March 1, 2006

Ask Amnesty: SHARE POWER: Using Grassroots Shareholder Activism to Hold Corporations Accountable for Human Rights

All companies have a responsibility to respect human rights in their operations, but all too often they are contributing to human rights abuses – either directly or indirectly. You can hold corporations accountable - morally and legally - for violations within and connected to their operations. Are you wondering how you are connected to powerful companies and how you can pressure them to be responsible?

SHARE POWER is a new Amnesty campaign based on the idea that no matter who you are, where you work, where you study, or where you live, you can find your connection to multinational corporations, and use that connection to influence them to change.

Join Simon Billenness and Larry Dohrs, two longtime Amnesty volunteers and experts in shareholder activism, on Wednesday, March 1st to discuss SHARE POWER and learn how you can get involved in this campaign.

Featured Guest: SHAREPOWER

From our featured guest: "We look forward to speaking with you on March 1st."

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Question Submitted by Amy:

If I am still in high school, are there ways for me to get involved with SHARE POWER?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Yes, indeed. There are many ways in which high school students can get involved with SHARE POWER.

First of all, sign up on-line for updates and actions on SHARE POWER:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/pledge.html

Then use the SHARE POWER website to educate yourself about the cases of Dow Chemical, ChevronTexaco and Yahoo, amongst other corporations complicit in human rights abuses:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/resources.html

Now you are ready to do a teach-in at your high school on these corporations and on Amnesty's SHARE POWER campaign. Invite your friends and maybe a teacher or two and use this as an opportunity to learn and discuss.

If you agree at the teach-in that you should take action, download from the SHARE POWER site letters to Chevron, Dow Chemical and Yahoo. Try to get as many people as possible writing to these companies in support of human rights.

Consider also writing to your State Treasurer and/or City Comptroller to ask that those officials use their power as trustees of the state or city pension fund to write those companies as a shareholder.

And then post your progress on the SHARE POWER forum:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/forum.html

We would love to have you on board this exciting new Amnesty campaign!

~Simon


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Question Submitted by Erin:

Can you please explain the difference between shareholder activism and divestment with respect to companies that violate human rights?

SHAREPOWER answers:

If you want to be active as a company shareholder on human rights, you - obviously - need to remain a shareholder. If you sell your stock, you lose your leverage as a stockholder and part-owner of the corporation.

Shareholder activism includes simply writing a company a letter as a shareholder. This holds as much weight as if you write a company as a customer. The company wants to keep you as a shareholder as much as it wants to keep receiving your money as a customer. That gives you special and additional leverage with a company when you write as a shareholder.

In addition, as a shareholder, you can file a resolution to be debated and voted on at the company annual shareholder meeting. You can also signal your intent to company management to vote your shares in favor of shareholder resolutions on human rights.

If you divest your stock, you sell your stock to another person. That has no direct effect on the company. What's more, you lose your right and ability to lobby the company as a shareholder.

That why we, at Amnesty's SHARE POWER campaign, are asking people to use their power as a shareholder to hold companies accountable on human rights.

We do not advise Amnesty members and supporters to support divestment of stock. We particularly do not advise that people support divestment efforts with regard to Chevron, Dow Chemical or Yahoo.

Use your SHARE POWER. Do not throw it away!

~Simon
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Question Submitted by gledia:

We can lobby our governments and other elected representatives and authorities to hear our views on human rights. But how can we make corporations listen to our proposals?

SHAREPOWER answers:

We have leverage over our elected officials because they ultimately need our votes. That's why, when we write our own governments and representatives as Amnesty members, they have to listen to us. They don't want to lose our support and that gives added weight to our moral authority.

Corporations are different from politicians. Companies don't need our votes; corporations need our money.

Corporations need our money in the form of investment. When we invest in companies, we become shareholders or part-owners. That gives us special leverage.

Corporations also need our money in the form of our business. When we buy a company's product or services, we provide the company with its financial life-line. Without customers, companies go out of business quickly.

Corporations also invest a great deal of money in building consumer awareness of their brands and image. Companies need customers to associate their products with positive feelings. If we highlight, as Amnesty members, a company's complicity in human rights' abuses, we can seriously tarnish a company's product, image or brand name.

Companies listen to us on human rights if they think their business is at stake.

And, in the case of Chevron, Dow Chemical and Yahoo, we are already as Amnesty members having an impact on those companies.

