NEW YORK, May 18 – Over 75 organizations, including international legal organizations and major human rights networks, signed on to an open letter released today in support of environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who has faced nearly unprecedented sanctions from a U.S. federal judge for his pursuit of Chevron for a judgment against the oil giant over its environmental devastation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The letter identifies the case as “one of the most important corporate accountability and human rights cases of our time.”
In 2011, indigenous plaintiffs in the Ecuadorian Amazon received a $19 billion judgment against Chevron for the actions of its predecessor company, Texaco, which spilled over 17 million gallons of crude oil, dumped over 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and left hundreds of open pits throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon. The persecution of Donziger, a lawyer for the indigenous peoples affected, stems directly from Chevron’s attempt to avoid paying the judgment, which was reduced to $9.5 billion in 2013 by the Ecuadorian Supreme Court.
The letter, initiated by the National Lawyers Guild and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, was also signed by over 400 lawyers and human rights advocates around the world, including Members of the German Bundestag Eva-Maria Schreiber and Margarete Bause, and Member of European Parliament Marie Toussaint of France. The letter urges an end to the unjustified pretrial house arrest of Donziger, noting that “such arbitrary detention sets a dangerous precedent for human rights attorneys in the United States and around the world.” Donziger has refused to turn over confidential client information and privileged data to Chevron.
It also highlights the behavior of Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in the case, noting his pronounced favoritism towards Chevron throughout the progress of the case. Kaplan made public comments about Chevron’s importance to the global economy, expressed skepticism about the Ecuadorian judgment due to what he called the “socialist government” of Rafael Correa and held investments in multiple funds with Chevron holdings at the time of his rulings.
Despite Kaplan’s recommendation that Donziger’s law license be suspended, the Referee John R. Horan for the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Department, issued a report and recommended that Donziger’s suspension be lifted, noting that “[t]he extent of his pursuit by Chevron is so extravagant, and at this point so unnecessary and punitive…Assessment of character is not an exact science, but we can all agree that the essential components are honesty, integrity and credibility… Respondent has such character and is essentially working for the public interest, and not against it…”
Further, the letter also highlights the importance of corporate accountability and an end to corporate impunity. Chevron’s aggressive pursuit of Donziger is tied directly to its refusal to take responsibility for the environmental damage caused by its predecessor company, Texaco, to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Over 30,000 indigenous peoples have waited for justice and accountability for many years, and the persecution of Donziger only pushes justice back for those who are the most deeply affected. As the letter notes, “Extractive industries continue to pilfer the earth and the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples without anything to stop them. Frontline human rights defenders are often killed and along with the prosecution for those deaths, the actions of the corporations behind these deaths enjoy impunity.”
Please see the full letter below for the complete list of signatories, including bar associations and lawyers’ networks around the world, environmental justice and indigenous rights organizations, as well as an array of lawyers, human rights advocates, academics and international law experts.
CONTACT: Jeanne Mirer, jmirer@mmsjlaw.com; Natali Segovia, segovia.natali@gmail.com
DOWNLOAD PDF LETTER: English | Spanish
OPEN LETTER DEMANDING AN END TO UNPRECEDENTED HOUSE ARREST OF HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY STEVEN DONZIGER
AND A CALL TO THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMUNITY TO #MAKECHEVRONCLEANUP
“ALMOST TWENTY YEARS AGO, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. All governments made the strong commitment to prioritise the security and protection of Human Rights Defenders, recognizing the right of all individuals and organisations to peacefully defend human rights. Yet, the world seems less and less safe for those who stand up for human dignity.” – Michael Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders[1]
As members of the international legal community, including human rights, environmental rights, and indigenous peoples’ rights organizations, we must protect human rights defenders. We are outraged by the attack on the rule of law evidenced in the arbitrary detention of human rights attorney, Steven Donziger. Thanks to corporate-friendly federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who openly stated his pro-corporate bias in a case involving a multinational corporation,[2] a dangerous precedent is being set chilling legal representation. In the “Land of the Free,” Donziger has now spent more than 9 months under unprecedented house arrest in retaliation for his work on behalf of indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon against oil giant, Chevron, in one of the most important corporate accountability and human rights cases of our time.
In 1993, U.S. human rights attorney, Steven Donziger, became part of the legal team for 30,000 indigenous peoples and affected campesinos in the Ecuadorian Amazon seeking justice from the environmental damage and ongoing health crisis caused by oil company Texaco, for deliberately polluting the Amazon Rainforest. From 1964 to 1990, Texaco dumped over 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater, spilled more than 17 million gallons of crude oil and left hundreds of open pits with hazardous waste in the forest floor. In 2000, Chevron purchased Texaco along with everything that came with it – including liability for the destruction Texaco had caused in Ecuador’s Lago Agrio region. The Cofan people, among other indigenous groups and rural communities that call the Amazon home, have suffered intense environmental and health ramifications of “Chevron’s cost of doing business,” including lack of potable water, displacement from ancestral lands, irreparable loss of culture, and severe health concerns, including heightened mortality rates due to birth defects and widespread incidence of cancer.
In 2011, after nearly two decades of litigation in Ecuador—where Chevron executives had hoped they would win—Chevron was found guilty and ordered to pay $19 billion in damages and for cleanup. In 2013, Chevron appealed to the Ecuadorian Supreme Court, who upheld the previous judgment and ordered Chevron to pay a reduced $9.5 billion to clean up. Despite knowing that the money from the judgment would be used for environmental repair, not individual indemnifications, Chevron—one of the world’s largest corporations with over $260 billion in assets—sold its assets in Ecuador and fled the country. In the US, it began a counter-offensive strategy, threatening human rights lawyers and the indigenous plaintiffs with a “lifetime of litigation.”[3]
To date, by some estimates, Chevron has spent nearly $2 billion in a massive legal and defamatory propaganda campaign aimed at taking down Steven Donziger and finding work-arounds to the Ecuadorian judgment. At the unorthodox suggestion of Judge Kaplan, in 2011, Chevron filed a RICO complaint against Donziger and two Ecuadorian attorneys, claiming that the judgment obtained after 10-years of litigation before three levels of Ecuadorian courts was the product of fraud and extortion.
