29 Nobel Laureates condemn Chevron pollution in Ecuador
Alec Baldwin, Roger Waters, and others around the world support the Nobel laureates in their demand that Chevron clean up their mess, pay the court-ordered compensation, and cease the persecution of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger.
Human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, 9 months in home detention orchestrated by Chevron lawyers and a pro-corporate US judge. Photograph by Annie Tritt for The Intercept.
NEW YORK: On April 16, 2020, 29 Nobel Prize Laureates issued a statement to Chevron Corporation that the company "face justice" for their pollution in the Amazon, compensate the victims as ordered by an Ecuadorian court after an 8-year trial, and cease their harassment of the plaintiffs' human rights lawyer Steven Donziger.
The Nobel laureates emphasized their support for "Steven Donziger and the Indigenous peoples and local communities in Ecuador, in their decades-long work to achieve environmental justice over pollution caused by Chevron." They have received support from actor Alec Baldwin, musician Roger Waters, Amazon Watch, Global Witness, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace USA, and from lawyers, human rights advocates, and environmentalists around the world.
Actor Alec Baldwin spoke out on behalf of the the indigenous victims of Chevron’s pollution. Photograph by Gage Skidmore.
The Nobel laureates include prize winners in Medicine, Peace, Economics, Physics, Literature, and Chemistry. "Chevron's strategy is to manipulate the legal system," said 1997 Peace Prize winner Jody Williams. "Rather than pay the legal compensation to their victims," Williams added, "Chevron has spent over $2 billion in an attempt to intimidate and disempower their victims and human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, who has defended them."
The Nobel laureates said they jointly "support Steven Donziger and the Indigenous peoples and local communities in Ecuador in their decades-long work to achieve environmental justice over pollution caused by Chevron.
"We call for a judicial remedy for the legal attacks orchestrated by Chevron against Donziger and for the defamation of his character," they wrote. "Chevron and a pro-corporate judicial ally, US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, manufactured 'contempt' charges against [Donziger]. Chevron's strategy is death by a thousand cuts ... Its goal is to intimidate and disempower the victims of its pollution and a lawyer who has worked for decades on their behalf."
Actor and film producer Alec Baldwin accused Chevron of "decades of trying to avoid prosecution, exploiting its vast resources in court, and ignoring the cries of its victims ... looking to evade justice. What is happening to Donziger is not only unfair, it's unprecedented. It is happening because Donziger won. That's why Chevron and Kaplan are trying to wear him down, to distract from the real priority... to do right by the Ecuadorian people. Kaplan is bought and sold by the oil industry," Baldwin said. "They [Chevron] don't have a leg to stand on in terms of the case. All they have is to make Donziger the bad guy ... to nullify him with personal attacks."
"I have stood in [Donziger's] shoes with those people and looked into their eyes when I visited Ecuador," said Roger Waters, founder of the classic progressive rock band Pink Floyd. "This cannot be swept under the rug interminably, which is what [Chevron is] trying to do. Well, that rug is getting lumpy because of the people here and all the other hundreds of thousands of activists around the world." Waters earlier stated, "Chevron’s own shareholders have written to them asking them to settle with the victims. I hope Chevron comes to the table, negotiates a settlement, and stops its attack on the victims' lawyer, Mr. Donziger. Most of all, however, I hope for justice for the people of Ecuador."
Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize
"Laureates from every discipline have signed this statement of support," 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams said. "Whether they are from medicine or physics or chemistry or literature, they have all signed because they believe in the rule of law, they believe in justice, and they believe that the people of Ecuador deserve the judgment be carried out, the $9.5 billion suit against Chevron should be paid."
"[Chevron] decided that they must vilify Steven Donziger,” Williams continued. "They want to use all of the tactics they have been using with their judicial ally, US district judge Lewis A. Kaplan. They want to use all of the PR firms, all of the billions of dollars they have spent on harassing Steven Donziger and his family, to show environmentalists, to show activists all over the world that you cannot go up against corporations, you cannot defend what you believe to be true and right. Those of us who have signed this statement do not accept that. We do what we believe to be right for the greater good. Not for the good of a corporation.”
Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger spoke out today from house arrest: "I have been in home confinement for almost nine months. This appears to be part of a new corporate playbook used to undermine successful corporate accountability and human rights advocates by using the law as a weapon of attack against the vulnerable, rather than as a shield to protect the vulnerable from abuse by the powerful."
"The way this is happening is deeply disturbing," Donziger said. "In a normal criminal case in the federal system in the United States, a person is charged by a grand jury comprised of citizens and then prosecuted by professional lawyers in the U.S. Attorney's office who are obligated to adhere to high ethical standards. In this case, none of this has happened. Instead, a single judge charged me, handpicked a longtime colleague to be the judge, and -- after the U.S. Attorney's office refused the case -- Kaplan hand-selected a private law firm that has Chevron as a client to prosecute me.