So please join SHARE POWER and keep up the pressure on corporations to respect human rights:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/pledge.html



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Question Submitted by Yong Sok Kim:

It sounds absoutely amazing. However, I can't keep some doubts in my mind. I know it seems a little bit vague that the answer's likely to be somehow either idealistic or naive. Though, I feel that some fundamental questions must be cleared up in advance to the further practical activities. My question is if it's really possible that we can really share the power. I don't agree with that we all live under the real democracy that can provide ideal liberty and freedom. That is to say, there are whole bunch of institutions and regulations of which we can not get rid of. It's obvious that grassroot activities supported by all people could change big power structure in some sense. However, the final question's always going back to the inevitable limitations around us. Recognizing that those small activities won't be able to change gigantic power structure, my concern mainly focus on the possibility that those activities somehow could implant idealistic illusion to the people.

SHAREPOWER answers:

I simply have to disagree with your final premise: that small activities can't change things.

I prefer the words of Margaret Mead:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

In my experience as Amnesty activist, I can see how we've achieved small victories, such as the release - one by one - of political prisoners. Some of these prisoners, such as Kim Dae Jung in South Korea, have ended up becoming leaders of their countries.

Our small actions have the potential to snowball into systematic changes. I firmly believe that as a matter of conviction and because of the evidence that I have personally witnessed.

Here's another quote for you. This one has often been misattributed to Nelson Mandela. According to Wikipedia, it is actually from Marianne Williamson.

"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Don't give in to fear or hopelessness. Keep taking action - however small - in support of human rights.

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by John:

How are you aggregating several different concerns (human rights, environment, worker rights) into only one or two common complaints/demands? How are you organizing/grouping people to apply these pressure points with one voice? How is your work and process (in selecting groups of issues and agendas) transparent?

SHAREPOWER answers:

I often tell people that, when your mission is to defend and promote human rights worldwide, your to-do list every morning is a bit daunting.

I say that to answer your first question. The work of the Amnesty USA Business & Human Rights Program is coordinated by the two paid staff (Mila Rosenthal and Amy O'Meara), eight steering committee members serving in a volunteer capacity, and a couple of dozen other volunteer members, including our Corporate Action Network (CAN) Coordinator who do work also in their spare time around the country.

Our work is daily triage. There is no shortage of compelling and serious instances of corporate complicity in human rights abuses. Each day, each week and each month, we have to assess which cases we make our priorities.

We seek to pick cases and engage in activism where the human rights abuses are serious and ongoing. We also pick cases on the basis of our ability to make a difference.

It's really tough to make those calls. However, I think we've made some very good ones over the years.

Check out the Business & Human Rights website to see what cases we have made a priority:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business

We strive to make our work as public and transparent as possible.
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Question Submitted by Maddy:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I have noticed that Amnesty International has not yet launched any campaigns against Google and their compliance with the Chinese authorities over stifling the human rights of the people of China. Is this because doing so would be against Amnesty's principles in some way, or is there going to be any action against Google as part of SHARE POWER?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Amnesty International has been very vocal and active regarding the compliance with the Chinese government by Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Cisco in stifling free speech in China.

We are particularly critical of Yahoo because it provided the Chinese government with information about one of its Chinese's customers email correspondence using his Yahoo account.

Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, is serving a ten-year prison sentence in China for sending an email to the US. He was accused of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” by using his Yahoo email account. Yahoo provided account-holder information on him to the Chinese government leading to his sentencing.

Please check out our extensive research and actions on this topic on our website:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/yahoo.html

Amnesty International plans to take further action focused on these companies and Shi Tao in the future.

One future action is being organized by my own local Amnesty chapter, Group 133 in Somerville, Massachusetts.

For over ten years, Group 133 has organized a day-long series of actions and demonstrations in New York City as part of its annual GET ON THE BUS event.

This year will include a demonstration outside the Chinese consulate in Manhattan with probably 1,000 to 1,500 Amnesty supporters.

Group 133 is encouraging similar actions around the world at Yahoo, Google and Microsoft offices.

Please join us on Friday, April 21, in Manhattan or organize action in your home town.

For more information, check out the GET ON THE BUS website:
http://www.amnesty133.org/ai/gotb/index.html

In addition, check out the GET ON THE BUS blog:
http://getonthebustonyc.blogspot.com/

I have also discussed this issue extensively in my personal Amnesty blog:
http://simon4amnesty.blogspot.com/

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by janet:

Why is it so difficult to get straight answers in a democracy when we are supposed to be transparent. We hear that there are abuses going on in the name of the USA in other countries and all we get is silence. We are told, that WE do not torture. Hmmm, I'm not believin' what i'm hearin'.

