“Individuals who were affected by the company’s misconduct will now have an opportunity to testify before a Swedish court and we hope that survivors will also receive adequate remedy and compensation in the event of conviction”, said Ulrika Sandberg, senior business and human rights adviser at Amnesty Sweden.

Head of the Investigation and Public Prosecutor, Henrik Attorps, said: “It is important that these serious crimes are not forgotten. War crimes are some of the most serious crimes that Sweden has an international obligation to investigate and bring to justice. A large number of civilians suffered as a result of the Sudanese regime’s crimes, which we argue the indicted were complicit in. Many of the civilians who survived were forced to flee their homes and never return, and still today have no idea what happened to the relatives and friends from whom they were separated”.

Amnesty International was one of the first organisations to report on human rights violations in the area where Lundin Energy and other international oil companies were operating, in what is now South Sudan. The European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS), whose report Unpaid Debt led a Swedish prosecutor to open a preliminary investigation in 2010, estimated that 12,000 people lost their lives and that 160,000 were forced to flee.

Despite the publication of several reports making similar accusations against the company, Lundin Energy has neither commissioned an external audit to investigate these accusations, nor been willing to discuss any form of remediation or compensation for those affected.

Amnesty International hopes that the legal proceedings will help to clarify criminal liability standards for corporate actors complicit in serious international crimes, including during armed conflict. “The lawsuit is also extremely important for individuals and groups around the world who campaign for corporate accountability, especially in the extractive industry that so often affects local communities and the environment in a very invasive way”, said Ulrika Sandberg.

BACKGROUND

In 1997, the Swedish oil and gas company Lundin Energy AB, then Lundin Oil AB, entered into an agreement to extract oil with the government of what was then Sudan, led by President Omar al-Bashir, since charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court. Lundin Oil collaborated in a business consortium with the Malaysian company Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd, the Austrian company OMV (Sudan) Exploration GmbH, and the Sudanese state oil company Sudapet Ltd. in a region called Block 5A.

The Swedish criminal proceedings focus on the connection between Lundin Energy’s business operations and the atrocities committed against the civilian population that allegedly took place to enable oil extraction in the Block 5A region. At the time of the events, the country was shaken by a civil war which, according to UN Special Procedures, was in part fuelled by the presence of oil companies. The horrific abuses, documented in several human rights reports, included forced recruitment of child soldiers and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

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“Despite a growing understanding of the role played by corporate actors in the commission and facilitation of human rights abuses – ranging from war crimes to environmental harms – the number of convictions against such actors remains outrageously low. Tackling this requires strong partnerships and strategic coalitions with members of civil society who work hard in exposing corporate wrongdoing,” said Montse Ferrer, manager of the Corporate Crimes Project.

The NGOs who are part of this network include:

• Al Haq, an independent Palestinian NGO established to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
• Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) is an Argentinian organisation founded to promote and protect human rights, justice and social inclusion, both nationally and internationally;
• Community Resource Centre Foundation (CRC) is a Thai NGO committed to protecting and promoting human rights, community rights and the environment through litigation and advocacy;
• The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is an independent, non-profit legal and educational that uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders;
• The Fédération internationale des ligues de droits de l’homme (FIDH) is an international human rights NGO federating 192 organisations from 117 countries to defend all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
• Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) in an independent non-profit organisation which fights injustice and seeks to improve the lives of the disempowered through legal actions across borders;
• Proyecto sobre Organización, Desarrollo, Educación e Investigación (PODER) is a regional non-profit organisation that advocates for corporate transparency and accountability in Latin American countries from a cipf-es.org human rights perspective and empowers civil society actors to lead the fight;
• The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) promotes and advances human rights and the rule of law in southern Africa, primarily through strategic litigation support and capacity building;
• South Africa Resource Watch (SARW) is an independent watchdog institution that monitors corporate state conduct relating to the extractives industry in southern Africa, with a view to improving human conditions through good governance of the region’s resources;
• Sherpa is a French NGO dedicated to protecting and defending victims of economic crimes, drawing on the power of the law to fight against new forms of impunity linked to globalisation; and
• The Syrian Legal Development Program (SLDP) is an NGO established in response to the Syrian conflict to promote a Syrian community that is premised on human rights and the rule of law.

Global Echo Litigation Center is also part of the Network. Other NGOs and members of civil society are invited to contact the Corporate Crimes Project if you are interested in joining this network, which will meet regularly in private to discuss strategies for addressing corporate impunity.

Click here to watch a video with all of our NGO partners.

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The Project aims to address business involvement in a broad range of crimes linked to human rights abuses including forced labour, war crimes, financial crimes and environmental harm.

“The Hub is launched at a time of rampant corporate impunity where the imbalance of power between businesses and those who suffer from their wrongdoing couldn’t be greater,” said Mark Dummett, Director of the Global Issues Programme at Amnesty International. “States have an obligation to stand up to rights abusing companies but all too often give the impression that they are too big to prosecute.”

Montse Ferrer, manager of the Corporate Crimes Project and Researcher/Legal Advisor of the Business, Security and Human Rights, said of the site: “The challenges facing civil society and law enforcement in investigating corporate cases are numerous. This website will provide tools to aid those who are investigating the impacts of corporate acts on human rights, against all odds and often also in the face of immense risk.”

In order to address some of these challenges, the Hub provides three main tools: (1) information on legal offences committed by corporate actors, ranging from war crimes to forced labour; (2) a Case Map listing criminal cases filed against corporate actors since 2000; and (3) a toolbox of resources for corporate investigations.

Click here for a short tutorial on how to use the Hub:

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