International Alert and the Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies launched the Red Flags guide and web site 23 May at a seminar in London.
The launch at a seminar at the Institute of Directors in London. On the panel were: John Ruggie, UN; Edward Bickham, Anglo-American plc; Mark Taylor, Fafo; and Dan Smith, International Alert
"A company risks enabling mass atrocities when it
provides resources, goods, services, or other forms
of practical support that help sustain crimes against
humanity or genocide." Human Rights First has released advice to companies on the risks of contributing to the world's worst crimes.
A plane sits on the tarmac in Bangkok waiting to take alleged arms dealer Victor Bout to the US. But Bout is at the centre of a Russia-U.S. tug of war being played out in a Thai court. Al Jazeera English reports:
.
See also a BBC report "From Our Own Correspondent".
Private companies sub-contracted to the Pentagon are allegedly "paying millions of dollars in protection money to Afghan warlords, and potentially to the Taliban, to secure convoys carrying supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan", congressional investigators said in a report.
A Swedish prosecutor has opened a preliminary investigation into claims that Lundin Oil was involved in war crimes in Sudan. The news comes in the wake of a report by a group of aid agencies alleging "possible complicity" on the part of a consortium of oil companies in connection with the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A report out this week from Fafo, Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre identifies obstacles to judicial remedies for business involvement in human rights abuses and sets out a series of reforms. The report argues governments need to take urgent action.
The Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that appeals judges erred when they threw out the case against the former head of the Oriental Timber Company, Guus van Kouwenhoven. The Supreme Court ruled that the appeals court should have allowed the prosecution's request to hear the evidence of two new witnesses in the case which involves arms deals in connection with Charles Taylor's regime in Liberia.
The former president of the US private security firm, Blackwater Worldwide, and four other former workers have been indicted under U.S. federal weapons laws that prohibit trading and stockpiling in small arms.
A U.S. Homeland Security report obtained by Reuters claims that a a growing fleet of "rogue jet aircraft" has been regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean carrying cocaine and guns between areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to some of West Africa's most unstable countries. The report alleges a connection to Al Qaida in Africa.
Arms and transport broker Victor Bout is at the centre of a Russia-U.S. tug of war, with U.S. lawmakers demanding his extradition and Russia protesting strongly.