SHAREPOWER answers:

Check out the Amnesty USA website for straight talk, good information, and actions you can take to stop the U.S. government from using torture:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Peter:

I have been actively involved with a peace and justice group for over three years. I have participated in workers' rights, sweatshop, peace, women's and gay rights, environmental and other various campaigns. I have noticed that all social problems lead back to one cause: greed justified by an almost fundamental religious belief in capitalism. Do you think it time that we go directly at the root cause (capitalism) to get a realistic share of power for ALL people?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Amnesty International does take action against companies complicit in the abuse of human rights.

Amnesty International takes no position regarding different economic and political systems.

However Amnesty International USA a membership organization with an elected board of directors and an annual general meeting of members every year.

This year our AGM is in Portland (Oregon). That is where any Amnesty USA member can debate and vote on what positions our organization should take.

For instance, I witnessed a lively debate at the Pittsburgh AGM (April 2003) on whether Amnesty USA should take a position against all use of force.

Please come to Portland (Oregon) next month and join other Amnesty members in these important debates. You can register on-line here:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/agm/

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Jules Shen:

I'm a college student, so while my peers don't comprise too many shareholders ourselves, we do know that divestment by our university trustees from questionable companies are important. We've tried pushing for divestment from Sudan-involved companies at our school, but have run into some roadblocks. What are some examples of successful past divestment campaigns? How else, as students, can we be activists for corporate accountability?

SHAREPOWER answers:

You are quite right that, as a college student, you have power to influence your university endowment trustees. It is almost certain that university endowments will hold stock in at least one of Amnesty USA's target companies, such as Chevron, Dow Chemical and Yahoo.

We do not recommend divestment as a tactic. Instead we recommend that you press your university to continue to hold stock in Chevron and Dow Chemical and use their power as a shareholder to support shareholder resolutions that address those companies' complicity in human rights abuses.

It is far easier for universities to support shareholder resolutions than it is for those institions to divest and sell off certain stock holdings. University trustees are wary of divestment because it may cost money to sell the stock and it may have an adverse effect on the returns of the endowment.

It also puts more pressure on those companies if universities remain an activist shareholder. If a university divests itself of a company's stock, that university then loses its leverage and power it has as a shareholder.

Check out the SHARE POWER website for more details on how you can run an effective campaign to persuade your college to become a shareholder activist on human rights:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/index.do

Please avoid divestment as a tactic because it is not an effective way to put pressure on corporations to respect human rights.

~Simon Billenness

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Question Submitted by Briin Bernstein:

I have heard the argument from companies that you should not stop supporting people like Nike because then the children get less pay. Do you subscribe to this or would you recommend abandoning all products made by companies that do not comply with human right standards?

SHAREPOWER answers:

I take your question as: does Amnesty International advocate the use of consumer boycotts against certain companies.

The answer is that Amnesty International does not at this time support any calls for a consumer boycott of a company.

However we do urge people to write companies as a shareholder and/or customer to press those companies to respect human rights in their operations and to avoid complicity in human rights abuses, such as those of Yahoo in China.

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Aaron:

Will the Share Power campaign continue after ChevronTexaco and Dow Chemical (Union Carbide) hold their summer shareholder meetings? Also, the US government, with taxpayer dollars, often subsidizes, purchases services from, or helps arrange for corporations that contribute to human rights abuses to do business abroad. Examples are weapons and construction corporations profiting from destroying and rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, energy corporations creating big dams in India and extracting oil in the Middle East, or privatizing forests and water in South America. How do we make the entities involved this corporate - government - foreign country nexus respect human rights and the rule of law?

SHAREPOWER answers:

We plan to continue our SHARE POWER campaigns beyond the annual shareholder meetings of Chevron and Union Carbide.

As long as those companies dodge taking responsibility for their complicity in human rights abuses in Ecuador and India, we hope to keep up the pressure.

So please do check into our website after the shareholder meetings this summer. In fact, join our email list for updates and actions all year round:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/sharepower/pledge.html

With regard to your second question, Amnesty International - both in the United States and Europe - is focused on government subsidies for corporate investments that pose actual or potential harm to human rights.

Stay on the Amnesty USA Corporate Action Network listserv for possible upcoming actions on this topic.