In 2014, after the prolonged RICO trial aimed at weakening Donziger and Amazonian plaintiffs’ resolve, Judge Kaplan, who has made public comments about Chevron’s importance in the global economy, [4] ruled in favor of the oil giant.[5] At the time of his decision, Judge Kaplan had undisclosed financial ties to Chevron that would have provided grounds for Ecuadorian plaintiffs and Donziger to seek his recusal.[6]
In Kaplan’s RICO decision, despite having previously ignored the basic principle of international comity (respect among nations for each other’s legal systems) when he attempted to prohibit enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron in any nation[7]—an injunction that was ultimately vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2011—Kaplan found a new way to circumvent the enforcement issue. The RICO order, though explicitly allowing enforcement in other countries, imposes a constructive trust where any funds that might be collected on the judgment outside the U.S. would have to be held in trust for Chevron. More recently, Kaplan held that this constructive trust also blocks the Ecuadorian plaintiffs from raising any money to pay for the supposedly allowed foreign enforcement actions.
Extraordinarily, after some progress was made in other countries to enforce the judgment with Donziger’s help, Judge Kaplan allowed Chevron to initiate a costly and intrusive document discovery process against Donziger and others associated with the Ecuadorian plaintiffs. Kaplan required Donziger to turn over his client communications to Chevron from over two decades of work, meaning that Chevron would gain backdoor access to information they could not obtain legally through the discovery process, including conversations regarding litigation strategy, among other things, of all those involved in the human rights case, thus infringing upon one of the most time-honored privileges: that of an attorney and his clients.
Donziger objected to Kaplan’s orders and filed an appeal. When Kaplan demanded that Donziger nonetheless produce the privileged information while the appeal was pending, Donziger refused on principle and openly stated he was willing to be held in civil contempt of court if necessary. Kaplan did hold him in civil contempt—and then, in July 2019, increased the pressure by drafting extraordinary criminal contempt charges against Donziger. Kaplan referred the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which declined to prosecute. Undeterred, Kaplan took it upon himself to appoint a private law firm, Seward & Kissel (a firm with known ties to Chevron and Chevron-related entities),[8] to prosecute Donziger despite their conflict of interest.
Judge Kaplan also bypassed the random case assignment process and handpicked Judge Loretta Preska to oversee the prosecution.
Quickly continuing the process marked by disproportionate harshness, Judge Preska remanded Donziger to home detention along with the seizure of his passport, and required an $800,000 bond as conditions of his pretrial release. Preska found that even though Donziger has a family and deep ties to New York, the “risk” that he would flee the country and try to live out his life in exile was so great that he had to be confined to his home. Donziger faces a maximum penalty of 6 months imprisonment from criminal contempt, but has already “served” nine months of pretrial home detention.
Donziger was also referred to the New York bar, requesting his law license be suspended based on the claim that he was an “immediate threat to the public interest.” Donziger’s law license was suspended for 18 months before he was afforded a modicum of due process and finally provided a hearing. On February 24, 2020, in an important moment for Donziger’s case, Referee John R. Horan for the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Department, issued a report and recommended that Donziger’s “interim [bar license] suspension should be ended and that he should be allowed to resume the practice of law.” Horan, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, added, “[t]he extent of his pursuit by Chevron is so extravagant, and at this point so unnecessary and punitive, while not a factor in my recommendation, is nonetheless background to it… Assessment of character is not an exact science, but we can all agree that the essential components are honesty, integrity and credibility… Respondent has such character and is essentially working for the public interest, and not against it… If his interest in earning a large fee makes his character suspect, the entire bar is suspect.”[9]
This fight is not just about the money and it’s not just about Donziger. It is about accountability and the very bedrock of the rule of law – that no one, no matter how powerful – is above the law. Yet, as Donziger himself has stated, “Chevron is trying to kill off the idea that impoverished indigenous groups and lawyers can pool their talents and resources like we have to take on Big Oil and be successful.”[10] If Chevron prevails, it will reaffirm the status quo – that a multinational corporation can defy national and international law with impunity.
When human rights defenders are attacked, it is democracy itself that suffers. In many countries, commitment to environmental activism such as Steven Donziger’s often results in death. A recent report by Front Line Defenders reveals that in 2019, over 300 human rights defenders were killed in 31 countries, with over two-thirds killed in Latin America, where impunity from prosecution is the norm. Forty percent of those killed fought for land rights, indigenous peoples, and environmental justice.[11] The report details the physical assault, defamation campaigns, digital security threats, judicial harassment and attacks faced by human rights defenders across the world. We cannot allow the rule of law to be upended by corporate interests and a highly biased federal judge seeking to destroy the willpower of one lawyer who has already withstood decades of brutal litigation and scathing personal and professional attacks.
We, the undersigned, call upon the members of the international legal community, human rights, environmental rights, and indigenous peoples’ rights organizations, including those in the United States and abroad, to stand in solidarity with Steven Donziger and the 30,000 indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and hereby DEMAND:
- #FreeDonziger – We demand an immediate end to the unjustified pretrial house arrest of human rights attorney Steven Donziger which is nearing 10 months as a result of a violation of due process.
As stated above, such arbitrary detention sets a dangerous precedent for human rights attorneys in the United States and around the world.
