Corporate Accountability in Transitional Justice

Around the world, economic actors -- including individuals, multinationals, and others in the private sector -- are complicit in human rights and environmental abuses during conflicts or under authoritarian regimes. Foreign and domestic companies, large and small, leverage conflicts so that displacement, violence, and land grabbing by governments and illegal armed groups align with their business interests. Yet when societies enter formal and informal transitional justice processes for both legal justice and social reckoning with the atrocities that occurred, corporate actors are often ignored. This impunity leaves impacted communities without redress, maintains abusive power structures, and undermines sustainable peace by preventing a full reckoning with the past and the establishment of measures to avoid recurrence. CAL uses a human-centered approach to holding companies and other economic actors accountable, by centering victims, survivors, and affected communities in designing strategies. So far, we have facilitated civil litigation skillshares, hosted the Corporate Liability and Sustainable Peace (CLASP) Lab with our partners at Dejusticia, la Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz, and the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability, provided technical support to Colombia’s transitional justice mechanisms, and organized a variety of submissions to regional and international organizations with help from our colleagues. 

What is transitional justice?

Transitional justice refers to the ways in which countries address atrocities that occurred during periods of civil conflict and repression. It consists of formal and informal processes for both legal justice, social reckoning, and preventing repetition. Historically, transitional justice processes have failed to address the role that economic actors, including multinational corporations, play in atrocities committed during conflicts. 

How is CAL advancing corporate accountability for human rights and environmental abuse in transitional justice?

CAL is examining the failure of transitional processes to include economic actors in their mandates, push the Colombian transitional justice mechanisms and relevant institutions to adopt meaningful measures that address the role of economic actors in the conflict, and develop new accountability mechanisms. Through this project, CAL provides support to the Colombian transitional justice mechanisms, including to the truth commission (known as the “CEV” for its Spanish acronyms) and the special tribunal (known as the “JEP” for its Spanish acronyms). This includes providing guidance on the US judicial system, submitting memoranda on legal concepts, writing reports, and submitted recommendations as requested. 

CAL is working with partner organizations in Colombia to push the Colombian transitional justice process to include economic actors within their work and to develop accountability strategies. CAL is also working with partners to analyze the failure of transitional justice processes to address the role of economic actors and create replicable strategies that could be implemented in other transitional justice processes around the world.

Corporate Accountability in Transitional Justice Projects

We can’t share all of the things we’re working on, but here are a few examples:

  • Colombia recently entered into a formal transitional justice process after decades of conflict. CAL has been working with partners Dejusticia and the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz to design innovative strategies to address the role of economic actors (such as corporations and individual private actors) in the Colombian conflict. The project examines the failure of other transitional processes to address the role of economic actors in conflict and uses this analysis to challenge the Colombian transitional justice mechanisms and relevant institutions to adopt meaningful measures for accountability, including through complementary and parallel accountability mechanisms. 

  • In 2020, we worked with our Colombian partners and the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability to develop the Corporate Liability and Sustainable Peace Lab (CLASP Lab), a social lab that brings together a diverse group of legal practitioners and community advocates to share experiences and create replicable strategies to hold corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses committed during conflict. The CLASP Lab consists of members from over 25 countries, mainly in Africa and Latin America. A social lab consists of a diverse group of stakeholders who share experiences and test strategies aimed at addressing root causes of social injustices. The Lab will meet throughout 2021. 

  • In 2020-2021, we developed and facilitated a civil litigation skillshares in which Colombian and Global North attorneys came together to discuss challenges and design strategies to hold corporate actors accountable for their actions during the Colombian civil conflict. This unique space allowed for unique, strategic collaboration on the issue of corporate liability for harms in conflict settings. 

  • In 2020 and 2021, we provided support to Colombia’s transitional justice mechanisms, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (known as the “JEP” for its Spanish acronyms) and the Truth Commission (known as the “CEV” for its Spanish acronyms) in the form of thematic reports, legal analysis, and recommendations based on consultations and strategic approaches. CAL has contributed to international and regional mechanisms by disseminating program outcomes and transforming our work into concrete submissions. In 2020 and 2021, we submitted comprehensive inputs to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights with a community and victim-centered approach and participated as petitioners at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ 182nd Period of Session on the issue of responsibility of economic actors in memory, truth and justice processes in the region.