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Greg:

Given that CEOs can be sued for any action that decreases profits, and social irresponsibility (like leaving toxic cleanup to taxpayers) saves money; wouldn't working to eliminate the free ride be a better use of activists energy than asking these monstrous entities to "do the right thing"?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Amnesty International is doing more than just ask companies to "do the right thing."

Through our SHARE POWER campaign, we are mobilizing our members and supporters to use their power to require that companies respect human rights. That packs far more power than a simple moral request.

Amnesty International has also supported the right of human rights' abuse victims to sue corporations in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Claims Act. We have helped defend the law against attempts by the U.S. Administration to allow corporations to circumvent the law and thereby escape liability for complicity in human rights abuses.

For more information on Amnesty's defense of the Alien Tort Claims Act, go to our website:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/atca.html

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Greg:

By definition, you must be able and willing to invest in a corporation to engage in this type of activism. This is anti-democratic, since it leaves the rest of society (all of whom are impacted be corporate actions) in the cold. How can we go about making corporations accountable to those affected by their actions, beyond just investors?

SHAREPOWER answers:

I agree with much of what you say. However I do have one significant disagreement.

Democracy is based on the principle of one person one vote.

Shareholder activism is based on the principle of one share one vote. That is the same as consumer activism that is based on one dollar one vote. That's not democratic but that is the economic power structure through which we have put pressure on corporations to respect human rights.

However you do not need to be able and willing to invest your own money into the shares of a corporation in order to use SHARE POWER.

For instance, if you live in the United States, you can lobby your city comptroller and your state treasurer. You don't need to own any stock to do this simple citizen action.

City and state employee pension funds are among the very largest institutional investors in this country. Their trustees are predominantly elected officials and public employeee union leaders.

Both elected officials and trade union leaders are generally quite interested and supportive of human rights as trustees of these funds. So when you write your state treasurer, he or she is very likely to heed your concerns.

We all have connections like this to powerful shareholders. Check out the SHARE POWER website and presentation for more information about how you do indeed have this considerable power and how you can use it:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/connections.html

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Joclynne:

How do you propose we ask these corporations to place a higher value on human rights than profit without instituting fees or fines and punishment?

SHAREPOWER answers:

First, we don't simply "ask" corporations.

We do ask corporations directly and politely. However, we ask as shareholders and as actual or potential customers.

That way we put significant economic power behind our request.

That's how we address and use the fact of the corporate profit motive. We use our economic power to demonstrate to corporations that their complicity in the abuse of human rights is bad for their business. It is bad for their business because it will affect their investors, the customers and sales, their reputation and their brands.

Corporations are much more vulnerable to this kind of economic pressure than they will admit. But in my decade-long advocacy of human rights through this kind of consumer and sharehlder pressure, I've witnessed corporations as large and powerful as Wal-Mart, Nike and ExxonMobil bow to this kind of smart and strategic use of economic pressure.

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Ellen:

Does the crash of TASER stock present an opportunity for AIUSA and other civil rights groups to buy stock cheaply and participate in shareholder meetings?

SHAREPOWER answers:

What a good idea! I'll take this idea back to the Business & Human Rights Program Steering Committee and staff.

Of course, Amnesty already has the means to buy just the $2,000 of TASER stock needed to file a shareholder resolution.

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Mike:

I assume this discussion is related to shareholder votes requiring companies to adopt and adhere to human rights standards. If that is correct, can you please comment upon the longstanding strategies of divestment and socially-responsible investing. Are these strategies ones you would suggest are out-of-date or ineffective, or would you suggest they be used in combination with shareholder advocacy? What guidelines would you suggest for determining which of these strategies is best-suited to a particular corporation? I hope this event will be archived for those who cannot attend at the time it is scheduled (which, by the way, wasn't indicated in the announcement.)

SHAREPOWER answers:

Please read my earlier response to a question concerning divestment.

Divestment is not the right tactic for Amnesty. Shareholder advocacy is much more effective tactic because it allows Amnesty and its members to use their leverage and power as shareholders to put effective and sustained pressure on corporations.

As someone who has spent over a decade working in the field of socially responsible investing, I'm very comfortable saying that, within the socially responsible investment movement, there has been a marked shift towards using shareholder advocacy over divestment. The reason for this is that shareholder activism has proved to be far more effective in changing corporate behavior than divestment has.