- #InvestigateKaplan – Judge Lewis A. Kaplan undermined the judiciary, lacking impartiality and refusing to recuse himself in a case where he repeatedly displayed a clear bias towards one of the parties, thus violating basic notions of fairness in the judicial process that lie at the core of the rule of law.
By no means exhaustive, this letter has detailed only some of the overtly biased actions taken and statements made by Judge Kaplan that betray the ethical duty of an impartial judge. It is no surprise that the principles of independence and impartiality of the judiciary enjoy universal allegiance in U.S. law and in the ratified human rights instruments incorporated into United States domestic law through Article 6 section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The right to a fair trial by an impartial tribunal is one of the most basic human rights guarantees.[12] In 1995, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights considered judicial independence and impartiality to form part of the “general principles of law recognised by civilised nations.”[13]
Judge Kaplan’s actions have violated the integrity of the U.S. federal judiciary, called into question his apparent lack of compliance with his ethical duties as defined by the Code of Judicial Conduct, and therefore, the Department of Justice along with the United States Senate and House Judiciary Committees should take action and investigate Kaplan’s role in this case, as well as level sanctions for abuse of judicial power and any other appropriate claims, including immediate removal and dismissal of all claims against Donziger.[14]
- #MakeChevronCleanUp – We demand Corporate Accountability, not Corporate Impunity for the environmental damages caused to the Ecuadorian Amazon and over 30,000 indigenous peoples that have waited long enough for justice.
Starting with the reign of the United Fruit Company in Latin America, the impact of multinational corporations worldwide is nothing new. Extractive industries continue to pilfer the earth and the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples without anything to stop them. Frontline human rights defenders are often killed and along with the prosecution for those deaths, the actions of the corporations behind these deaths enjoy impunity.
As Victoria Tauli-Corpus, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has said, “[t]he killings make news, but hidden behind these headlines is something even more insidious: the silencing of entire communities.”
The 30,000 indigenous peoples and affected campesinos of the Ecuadorian Amazon and their allies worldwide will not be silenced.[15]
Sincerely,
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
National Lawyers Guild International Committee
Organizational Endorsements
- A Legacy of Equality, Leadership and Organizing (LELO)
- Acción Jurídica Popular
- Alliance for Global Justice
- Amazon Watch
- Asociación Americana de Juristas (AAJ)
- Asociacion Americana de Juristas Rama Colombia
- Asociación Civil NACE UN DERECHO
- Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente, AIDA
- Asociación Nacional de Abogados Democráticos (ANAD)
- Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network
- Camino Común: Solidarity International
- Canadian Buddhist Civil Liberties Association
- Caribbean Institute for Human Rights
- Central Arizona National Lawyers Guild
- Civil Liberties Defense Center
- Climate Defense Project
- Climate Hawks Vote
- Colegio de Abogados y Abogadas de Puerto Rico
- Colombia Support Network
- Comitê Carioca de Solidariedade a Cuba – Brasil
- Comité Internacional Paz, Justicia y Dignidad a los Pueblos
- Community Services Unlimited Inc.
- Consejo Consultivo AAJPR
- Defending Rights & Dissent
- Divest, Invest, Protect
- Earth Care Not Warfare
- Environmental Investigation Agency
- Environmental Justice Initiative
- Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services
- Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia – FDA
- Gravity human rights podcast
- Harvard Law School National Lawyers Guild
- Hawai’i Institute for Human Rights
- Indigenous Peoples Human Right Defenders and Corporate Accountability Program
- Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, University of Arizona
- International Commission for Labor Rights
- International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger
- International-Lawyers.Org
- KUPS Student Radio
- Labor & Employment Committee of the National Lawyers Guild
- Latinos Unidos por el Futuro
- Law Union of Ontario
- MADRE
- Maurice & Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice
- Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers, International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL)
- Movimiento Ecologista Ecuatoriano
- National Association of Democratic Lawyers of South Africa (NADEL)
- National Lawyers Guild (DC Chapter)
- NLG Task Force on the Americas
- NorCal Resist
- Nouvelles Alternative pour le Développement Durable en Afrique
- ÖHD (Association of Lawyers for Freedom)
- Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace
- Pachamama Alliance
- Palestine Legal
- Pan Left Productions Media Collective
- Paris Bar, France
- Parlamento De Las Nacionalidades Indigenas De La Amazonia Ecuatoriana (PARNIAE.)
- Peace of the Green Forest
- Popular Resistance
- Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD), Turkey
- Rainforest Action Network
- Red Solidaria Década Contra la Impunidad AC, México
- Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
- Seattle Anti-War Coalition
- org
- Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice
- The Arrested Lawyers Initiative
- Trial Guides
- Ukrainian Association of Democratic Lawyers
- UMLaw NLG Student Chapter
- United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE)
- Water Protector Legal Collective
- Whatcom Civil Rights Project
- Alerta Temprana Red (AT-R):
Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos A.C. (LIMEDDH); Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, A.C. Filial Oaxaca (LIMEDDH-Oax); Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos y Víctimas de Violaciones a los Derechos Humanos en México (AFADEM FEDEFAM); Red Universitaria de Monitores de Derechos Humanos (RUMODH); Asociación de Derechos Humanos del Estado de México (ADHEM); Fundación Diego Lucero, A.C. (FDL); Foro Permanente de Mujeres Iztacalco, A.C. (FPM-I); Consejo Federal Ejecutivo Nacional e Internacional del Frente Mexicano Pro Derechos Humanos, A.C. (FREMEXDEHU); Asociación Nacional de Abogados Democráticos, A.C. (ANAD); Comité de Familiares de Personas Desaparecidas en México, Alzando Voces, (COFADDEM); Centro de Estudios para los Derechos Humanos y la Justicia Ambiental “YURENI”, A.C. (CEPDHJA); Actuar Familiares contra la Tortura, (AFT); Centro de Derechos Humanos Coordinadora 28 de Mayo, A.C. (CDH C-28 M); Centro de Derechos Humanos “Antonio Esteban”, A.C. (CDHAE); Asociación Canadiense por el Derecho y la Verdad (ENVERO); Frente Mexiquense en Defensa para una Vivienda Digna, A.C. (FMDVD); Centro de Derechos Humanos de Base “Digna Ochoa”, A.C. (CDHBDO); Red Solidaria Década contra la Impunidad, A.C. (RSDI); Centro de Derechos Humanos Ku’untik (CDHK); Asociación Mexicana de Abogados del Pueblo (AMAP); Asamblea Vecinal Nos Queremos Vivas Neza (AVNQVN); Comité de Defensa de Derechos Humanos “Cholollan” (CDHC); Mujeres Guerrerenses por la Democracia, A.C. (MGD); Aliadas por la Justicia, A.C. (AxJ); Desarrollo Humano Internacional, A.C. (DHI); Comunidad Raíz Zubia, A.C. (CRZ); Zihuame Xotlametzin, A.C. (ZX); Asociación Guerrerense Contra la Violencia Hacia las Mujeres, A.C. (AGCVIM, A.C.)
- Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos
Integrantes del Consejo Consultivo:
Argentina Adolfo Pérez Esquivel Premio Nobel de la Paz, Stella Calloni Corresponsal de la Jornada en Buenos Aires; Colombia Dra. Piedad Esneda Córdoba Ruiz Senadora y Defensora de Derechos Humanos y Coordinadora Internacional del Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos. Vocera de colombianas y colombianos por la Paz, Camilo González Posso Presidente de INDEPAZ, Dr. Mario Hernández Álvarez Coordinador Doctorado Interfacultades en Salud Pública Universidad Nacional de Colombia; España Ana Andrés Ablanedo Defensora de Derechos Humanos de Soldepaz Pachakuti, Ricardo Sanchez Andrés miembro de la junta de la (ACP) Asociación Catalana por la Paz – miembro de la Asamblea de Internacional de (Comunistes de Catalunya) y miembro permanente del consejo de Solidaridad de la Ciudad de Manresa, María Victoria Fernández Molina Candidata a Doctora en Derechos Humanos, Estados Unidos James Patrick Jordan Coordinador Nacional de la Alianza por la Justicia Global y Eduardo García de la Alianza por la Justicia Global, Devora González Coordinadora Nacional de SOA Watch – Observatorio por el Cierre de las Escuela de la Américas e integrantes del Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos capítulo Estados Unidos; Suiza José Manuel González López y Gerardo Romero Luna de la Red Latinoamericana de Zurich integrantes del Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos capítulo Suiza; Venezuela Héctor Orlando Zambrano Diputado de la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela y Miembro de la Coordinación Nacional de la Corriente Revolucionaria Bolivar y Zamora, Nieves Hugo Alberto Integrante de la Comisión Política de la Corriente Revolucionaria Bolivar y Zamora – CRBZ, Indhira Libertad Rodríguez Red de Colectivos La Araña Feminista, José Miguel Gómez García Movimiento Internacional de la Economía de los Trabajadores; Ecuador Abg. Franklin Columba Cuji Dirigente Nacional y Coordinador de Asuntos Políticos del FENOCIN; Bolivia Rodolfo Machaca Yupanqui Strio. General de Confederación Sindical Única De Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB); Palestina Jamal Juma Coordinador STOP The WALL; Guatemala Ana Laura Rojas Padgett Red de Integración Orgánica – RIO – por la Defensa de la Madre Tierra y los Derechos Humanos; Uruguay Anahit Aharonian Kharputlian Ingeniera Agrónoma y Docente Comisión Multisectorial de Uruguay; Panamá Ligia Arreaga Integrante de la Alianza por un mejor Darién – AMEDAR; Brasil Gizele Martins do Movimiento de Favelas do Rio de Janeiro; Perú Carlos Romainville Vásquez Coordinador General del Movimiento Alfa y Omega; Uruguay Anahit Aharonian Kharputlian Ingeniera Agrónoma y Docente Comisión Multisectorial del Uruguay; México Eduardo Correa Senior Profesor de la Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México – UACM, Dr. José Enrique González Ruiz Profesor de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM, Dr. José Rafael Grijalva Eternod Doctor en Derechos Humanos, Dr. Felix Hoyo Arana Profesor de la Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo; Dr. John Mill Ackerman Rose, Daniela González López Coordinadora Internacional del Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos, Soledad Ortiz Vásquez CODEM, Patrocinio Martínez López CODEM, Claudia Tapia Nolasco CODEM, Artemio Ortiz Hurtado CEND – SNTE, Sergio Espinal CEND – SNTE; Prof. Antonio Castro López Secretario General del CEND – SNTE, Prof. Miguel Guerra Castillo Secretario General del CEND – SNTE, Prof. Alejandro Trujillo González, Secretario General del CEND – SNTE, Prof. Eugenio Rodríguez Cornejo CEND – SNTE, Prof. Jerónimo Sánchez Sáenz CEND – SNTE, Roberto Palma Juárez ONPP – Morelos, Arquitecto José Márquez Pérez Presidente del Patronato Pro Defensa y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural y Natural de Oaxaca PRO – OAX y Lic. Hugo Aguilar Promotor y Defensor de Derechos Indígenas.