Program Staff

Tatiana Devia, Staff Attorney

Avery Kelly, Staff Attorney

Corporate Accountability in Transitional Justice Blog Posts

Featured
When the Law Works: In re Chiquita, State Torts, and a New Frontier
When the Law Works: In re Chiquita, State Torts, and a New Frontier

Beginning with the history of the case, this post covers the facts and implications of the recent unanimous verdict reached by a federal jury in In re Chiquita. The first part of the post details Chiquita’s history in Colombia, the human rights abuses associated with its relationship with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), and the litigation that followed. The second part of the post considers the immediate future of this case as well as its systemic implications with a particular focus on this verdict’s implications for the use of state tort law in human rights litigation.

Can the U.S. Energy Transition Be “Just” If Critical Mineral Extraction Exploits Workers and Pollutes Communities?
Can the U.S. Energy Transition Be “Just” If Critical Mineral Extraction Exploits Workers and Pollutes Communities?

While the just transition is gestured at as a solution to the climate crisis, the extraction of critical minerals that underlies the transition often violates human rights and causes environmental damage, underscoring the limitations of the growth-focused economic model. A truly just transition is ultimately a regenerative one, of ecological resilience and reduced resource consumption. But until that can be achieved, green energy supply chains must be improved. Workers and others directly impacted by the energy transition’s thirst for critical minerals must be treated with dignity, agency, and autonomy.

Imagery from Kolwezi, DRC, which has been referred to as a disappearing city, because of the encroachment of cobalt mines on its urban area.
Attribution: Map Data: Google, Airbus Technologies, 2023.

CAL APORTA MÁS PRUEBAS SOBRE LA COMPLICIDAD DE EMPRESAS EN EL CONFLICTO ARMADO COLOMBIANO A LA JEP
CAL APORTA MÁS PRUEBAS SOBRE LA COMPLICIDAD DE EMPRESAS EN EL CONFLICTO ARMADO COLOMBIANO A LA JEP

El mes pasado, Corporate Accountability Lab presentó un informe a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz de Colombia ("JEP"). El informe examina el papel que tuvieron las multinacionales bananeras en el conflicto armado colombiano y traslada información y evidencia asociada con litigios en tribunales estadounidenses. Esta información evidencia presuntos acuerdos de financiación que beneficiaron a empresas y grupos armados ilegales, los cuales cometieron crímenes y violaciones a los derechos humanos. Este blog proporciona información sobre el presunto papel de Chiquita y Dole en el conflicto armado por medio de su financiación a grupos paramilitares. Este blog también amplía la presentación anterior de CAL sobre el papel que Drummond y Prodeco tuvieron en el conflicto, abordando y proporcionando recomendaciones sobre temas como la violencia antisindical, una transición justa y alternativa a combustibles fósiles, y una justicia restaurativa.

CAL PROVIDES MORE EVIDENCE OF CORPORATE COMPLICITY IN ARMED CONFLICT TO COLOMBIAN PEACE TRIBUNAL
CAL PROVIDES MORE EVIDENCE OF CORPORATE COMPLICITY IN ARMED CONFLICT TO COLOMBIAN PEACE TRIBUNAL

Last month, Corporate Accountability Lab submitted a report to Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (“JEP” for its Spanish acronym). The report analyzes the role that multinational banana companies played in the Colombian armed conflict and provides evidence obtained by U.S. courts of financing arrangements benefiting these companies and illegal armed groups that committed widespread human rights abuses. This post provides information regarding Chiquita and Dole’s alleged role in the armed conflict and expands on CAL’s earlier submission by addressing and providing recommendations on the issues of anti-union violence, a just transition away from fossil fuels, and restorative justice.

