Moves to combat internet repression, BP’s big efforts on the US Gulf coast and the Kimberley Process knocked

Internet freedoms addressed  

There are a growing number of reports citing the use of US software and equipment by repressive regimes to screen and suppress internet freedoms. The US department of commerce’s bureau of industry and security recently identified a man from the UAE who used a corporate pseudonym to supposedly send multiple Blue Coat SG9000-20 Proxy devices (which control web traffic) to Iraq, but actually sent them to Syria. While the investigation is still ongoing, the report said the Syrian telecommunications establishment is using several such devices.

In light of these developments, HRF is urging the US administration to more firmly address abuses in the ICT sector. Meg Roggensack, senior adviser on business and human rights at HRF, says the US government should pay particular attention to states in the Middle East states using technology to suppress pro-democracy activity. 

Roggensack highlighted key actions for the administration, including helping to identify potential or pending sales to repressive Middle Eastern regimes, working with tech companies to facilitate contract suspension and manage potential future sales risk, and encouraging further public-private collaboration.

HRF serves as a founding member of the Global Network Initiative, a multistakeholder group where participating companies, NGOs, investors, academics and others agree to adopt its principles and help prevent technology from being exploited by repressive regimes. 

BP’s big PR push 

BP’s recent PR blitz to rally visitors back to the US Gulf coast is hitting a nerve with locals and non-profit groups.

Nearly two years after the oil rig explosion that caused 200m gallons of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has launched a multimillion-dollar PR campaign, saying local beaches are clean and open, and tourism is on the up. The campaign hit a high during the January college football Bowl Championship Series, which happens to be in the region. 

Many, however, are not impressed. “We won’t be bought by expensive ad campaigns and hollow actions,” says Kate Slusark of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “Glossing over very real environmental devastation and livelihoods lost because of the oil spill and claiming everything is back to normal along the Gulf Coast only engenders disrespect from the people of the Gulf and insults the intelligence of the American people.”

Slusark says that while BP publically claims credit for fixing a “still broken” Gulf coast, in private it undermines reforms to make drilling safer, such as developing better emergency response and clean-up plans. The NRDC says BP could also better respond to citizen concerns about the clean-up, fulfil all local citizens’ claims, and support the full restoration of Gulf ecosystems.

Others say, though, that BP’s PR campaign is an earnest effort to drive tourism to the region and that the company is taking responsibility for the spill. In 2010 BP agreed to allot $20bn to a victims recovery fund. The sum far exceeds what is required by US law, which caps economic damages liability for offshore oil spills at $75m.

The NRDC isn’t buying it. “[While] they certainly have done work to clean up the mess they made, the point is that instead of massive ad campaigns, their energies should be focused like a laser on doing anything and everything they can to make the region whole again,” Slusark says.

Global Witness leaves Kimberley Process

Global Witness, a founding non-profit member of the Kimberley Process, has left the international certification scheme due to its inability to prevent the trade of conflict diamonds.

“Nearly nine years after the Kimberley Process was launched, the sad truth is that most consumers still cannot be sure where their diamonds come from, or whether they are financing armed violence or abusive regimes,” says Charmian Gooch, a founding director of Global Witness.

According to Gooch, three key failures prompted the group’s exit. First, the scheme failed to tackle trade in conflict diamonds from Ivory Coast. Second, members were “unwilling” to address Venezuela’s violations of the organisation’s rules, and third, the group recently approved exports from two companies operating in the controversial Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe.

Several NGOs including Global Witness, Human Rights Watch and Partnership Africa Canada have reported continued human rights abuses in the Marange fields, which were besieged by the Zimbabwean army in 2008. Global Witness also expressed concern that profits from the sale of Marange diamonds would be used to pay president Robert Mugabe’s military to intimidate voters in the run-up to elections.

“The Kimberley Process’s refusal to confront this reality is an outrage,” Gooch says.