Organizaciones integrantes:
Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos; Soldepaz – Pachakuti de España; Red Latinoamericana de Zurich de Suiza; Alianza por la Justicia Global, SOA Watch – Observatorio por el Cierre de las Escuela de la Américas de Estados Unidos; Red de Colectivos La Araña Feminista de Venezuela, Corriente Revolucionaria Bolívar y Zamora de Venezuela, Movimiento Internacional de la Economía de los Trabajadores de Venezuela; Red de Integración Orgánica – Rio – Por la Defensa de la Madre Tierra y los Derechos Humanos de Guatemala; Comisión Multisectorial del Uruguay; Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas, Indígenas y Negras (FENOCIN) de Ecuador; Confederación Sindical Única De Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB); Comisión Multisectorial del Uruguay; Alianza por un mejor Darién – AMEDAR de Panamá; Movimiento Alfa y Omega de Perú; Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos capítulo Estados Unidos y Suiza; Movimiento de Favelas de Rio Janeiro de Brasil, Campaña Popular Palestina contra el Muro de Apartheid (Stop the Wall) Palestina, Unión Palestina Campesina (Palestinian Farmers Union), Coalición de la Defensa de la Tierra Palestina, Tala´at- Movimiento Político Feminista Palestino; Movimiento Nacional del Poder Popular – México (MNPP); Movimiento Nacional del Poder Popular Zacatecas (MNPP – Zacatecas); Movimiento del Magisterio Democrático Nacional, Comité Ejecutivo Nacional Democrático del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación en Lucha (CEND del SNTE en Lucha); Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra en San Salvador Atenco (FPDT-Atenco); Comité de Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (CODEM); Contingentes del Comité Ejecutivo Nacional Democrático del SNTE en Lucha (CEND SNTE en Lucha), Congreso Nacional de Bases, Movimiento del Magisterio Democrático Nacional: Sección III de Baja California Sur; Sección V de Campeche; Sección X de la Ciudad de México; Sección XIII y XLV de Guanajuato; Sección XIV de Guerrero; Sección XV de Hidalgo; Movimiento Magisterial Jalisciense, Secciones XVI y XLVII de Jalisco; Sección XVIII de Michoacán; Movimiento Magisterial de Bases, Sección XIX de Morelos; Consejo Democrático Magisterial Poblano, Secciones XXIII y LI de Puebla; Movimiento Magisterial de Bases de Querétaro, Sección XXIV de Querétaro; Bases Magisteriales Democráticas de Quintana Roo, Sección XXV de Q. Roo; Bases Magisteriales de Tabasco, Sección XXIX de Tabasco, Trabajadores del Colegio de Bachilleres de Tabasco; Comité Estatal Democrático, Sección XXXII y LVI de Veracruz; Sección XXXVI del Valle de México; Consejo Nacional de Sistematización; Escuelas Integrales de Educación Básica de Michoacán; Colectivo Pedagógico “Francisco Javier Acuña Hernández”; Promotora del Poder Popular de Michoacán; Caja Popular de Ahorro “Emiliano Zapata”; Colectivo de Estudios “Ricardo Flores Magón”; Movimiento de Unidad Social por un Gobierno del Pueblo (MUSOC-GP) Michoacán); Coalición de Jubilados y Pensionados “Elpidio Domínguez Castro”; Talleres Comunitarios del Municipio de Nezahualcóyotl, estado de México; Barzón Federación: Estado de México, Querétaro, Morelos, Veracruz, Guerrero y Distrito Federal; Coalición Nacional de Cooperativas y Empresas Sociales (CONACyES); Organización Nacional del Poder Popular (ONPP); Organización Nacional del Poder Popular de Morelos (ONPP-MORELOS); Organización Nacional del Poder Popular del D. F.; Asamblea Permanente de los Pueblos de Morelos, Instituto Mexicano de Desarrollo Comunitario (IMDEC); Centro de Atención en Derechos Humanos a la Mujer y el Menor Indígena (CADHMMI); Centro Regional Indígena en Derechos Humanos “Ñuu-Savi” (CERIDH); Movimiento Urbano Popular (MUP); Colectivo de Mejoramiento Barrial de la Ciudad de México – Centro Cultural Las Jarillas; Los Solidarios de la Voz del Amate de Chiapas; Colectiva Casa Gandhi de Chiapas; Red de Migrantes – Red Sin Fronteras de Puebla; Comunidad Indígena de San Francisco Xochicuautla; Organización Proletaria Emiliano Zapata – Frente de Organizaciones Sociales de Chiapas (OPEZ – FOSICH); Comité de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo de Morelos CODEP – MORELOS, y Colectivo Reexistencia Creativa.
Individual Endorsements
- Adam Moerder, Los Angeles, USA
- Aidil Oscariz, Miami
- Alan Herzfeld, National Lawyers Guild, Boise, USA
- Alan W. Clarke, Professor, Utah Valley University, Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada
- Alex Landon, National Lawyers Guild, San Diego
- Alma Clissmann, Human Rights Committee, Law Society of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
- Amy Rayack Tabor, Attleboro, MA, USA
- Andrea Acurio, PhD Genetics, Galapagos, Ecuador
- Andrew B. Reid, Adjunct Professor and Human Rights Lawyer, Boulder, Colorado USA
- Andrew Barsom, Durham, NC
- Andrew Fischer, Brookline MA
- Andrew MacCallum, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Andrew Sherman, Lawyer, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Angela B. Cornell, Cornell University Law School, Ithaca, New York, U.S.A.