The 2022 CLASP Lab Convening in Bogotá: a Scrapbook
The 2022 CLASP Lab Convening in Bogotá: a Scrapbook

From June 26th to June 28th, 2022, CAL and our partners at the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability, Dejusticia, and the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz held an in-person gathering of the Corporate Liability and Sustainable Peace (CLASP) Lab, a collection of nearly 40 leaders and advocates from 25 countries, in Bogotá, Colombia. The convening was the culmination of a year-long virtual “social lab” process in which we led the group through an adaptation of our legal design process around the question of corporate impunity for human rights and environmental abuses committed during conflict–and how to break with that impunity.

21 años de impunidad empresarial y la resistencia del sindicato colombiano Sintramienergética
21 años de impunidad empresarial y la resistencia del sindicato colombiano Sintramienergética

El mes pasado, la Comisión Colombiana de Juristas (CCJ) en alianza con PAX Colombia y el Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria Minera, Petroquímica, Agrocombustibles y Energética (Sintramienergética) presentó el informe titulado “La explotación minera de Drummond Ltda.: epicentro de persecución, asesinatos y violaciones de libertades sindicales” a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP). El informe se centra en la violencia sufrida por el sindicato Sintramienergética, incluyendo el exterminio de sus líderes sindicales en el 2001. Este blog es una actualización del blog de abril de 2021. Esta entrada proporciona información adicional sobre los asesinatos de los líderes sindicales, a la vez que describe su trabajo, el contexto en el que fueron asesinados y la lucha actual contra la impunidad por sus muertes.

21 Years of Corporate Impunity - The Systematic Attempt to Eliminate a Union’s Leadership in Colombia
21 Years of Corporate Impunity - The Systematic Attempt to Eliminate a Union’s Leadership in Colombia

Last month, the Comisión Colombiana de Juristas (CCJ) in alliance with PAX Colombia and the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria Minera, Petroquímicas, Agrocombustibles y Energética (Sintramienergética) submitted a report entitled Drummond Ltda. Coal Mining: epicenter of persecutions, assassinations and violations to freedom of association to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP, for its Spanish acronym). The report focuses on the violence suffered by the union Sintramienergetica, including the extermination of its leadership in 2001. This blog post is an update to CAL’s blog from April 2021. This post provides additional information on the union leaders’ assassinations while describing their organizing work, the context in which they were killed, and the ongoing fight against impunity for their deaths.

CAL provee evidencia de la complicidad empresarial en el conflicto armado a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz en Colombia
CAL provee evidencia de la complicidad empresarial en el conflicto armado a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz en Colombia

Corporate Accountability Lab presentó recientemente a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) la primera parte de un informe sobre el papel de las empresas multinacionales en el conflicto armado. El informe sirve para apoyar las investigaciones del tribunal de justicia transicional sobre los crímenes cometidos en regiones como el Cesar y el Magdalena Medio a través de asociaciones entre agentes del Estado, paramilitares y "terceros" ("terceros civiles" o "no combatientes"). La última de estas categorías es muy amplia y puede incluir a las empresas.

CAL Provides Evidence of Corporate Complicity in Armed Conflict to Colombian Peace Tribunal
CAL Provides Evidence of Corporate Complicity in Armed Conflict to Colombian Peace Tribunal

Corporate Accountability Lab recently submitted the first half of a report about the role of multinational companies in the armed conflict to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP, for its acronym in Spanish). The report serves to support the transitional justice tribunal’s investigations into crimes committed in regions including Cesar and Magdalena Medio through associations between state agents, paramilitaries, and “terceros” (“third party civilians” or “non combatants”). The last of these categories is very broad and can include corporations. The role of all actors–not just combatants–must be reckoned with to achieve justice and sustainable peace in Colombia and beyond.

Corporate Accountability Lab reafirma su apoyo a la Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz y su trabajo en materia de justicia restaurativa y garantías de no repetición
Corporate Accountability Lab reafirma su apoyo a la Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz y su trabajo en materia de justicia restaurativa y garantías de no repetición

Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) reafirma su apoyo a la Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz (CIJP) y su compromiso hacia una paz sostenible en Colombia. En los últimos días, los ataques públicos contra el trabajo de la CIJP han aumentado. La CIJP está siendo falsamente acusada de ofrecer beneficios judiciales a favor de una campaña presidencial. CAL no puede permanecer en silencio ante estos ataques contra uno de nuestros aliados más cercanos en América Latina.