’s devastating impacts.
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. The project, which carries significant environmental and social risks, is currently under consideration by the Board of Directors to receive funding from the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. An online petition referencing the same recommendations has received over 400 signatures to date. To learn more about the project, please see our Mongolia page.
UN Human Rights Council Cites Accountability Counsel’s Intervention in Geneva
Natalie Bridgeman Fields (center) speaks at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights
February 1, 2013
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.
OPIC Office of Accountability Responds to AC’s Campaign and Commits to Transparent Review
January 18, 2013
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.
Our First Annual Report is Now Available!
Strides Toward Justice
December 18, 2012
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.
If you would like a hard copy of the report, please contact us.
New Report Shows that the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the Oyu Tolgoi Mine was ‘A Useless Sham’
December 13, 2012
OT Shaft 1 in March 2012. Copyright © 2012 MuthuK
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. We called on the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other potential investors to delay consideration of the Project until they: (1) commission an independent, robust and transparent review of the environmental and social impact assessment that genuinely evaluates the impact on scare water resources and the coal projects’ compliance with bank policies and (2) create concrete plans for alleviating the mine’s impacts on local people and their livelihoods. Read the joint press release and learn more under the “Mining in the South Gobi, Mongolia” page here.