- Ann Fawcett Ambia, Esq., Brooklyn
- Ann Schneider, NYC
- Anna Gavrilis Stran, Lancaster
- Anna Nathanson, President, Harvard Law School National Lawyers Guild, Cambridge, MA
- Anne Kaufman, Boston MA USA
- Anthony DiPietro, Law Office of Anthony T. DiPietro, P.C., New York, USA
- Antonia Killebrew, Attorney, Las Vegas, USA
- Ari Peterson, New York
- Arnold Kawano, National Lawyers Guild, Moraga, CA, USA
- Arturo Fournier, San Jose, Costa Rica
- Ashwini Sukthankar, Rhinecliff, NY
- Audrey Bomse, Co-chair NLG’s Palestine Subcommittee, Miami Beach
- Barbara Spinelli, Member of ELDH Executive Committee, Bologna
- Beinusz Szmukler, Asociación Americana de Juristas, Argentina
- Benjamin L. Rundall, Civil Rights Attorney
- Bennet D. Zurofsky, Esq., Montclair, New Jersey USA
- Bennett M. Cohen, Law Office of Bennett M. Cohen, PC, San Francisco
- Beth Brunton, Coordinator, Earth Care Not Warfare, Seattle, United States of America
- Beth S. Lyons, Alternate delegate to UN, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, USA
- Bethany Spieman, Chatham
- Betti Sachs, Ecuador
- Betty Capehart, Health Care Justice Activist , Vashon Island, WA
- Beverly Borja Fessenden
- Bill Montross, National Lawyers Guild, Bethesda, MD USA
- Bill Twist, Pachamama Alliance, Co-Founder & CEO, San Francisco, USA
- Bill Waddell, Law Office of Bill Waddell, San Diego, CA
- Blair Sandler, J.D. From UC Hastings College of the Law, 2011, San Francisco, CA, EEUU
- Blanca Suarez San Roman, Mexico
- Bokodjin Anoumo Dodji, Nouvelles Alternative pour le Développement Durable en Afrique, Lomé
- Bonnie Svardal, Bonnie Svardal, Sequim WA, USA,
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- Brenna Bell, Portland, OR
- Brenna Torres, Latinos Unidos por el Futuro, New York
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- Britt Stern, Alamo, CA
- Brittany Frizzelle, UMLaw NLG Student Chapter President, Intergenerational Organizer for Power U, MIAMI
- Bruce Ellison, Esq, Rapid City, SD
- Bruce Poole, The Poole Law Group, Hagerstown, Md, USA
- Bryan G. Smith, Tamaki Law Offices, Yakima, Washington, United States
- Bulbul Rajagopal, Journalist, Los Angeles, United States of America
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- Catherine Buchard, France
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- Professor Charles Nesson, Harvard Law School
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- Connor McSpadden, Los Angeles, CA USA
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- Curtis Doebbler, The Law Office of Dr Curtis FJ Doebbler, Research Professor of Law, University of Makeni (Sierra Leone)
- Dan Gilman, Past President of Seattle Chapter, Veterans For Peace, Seattle, WA 98103, U.S.A.
- Dan Mayfield, Law Office of Carpenter and Mayfield, San Jose, CA, USA
- Dana Iorio, PNHP-WW, HCFA-WA, SEIU 1199 NW, Seattle, USA
- Daniel Goodwin, New York, USA
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- Danielle Lucido, Chief Counsel, IFPTE Local 20, Albany, California, US
- Darcy Laparra, Los Angeles, United States
- David A. Klibaner, Principal, Klibaner Law Firm P.C., Denver, United States
- David Charles, Los Angeles, USA
- David L. Mandel, Human rights attorney; elected member, Central Committee, California Democratic Party, Sacramento
- David McLanahan, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery Emeritus, University of Washington, School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington
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- Gabriel Goffman, DSA SF, Co chair of Ecosocialist, San Francisco, USA
- Garrett Wright, Portland, Oregon
- Geordan G Logan, Claggett & Sykes Law Firm, Las Vegas, U.S.A.
- Gerald M. Stehura, Port Townsend, WA
- Gerald Singleton, Esq., Singleton Law Firm, APC, Senior Partner, San Diego
- Geraldine Sadoway, Law Union of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Gianfranco FATTORINI, American Association of Jurists Main Representative at UN-Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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- Gill H. Boehringer, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Macquarie University School of Law, Australia
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- Haley Pollock, JD candidate 2021, Los Angeles
- Harrison Emery, Young Democratic Socialist of Reno, Reno Nv, USA
- Hasan Tarique Chowdhury, Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh (DLAB), Bangladesh
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- Howard Silverman, Newton, MA
- Hugh Schmidt, Tacoma, Washington
- Huwaida Arraf, Civil Rights Attorney, NLG Palestine Subcommittee Co-chair, Detroit, MI USA
- Ibrahim Mark, African Bar Association, Nigeria
- Ilene Proctor, CEP Ilene Proctor Public Relations, Beverly Hills
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- James Fennerty, National Lawyers Guild, Chicago
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- James Squire, MD, Seattle, WA, USA
- Jamie Cogburn, Cogburn Law, Henderson, Nevada USA
- Jamie Trinkle, NLG PDX chapter, Portland OR USA
- Jan Fermon, Secretary-General, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Belgium
- Jan Sorders, Vice-Chair, *Americans for Democratic Action of Southern California (for ID only); Nat’l Lawyers Guild, Santa Monica, CA
- Jean Darsie, Climate change activist and endorser of the rights of people and the planet., Seattle USA
- Jeanne Mirer, President, International Association of Democratic Lawyers; Co-Chair, National Lawyers Guild International Committee
- Jeff Buncher, Charleston USA
- Jeff Goldstein, Goldstein and Feuer, Cambridge
- Jeff Petrucelly, National lawyers Guild, Cambridge MA, USA
- Jeff Vogt, Washington DC