For more information on socially responsible investment, check out the website of the Social Investment Forum:
http://www.socialinvest.org

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Dennis:

Is the positive political message of this campaign essentially that people can protect human rights through voting with their dollar? If so, how does one respond to this: When the dollar is at the bottom of politics, the dollar will remain the bottom line--to the detriment of human needs.

SHAREPOWER answers:

SHARE POWER is all about helping people use the economic power that they already have over corporations.

Shareholder advocacy is no substitute for effective political action, such as voting, lobbying for legislation, and otherwise acting as a citizen in the political realm.

But there is a definite synergy when we use all the power in our capacity: economic and political.

People generally have a better understanding of how to operate within the political system in support of human rights.

People have less understanding of their power as a shareholder or consumer in the economic realm. However, it is in the economic realm that corporations draw their lifeblood: investment and revenues.

One message of SHARE POWER is that we all have either power as a shareholder and/or power over certain influential shareholders. We should use our power to protect and promote the human rights, both our own and those of others.

That is, after all, our mission as Amnesty International.

~Simon Billenness


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Question Submitted by Johnstone Sikulu Wanjala:

Why don't you come to Kenya and implement AIUSA's SHARE POWER campaign?

SHAREPOWER answers:

I would love to go to Kenya and talk about SHARE POWER.

In fact, I met my wife, Ann Corbett, through my local Amnesty chapter (Group 133 in Somerville, Massachusetts).

Ann is Amnesty USA's volunteer country specialist for Kenya and lived there for several years. She speaks some Swahili and Luo.

Go to my Amnesty blog and email me about our upcoming planned trip to Kenya this year:
http://simon4amnesty.blogspot.com

~Simon Billenness


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Question Submitted by Liz:

There are business and environmental standards for corporations and businesses, such as the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001, 9002 and 9001. Are there any such standards or business plans that corporations and businesses can follow to be certain that they are compliant with human rights and moral business practices?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Check out two items on Amnesty USA Business and Human Rights webpage.

Amnesty International has published its own Human Rights Principles for Companies:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/checklist.html

Amnesty also supports the proposed UN Norms for Business:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/un_norms.html

My best regards to you in Kentucky. I've visited Louisville and Frankfort and greatly enjoyed Kentucky hospitality!

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Claire:

I'm looking to start a Roth IRA, but I have no idea what my money will be used for or what types of corporations it might be supporting. How can I make sure that my retirement plan works for me, and not for human rights abusers?

SHAREPOWER answers:

I would recommend that you find a financial advisor with experience of doing socially responsible investment.

For a list of such advisors, funds and related investment professionals, go to the website of the Social Investment Forum:
http://www.socialinvest.org

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Amanda:

How can students (with no employment) get involved in SHARE POWER?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Students at college can get involved in SHARE POWER through lobbying their university endowment trustees.

For more information and details of action you can take, go to SHARE POWER webpage:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/connections.html

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Larry Dohrs:

Sandy asked: Recently, our (college) investment officer got rid of our biggest money manager and put our money into indexed funds. His language somewhat confuses me, but I am under the impression that a great deal of our funds are devoted to the S&P 500, and right now we are debating over whether or not we have shareholder rights over these funds.

SHAREPOWER answers:

Dear Sandy,

I’ll just give an idea in addition to Simon’s suggestion:

I appreciate that this can seem complicated, and sometimes the authorities are not highly motivated to provide clear information. However, whether or not your college has direct control of the proxies, and thus control of the votes of the shares, it always has INFLUENCE over the votes.

I’ll take just a step back: Ownership of shares in a company gives the owner very substantial rights. If your college owns the shares directly, then it can exercise those shareholder rights directly. If the college has an investment manager who holds the shares, he or she MUST exercise those shareholder rights on the client’s (in this case, your college) behalf. This is an obligation, not a choice for the manager. So you and your college should make your desires and demands known to this manager.

The shares owned (either directly, or through a manager) by your college will get voted, the only question is whether these votes will support human rights or not. In the case of Chevron, AIUSA and its allies have filed a shareholder resolution, asking the company to reveal how much money and executive effort has gone into avoiding environmental cleanup in the Ecuadorian Amazon. You can request that your college either vote its shares on behalf of this resolution, or that the college request that the manager support the resolution on its behalf.

Then follow up to make sure they do so! Please stay in touch with Sharepower via http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/index.do.

Larry Dohrs

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Question Submitted by prakash:

How can I help to press corporations to respect human rights?

