A landmark class action case is under way in a New York federal court, with victims of apartheid in South Africa suing corporations that they say helped the pre-1994 regime. Among the multinational corporations are IBM, Fujitsu, Ford, GM and banking giants UBS and Barclays. The lawsuit accuses the corporations of “knowing participation in and/or aiding and abetting of the crimes of apartheid; extrajudicial killing; torture; prolonged unlawful detention; and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” Attorneys are seeking up to $400 billion in damages.
The Alien Tort Statute dates from the U.S. Revolutionary War era and allows people from outside the United States to bring a civil suit against another party for alleged crimes committed outside the United States.
One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Michael Hausfeld, told me: “If companies can affect lives in ways that make those lives worse, so that people are suppressed or terrorized … you are basically ascribing to eternity the fact that companies can act with both impunity and immunity.”
[Excerpt of an article by Amy Goodman]
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