- Jeffrey Frank, Chicago, USA
- Jennifer Jones, PORTLAND, Oregon, USA
- Jenny Lee, Owner/Managing Attorney, Jenny Legal, Las Vegas
- Jeremiah Chin, Assistant Professor, Phoenix, United States
- Jerome P. Wallingford, Attorney at Law, San Diego, California USA
- Jesse Reiblich, Williamsburg, VA USA
- Jim Lafferty, Fellow, the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Southern California
- Joan Andersson, National Lawyers Guild, Berkeley CA USA
- Joaquin Medina, Santiago, Chile
- Jody C. Moore, Johnson Moore Trial Lawyers, Thousand Oaks
- Joel R Kupferman, Environmental Justice Initiative, New York NY
- John Greenwalt, Houston, USA
- John I. Laun, Attorney at Law, Co-Founder, Colombia Support Network, Middleton, Wisconsin
- John Mage, New York, NY United States
- John Perkins, Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
- John Philpot, attorney, Montréal
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- Jon Sternberg, California Nurses association/National Nurses United, berkeley, CA
- Jonathan Boud, Communication Workers Union, Middlesex UK
- Jordan Winquist, Chair, NLG Environmental Human Rights Committee
- Joseph Lipofsky, New York City, NY US
- Josh Kohman
- Josh Zinner, New York
- Joshua Cooper, Executive Director, Hawai’i Institute for Human Rights, Honolulu
- Judy Alter, member, USA
- Judy Somberg, Chair, NLG Task Force on the Americas, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Julia Buck, Ecosocialist Caucus, Seattle DSA, Seattle, WA
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- Junga Subedar, Whatcom Civil Rights Project, Bellingham, WA
- Dean Hubbard, Jr., Chair, Labor & Employment Committee of the National Lawyers Guild (USA), Stamford, USA
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- Katarina Abraham, Director, Portobello Media Ltd, London
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- Kathy Hessler, Lewis & Clark Law School, Clinical Law Professor, Portland, Oregon USA
- Kelly Ledoux, Licensed Attorney and LL.M. Candidate in International Human Rights Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, Galway, Ireland
- Ken Montenegro, Queens, New York
- Kenneth Hall, Las Vegas United States of America
- Kenneth S. McEwan, Poulsbo, Washington USA
- Kevin Daly, Falkirk
- Kevin Zeese, co-director, Popular Resistance, Baltimore
- Kiera Griffith, San Francisco, USA
- Kiman A. Lucas, Bainbridge Island
- Krish Govender, National Association of Democratic Lawyers of South Africa (NADEL), South Africa
- Kristin Mitchell, LCSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Middlebury Vermont
- Larry Redmond, Co-chair of the International committee of the national lawyers guild, Chicago
- Laura Arroyo, Miami, USA
- Lauren Regan, attorney, Civil Liberties Defense Center
- Law Firm of Sonia Perez Chaisson, Sonia Chaisson, Owner, Los Angeles
- Lawrence A. Hildes,, NLG, Bellingham, WA
- Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School, Cambridge
- Lennox Hinds, Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University, USA
- Les Wallerstein, Lexington / USA
- Lillian Laskin, Los Angeles, CA
- Linda and Michael Gard, Fernandina Beach, Fl
- Linda Piera-Avila, Santa Monica
- Loren Miller, San Diego, USA
- Lori Deutsch, Dr. Lori Deutsch Wellness, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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- Lorraine Fontana, Atlanta
- Lou & Joan Truskoff, Earth Care Not Warfare, Seattle, USA
- Louis Duissan, Asociacion Americana de Juristas Rama Colombia, Bogota Colombia,
- Louise Lipman, Faculty Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College, New York City
- Lourdes Garcia, Teamsters Local 572, Carson, California
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- Luís Carlos Moro, American Association of Jurists, São Paulo
- Luis Yanza, Quito, Ecuador
- Luke Laughlin, Attorney at Law, Olympia, US
- Lynne Twist, President, The Soul of Money Institute, San Francisco
- M Schoenbaum, Woodside, NY
- Imran Kalmati, Kalmati Law Association, Karachi, Pakistan
- Mac Parsons, Chicago
- Marc Schauer, Brooklyn, NY
- Marcella Ribeiro d’Avila Lins Torres, Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente, AIDA, Recife, Brazil
- Margarete Bause, German Bundestag, Munich, Germany
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- Marianne Dugan, attorney, Civil Liberties Defense Center
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- Marjorie Cohn, National Lawyers Guild, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, San Diego
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- Mary Hanson, Chair, Seattle FOR, Seattle WA USA
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- Matthieu Smyth, France
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- Maximiliano Garcez, Brazil
- Maya Thomas-Davis, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, UK
- Michael D. Cok, CokKinzler PLLP, Bozeman Mt. USA,
- Michael deYcaza, Honolulu,USA
- Michael Drake, UIC JMLS NLG, Chicago
- Michael Gillis, Gillis & Bikofsky, P.C., Newton, MA
- Michael Kaufman, Communities for a Better Environment, Oakland, CA, USA
- Michael S. Sorgen, Esq., International Association of Democratic Lawyers, National Lawyers Guild, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Berkeley CA USA
- Michael Steven Smith, Cohost Law And Disorder Radio, New York City
- Michael Ward, Barnard
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- Muhammad Masaud Ghani, Democratic Lawyers Association of Pakistan, Pakistan
- Mvuso Notyesi, President, National Association of Democratic Lawyers of South Africa (NADEL), South Africa
- Myla Reson, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.
