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:
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See also a BBC report "From Our Own Correspondent".
"Global Witness has applied to the UK High Court for a judicial review of the Government's failure to investigate a number of British companies and individuals known to have been trading in minerals sourced from war-torn eastern Congo. Extensive evidence from Global Witness, the UN Group of Experts and others, shows that British companies have supported armed groups by purchasing minerals from areas under their control in the DRC. Despite this, the UK government has never put any of them forward for sanctions."
A new U.S. law requires publicly traded companies to disclose to the SEC whether their products contain gold, tin, tungsten or tantalum from Congo or adjacent countries. If so, they have to describe what measures they are taking to trace the minerals' origin. The State and Treasury departments are examining the possibility of future sanctions against U.S. companies that use "conflict minerals."
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 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.
Campaigning organizations have lodged a complaint in France against leading international timber company Dalhoff, Larsen and Horneman (DLH) alleging that "during the civil war in Liberia from 2000-2003, DLH brought timber from Liberian companies that provided support to Charles Taylor's brutal regime."