"The affected communities won the underlying environmental case after an eight-year trial in Chevron's preferred jurisdiction of Ecuador. That victory still stands and still poses enormous risk to Chevron. It was affirmed on appeal three times in Ecuador. It was affirmed in Canada unanimously by the country's Supreme Court for enforcement purposes. The highest courts in Ecuador and Canada have validated the case for enforcement purposes, as has the highest appellate court in New York. The Ecuadorian communities have a robust and capable international legal team exploring all options to enforce the judgment. The case is continuing and Chevron will, I believe, be forced to comply with its legal obligations to the people of Ecuador."
"Amazon Watch has been working on this for almost twenty years," said Paul Paz y Miño, Associate Director of Amazon Watch. " I've been in the courtroom to witness what Kaplan inflicted on the very idea of justice. I have seen every single stage of the intimidation tactics, the lies, the bribery, the scams and unethical and illegal behavior by Chevron and their lawyers. It is a very palpable and incredible threat to the idea of corporate accountability and justice in the United States. At every turn, the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon have been denied access to justice. And when they finally beat an international oil company in court, that company has spared no expense to ignore that ruling, cast itself as the victim, and attack the very people they poisoned and those who stand with them, like Steven Donziger."
"This sheds shame on the Southern District of New York," said Simon Taylor, co-founder of the international rights organization Global Witness, which works to end corruption and support human rights defenders. "There's something unjust at the core of the prosecution and it needs to be investigated. We need to see an end to this so we can go back to the real subject, which is the plight of the people affected by the pollution in the forest."
Ginger Cassady, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network said, "It is beyond outrageous that Chevron, already found guilty and ordered to pay billions of dollars, has yet to be held accountable for its crimes in the Amazon, while Steven, a long time environmental and human rights advocate, has been imprisoned in his home. This continued arbitrary detention sets a very dangerous precedent that violates the core concepts of justice and freedom in the United States judicial system."
During the course of Chevron's legal attacks, the New York Bar suspended Donziger's law license without a hearing. Human rights organizations demanded a public appeal hearing, and in February, 2020, John Horan, the officer presiding over Donziger's bar appeal proceedings recommended that Steven Donziger receive his law license back, stating: "My recommendation is that his interim suspension should be ended, and that he should be allowed to resume the practice of law." Horan's decision was the first time any authority in the U.S. has reviewed the actual allegations made against Donziger in Chevron's racketeering suit.
Roger Waters, speaking at the Courthouse in Toronto during a hearing for the victims of Chevron’s pollution in Ecuador.
Roger Waters, who spoke as a character witness at the bar hearing, said that Horan's report "told Lewis Kaplan exactly who he was, and what he was."
Renowned human rights and civil liberties attorney Martin Garbus is among dozens of civil society leaders around the world, who have supported the Nobel laureates. “We come together as global citizens to demand that Steven Donziger be treated fairly by New York judicial authorities in the face of what appears to be a flagrant abuse of power by Chevron as it desperately seeks to evade responsibility for its pollution,” said Garbus, a First Amendment scholar who has represented Daniel Ellsberg, Cesar Chavez, and Nelson Mandela during a distinguished legal career spanning six decades.
Other supporters include Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, who teaches a course that focuses on the Ecuador case; Clive Stafford-Smith, a leading death penalty lawyer and the founder of the London-based human rights group Reprieve; Atossa Soltani and Leila Salazar, respectively, the founder and executive director of Amazon Watch; Andrew Frisch, a former federal prosecutor; Lynne and Bill Twist, co-founders of the Pachamama Alliance, which works to protect Indigenous territory in the Amazon; and John Perkins, the bestselling author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."
From Ecuador, supporters include Billy Navarrete Benavides, Executive Director of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDH); Rafael Pandam, President of the Amazon Parliament of Ecuador; Luis Yanza, recipient of the Goldman Prize; Patricio Salazar, attorney and member of the Board of the Quito Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Antonio Malo Larrea, a professor and leading ecologist; Dr. Camilo Martinez Iglesias, former Professor at the University of Barcelona; Dr. Felipe Ogaz Oveido, Founder of Accion Juridica Popular, a rule of law organization; and Dr. Maria Cecelia Herrera, a human rights lawyer and former United Nations official.
Nobel Laureates statement here: www.makechevroncleanup.com
Video of Nobel laureate press conference
Call to action ask U.S. Department of Justice to seek the release of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger
Background memo on Steven Donziger's case (PDF)