- Myrna Santiago, Saint Mary’s College of California, El Cerrito
- Nancy Alisberg, West Hartford, USA
- Nanette Kripke, NLG, NYC
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- Natalie Csengeri, Barrister, London, UK
- Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, National Lawyers Guild, past President, New York
- Nathaniel Damren, Supervising Attorney, Brooklyn Defender Services, Brooklyn, New York, USA
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- Norman Stein, Professor, Kline School of Law, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
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- Pete Olson, Attorney, Clarksville, tn
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- Philip D Althouse,, National Lawyers Guild International Committee, Elyria
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- Rebecca Tsosie, Faculty Co-Chair of Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, University of Arizona, Tucson Arizona USA
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- Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University, and Chair of Global Law, Faculty of Law, Queen Mary University London
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- Richard Spoor, Senior Partner, Richard Spoor Incorporated Attorneys, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Richard Terry Koch, NLG SF Bay Area, chair Legislative Reform Committee, San Francisco, USA
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- Tarak Kauff, Veterans For Peace, Woodstock, NY
- Teresa C Luna, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Teresa Palacios, Guayaquil, Ecuador
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- Zack Struver, New York, NY, United States
- Zeke Maggard, Esq., SGR, LLC, Denver, USA
- Zulma Miranda, Human Rights Attorney | Global Advisor at World Pulse, New York
NOTES:
[1] Michael Forst, “Stop the Killing,” Foreword, 2017 Front Line Defenders Report on Human Rights Defenders, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/sites/default/files/stk_-_full_report.pdf.
[2] See James North, “How a Human Rights Lawyer Went From Hero to House Arrest,” The Nation, March 31, 2020, https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/steven-donziger-chevron/.
[3] Press Release, “Chevron Calls for Dismissal of Ecuador Lawsuit,” Chevron Corporation, October 8, 2007, https://www.chevron.com/stories/chevron-calls-for-dismissal-of-ecuador-lawsuit (stating that if Chevron’s demands for dismissal were not met, both sides would be “sentenced” to “a lifetime of appellate and collateral litigation.”).
[4] James North, “How a Human Rights Lawyer Went From Hero to House Arrest,” The Nation, March 31, 2020, https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/steven-donziger-chevron/ (“[Kaplan] lauded Chevron as ‘a company of considerable importance to our economy that employs thousands all over the world, that supplies a group of commodities—gasoline, heating oil, other fuels, and lubricants—on which every one of us depends every single day. I don’t think there is anybody in this courtroom who wants to pull his car into a gas station to fill up and finds that there isn’t any gas there.’”).
[5] Impartiality and independence of the judiciary are understood to safeguard the objectivity and fairness of judicial proceedings and are essential elements in a system governed by the rule of law. As to impartiality, the UN Human Rights Committee has stated that it “implies that judges must not harbor any preconceptions about the matter put before them, and that they must not act in ways that promote the interests of one of the parties.” Human Rights Committee, Communication No. 387/1989 (Karttunen v. Finland), UN Doc. CCPR/C/46/D/387/1989, para. 7.2.; see also Human Rights Committee, Communication No. 263/1987 (Gonzáles del Río v. Peru), CCPR/C/46/D/263/1987, para. 5.2. (where the UN Human Rights Committee stated that the two principles of independence and impartiality of judges form “an absolute right that may suffer no exception.”).
[6] Court-mandated financial disclosure forms show Judge Kaplan owned shares in three J.P. Morgan funds that have holdings in Chevron – investments that were never disclosed despite requests for his recusal for bias in favor of Chevron. See Press Release, “U.S. Judge Kaplan Held Investments in Chevron When He Ruled for Company in Ecuador Pollution Dispute,” Amazon Watch, October 29, 2014, https://amazonwatch.org/news/2014/1029-judge-kaplan-held-investments-in-chevron-when-he-ruled-for-company.
[7] See Michael D. Goldhaber, “The Global Lawyer: Chevron’s Ecuador Case Veers Off Script at Second Circuit,” The AMLaw Daily, September 19, 2011, https://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2011/09/my-entry.html.
[8] See Sharon Lerner, “How the Environmental Lawyer Who Won a Massive Judgment Against Chevron Lost Everything,” The Intercept, January 29, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/01/29/chevron-ecuador-lawsuit-steven-donziger/, (citing a December 30, 2019 letter from Donziger’s counsel to Judge Preska stating that public records show a Seward law partner had ties to Chevron’s Board of Directors, in addition to at least one other Seward client currently receiving significant income from Chevron).
[9] Referee John R. Horan Report, In re Stephen R. Donziger, Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, RP No. 2018.7008, February 24, 2020. Available at: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Donziger-Report-02.24.20-complete.pdf.
[10] James North, “Ecuador’s Battle for Environmental Justice Against Chevron,” The Nation, June 2, 2015, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ecuadors-battle-environmental-justice-against-chevron/.
[11] Frontline Defenders Global Analysis 2019 Report on Human Rights Defenders, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/sites/default/files/global_analysis_2019_web.pdf.
[12] Art. 14 (1) of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Art. 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Art. 8, American Convention on Human Rights; Arts. 7 and 26 of the African Charter on Human Rights and Peoples’ Rights; Art. 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
[13] Report of the Special Rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy, Independence and Impartiality of the Judiciary, Jurors and Assessors and the Independence of Lawyers, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1995/39, para. 34.
[14]Judge Kaplan and Chevron continue to say that their actions against Donziger and the plaintiffs are justified by the findings against Donziger that the Ecuadorian judgment was procured by fraud. However, these are findings of a biased judge who did not credit the strong testimony by Donziger denying the allegations and were not changed even after Ecuadorian Judge Guerra, one of the most important witnesses to testify as to the alleged fraud or bribery, admitted under oath in a later arbitration proceeding Chevron brought against Ecuador that he had given false, sworn testimony in the RICO case against Donziger. See Eva Hershaw, “Chevron’s Star Witness Admits to Lying in the Amazon Pollution Case,” VICE News, October 26, 2015, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/neye7z/chevrons-star-witness-admits-to-lying-in-the-amazon-pollution-case.
[15] See Jonathan Watts, “Nobel laureates condemn ‘judicial harassment’ of environmental lawyer,“ The Guardian, April 18, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/18/nobel-laureates-condemn-judicial-harassment-of-environmental-lawyer (wherein 29 Nobel laureates urge the release of Steven Donziger and demand Chevron be held accountable for its destruction of the Ecuadorian Amazon).
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