SHAREPOWER answers:

That is what SHARE POWER can help you do.

Join our email list:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/pledge.html

Use the research and tools that we provide:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business

Enjoy!

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Bunthoeurn Ke:

Dear, Sir I am Bunthoeurn, Cambodian. I would like to know about your experience of lobbying employers to respect human rights? As you know in Cambodia, garment factory managers dismiss employees every day without reasonable grounds. I think you will give me the best method to solve this problem. Cambodians need you to help. Thanks

SHAREPOWER answers:

If you are garment factory employee find out of your company makes garments for a Western company, such as The Gap, Reebok, Nike or Adidas.

Western companies are more and more likely these days to put pressure on factory managers to respect the rights of their employees. Connect with organizations in America like the National Labor Committee or United Students Against Sweatshops.

Try to organize as workers as much as you can without putting your job or your safety at risk. You do indeed have the certain rights to organize and engage in collective bargaining even in Cambodia.

But please be careful.

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Sandy:

Recently, our investment officer got rid of our biggest money manager and put our money into indexed funds. His language somewhat confuses me, but I am under the impression that a great deal of our funds are devoted to the S&P 500, and right now we are debating over whether or not we have shareholder rights over these funds.

SHAREPOWER answers:

If you have questions about your specific rights as a shareholder in a university setting, contact Mark Orlowski at the Sustainable Endowments Institute.

He is an excellent resource:
http://www.endowpower.org

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Dan:

It seems to me that even large multinationals are much more open than governments, partly because the market "forces" them to be productive, whereas governments seem to have bottomless resources to hide and deny human rights violations. The contrast between the ease with which Robert Greenwald made his Wal-Mart movie and AI's difficulty in getting meaningful information on Guantanamo, not to mention North Korea, illustrates this point. I tentatively conclude that the fact that the power of a few corporations is eclipsing that of some governments may, paradoxically, yield an improvement in human rights. Am I missing something?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Dan:

I think you are touching on an important point here.

Corporations are definitely easier to hold accountable than an authoritarian government. Taking on ExxonMobil or Wal-Mart over human rights is easier than pressing North Korea to release political prisoners.

~Simon Billenness
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Question Submitted by Erin:

Can you please list the corportations/companies that Amnesty is most concerned about in the Sharepower campaign. I know there are a lot of companies that violate human rights that Amnesty might not be working on -- can we use these sharepower techniques on any companies that we are worried about?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Hi Erin,

Here are the companies on which AIUSA’s Business and Human Rights Program (BHR) is working most actively at this time (and they can be found at
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/index.do):

Chevron, Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil are all targets of the Share Power campaign. Companies with whom AIUSA’s BHR program has had communication and dialog include Titan Corporation and CACI International, regarding their contract work in areas of conflict, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and Cisco regarding internet censorship issues, as well as Caterpillar regarding the use of specially modified bulldozers to destroy homes, and even to kill people, in the Palestinian Territories.

BHR also works to promote the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, as well as the UN Norms for Business, and works to protect the Alien Tort Claims Act, which is the leading US law providing accountability for corporate involvement in human rights abuses abroad. Finally, we work to promote awareness of conflict-free diamonds, and to protect environmental defenders whose work puts them at great personal risk.

That seems like a lot of companies and issues, but it clearly only scratches the surface of what needs to be done. So in answer to your question, I’d say yes, by all means use the tactics of the Sharepower campaign to promote human rights at other companies whom we in the BHR have not had time to address. It is only through action and the direct communication of our desires that we can and do promote corporate behavior that respects human rights.

Larry Dohrs
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Question Submitted by Erin:

This question has been plaguing me in my work. How can we work against global warming from a human rights perspective? Obviously we all need a healthy and clean evnironment to enjoy all our human rights, but there is no artcle pertaining to the environment in the UDHR. I have come across many ties to global warming and corporate irresponsibility, especially with oil companies like Chevron, and ExxonMobil that also violate human rights. I would like to use the sharepower model for this, and include it in with work for human rights, how do you suggest I fit these together?

SHAREPOWER answers:

This is a good question, and increasingly we are seeing the close ties between seemingly disparate issues of the environment and human rights. There is no question but that global warming puts at risk peoples and communities around the world, including Pacific Islanders living on low islands that could be swallowed up by a rising ocean, and desert peoples such as the Uighur of China’s northwest Xinjiang Province, who rely entirely on glacial runoff to provide water for irrigation and consumption (and those glaciers are disappearing fast). It could be argued that actions resulting in global warming therefore violate Article 25 on the right to an adequate standard of living, or Article 3 on the right to security of person, or even Article 9, which states that no one shall be subject to arbitrary exile.

