In the News

Lawsuit Filed Against Occidental Petroleum for Involvement in Colombian Massacre

04/24/2003

(Los Angeles, CA)-- On April 24, 2003, a group of international human rights attorneys shall be bringing suit under the Alien Tort Claims Act against Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and its security contractor, Airscan, Inc., for their role in the murder of innocent civilians in the hamlet of Santo Domingo, Colombia on December 13, 1998. The suit is being filed by International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the Center for Human Rights at the Northwestern University School of Law.

Bittersweet Chocolate

Salon.com
02/14/2003

By Caroline Tiger

Chances are good that child workers -- some of whom are slaves -- helped produce your valentine bonbons. The chocolate industry has promised to get kids out of the cocoa trade. But profits still come before progress.

Child Victims of Coffee Trade Wars

BBC News
02/10/2003

By Nicola Carslaw

BBC consumer affairs correspondent in Matagalpa, Nicaragua



However much you are prepared to pay for a cup of coffee, the growers just get paid a pittance.

Coffee is a commodity crop - the second biggest after crude oil - and due partly to over-supply world coffee prices have reached record lows in the past few months.

In Nicaragua, growers are having to abandon their farms.

Now, the United Nations World Food Programme says one-in-eight children is starving.

Senate Panel to Defy Bush, Vote on Women's Treaty

Washington Post
07/18/2002

Excerpt from article:

In an almost unheard-of challenge to presidential prerogative, the Democratic Senate is preparing to consider ratification of an international treaty the White House has indicated it may not want approved.

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) has scheduled a committee vote today on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a 23-year-old United Nations document that was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and has languished ever since.

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