The Human Rights trend of the Energy Industry

In the energy industry a key ethics issue that has come up in the previous twenty years is the problem of alleged human rights abuses. Most major companies have at minimum had a conflict of interest if not a more involved role, which resulted in a law suit. One such company was ExxonMobil who purportedly committed human rights violations in Indonesia. This supposedly took place in Aceh where the Arun Natural Gas Oil Fields, otherwise known as Lhokesumawe Industrial Zone, is located. The events that took place in Aceh are that the Indonesian Military under the security contract of ExxonMobil took on operations against the Free Aceh Movement, an armed pro-independence group. As a result of these human rights violations Amnesty International worked to created disincentives for ExxonMobil to prevent them from continuing to commit human rights abuses. The primary method used was pressuring ExxonMobil through Shareholder resolutions. These detriments ultimately led ExxonMobil to make Corporate Social Responsibility a key part of its core values in 2004 so that they could continue to succeed in the international investment community.

Unfortunately, human rights abuses by energy companies is not unique to only ExxonMobil and may even be considered a trend. One other known example of this include Royal Dutch Shell’s alleged human rights abuses in Nigeria following the 1995 executions of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight fellow activists of his. The families of the victims ended up suing ExxonMobil in Manhattan District Court under the Alien Tort Statue, which allows federal courts to hear cases that are, “committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States” (Alien Tort Statue). Another example of this is Canada’s Talisman Energy, who, invested in a significant amount of the oil available in Sudan in the late 1990’s during Sudan’s second civil war, where human rights abuses and possible genocide were reported.

I personally think its abhorrent that in this day and age we continue to hear of some of the world’s largest corporations such as Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil committing human rights violations and not only ignoring what is ethically correct, but above all what is moral. Any killing is immoral especially if it is done in order to drill for oil, which these corporations already have plenty of throughout the world. These corporations have, however, rectified their previous stances on Human Rights and have made pledges to be socially responsible corporations by making their employees aware of what is defined as ethical and unethical workplace conditions.

sources:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR54/010/2001/en/97b04192-d94e-11dd-a057-592cb671dd8b/afr540102001en.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/xom_background.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338378610356591.html?hat_input=talisman+energy+sudan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124450531968496113.html