One way that approaches to companies on both the environment and human rights can be seen to be similar is that, no matter how we feel about an issue in our hearts, we approach companies on a basis that their board of directors can legally take action on. As shareholders, we feel that corporate irresponsibility regarding the environment or human rights is wrong, but we always put our arguments in financial terms since, until a more comprehensive reform takes place, the bottom line of a corporation is its mandate to serve the interests of shareholders.

Thus, we make several arguments to companies: Poor environmental and human rights practices create brand risk, and the brand is often the single most valuable asset that a company has. Similarly, poor practices can lead to poor employee morale, and poorer employee recruitment and retention levels. In addition, poor human rights and environmental practices create real, tangible liabilities to companies both now and into the future. For example, the oil company Unocal (which was purchased last year by Chevron), settled a lawsuit brought by 13 Burmese plaintiffs who were abused by Unocal’s partners, the notorious Burmese military junta, during the construction of a natural gas pipeline. The settlement amount remains “secret” though press reports pegged it at $30 million. Did that money come from the pockets of managers responsible for Unocal’s Burma project? No, it came from shareholders. And now Chevron shareholders are on the hook if the other hundreds, even thousands of Burmese victims file similar lawsuits. Last week the paint company Sherwin Williams lost a lawsuit in Rhode Island over remediation of places where lead paint was used. In one day, the value of Sherwin Williams stock fell by $1.2 billion. That’s shareholder money, not management’s money, so you can see that these questions of liability are serious.

So that’s a way that we can address both human rights and environmental issues: We say to management, “Your job by law is to represent my interests as a shareholder, and I believe my interests are best served by avoiding brand risk and vast, unacknowledged liabilities from corporate irresponsibility.” That’s an argument that managers are hearing louder and clearer, and they are even hearing it from huge shareholders like insurance companies and pension funds. Keep it up!

Larry Dohrs



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Question Submitted by Stewart:

I'm impressed with your knowledge of shareholder advocacy. Larry, do you work in the social investment field? What kind of experience you have?

SHAREPOWER answers:

Thanks for the kind words. I have to give kudos to Mila Rosenthal and Amy O’Meara in the Business and Human Rights office in New York for taking on shareholder activism, and for recognizing that Amnesty’s good name is a very powerful tool in encouraging companies to respect their human rights obligations. Also, my work with colleagues in AIUSA, including Simon Billenness, has been both educational and inspirational.

I do work in the social investment field, at Newground Social Investment in Seattle (www.Newground.net). We manage money for individuals and institutions, and prefer to use our rights as shareholders to engage companies actively on social and environmental issues, rather than just selling the stock and walking away when companies do something we object to (in fact, companies often would like nothing better than for dissident shareholders to sell out of their stock and go away). I came to this field from years of work as a human rights activist, when I saw that shareholders, working from the inside of companies, were having tremendous effect in getting companies to change.




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Question Submitted by Burma Action Group:

We've long been concerned about the actions of Unocal, which partnered with the brutal Burmese military, resulting in gross human rights violations. At the same time, Unocal provided financial and diplomatic support for Afghanistan's Taliban, where the company had plans for a pipeline. Now that Chevron has bought Unocal, does that mean there is no opportunity for victims of Unocal's practices to receive compensation?

SHAREPOWER answers:

This raises an important point. AIUSA is working hard to get Dow Chemical to act responsibly toward the victims of the Bhopal gas leak of 1984 (please see http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/sharepower/bhopal.html for more), where 20,000 were killed and many thousands more continue to suffer health problems and a polluted community. Many will recall that it was Union Carbide’s plant that caused this disaster. But in 2001 Dow bought Union Carbide, in full knowledge of the fact that when you buy a corporation, you buy not only its assets, but also its liabilities. Thus, Dow now is every bit as financially responsible (and liable) for the Bhopal disaster as Union Carbide was.

Similarly, Chevron purchased Unocal’s entire checkered history when it purchased the company last summer. This means that shareholders of Chevron will have to bear the burden if lawsuits are brought successfully in regard to its relationships with the Burmese military, or Afghanistan’s Taliban. One could imagine that the liability for either or both of these situations could be enormous.

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