29 Nobel Laureates Demand Freedom for Human Rights Lawyer Steven Donziger
Alec Baldwin, Roger Waters, and other activists join Nobel laureates in their demand that Chevron clean up its pollution, pay court-ordered compensation, and cease the persecution of Donziger.
Background Information
Chevron, operating as Texaco, dumped 16 billion gallons of toxic oil waste in the Ecuadorian rainforest from 1964 to 1992, causing a massive public health catastrophe and humanitarian crisis. Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger played a key role in helping Indigenous peoples and local communities win a landmark $9.5 billion judgment in Ecuador against Chevron in 2011.
Instead of complying with the court’s mandate that Chevron remediate its extensive environmental damage, the company threatened the affected communities with a “lifetime of litigation” and withdrew its assets from Ecuador. Chevron refuses to accept responsibility for its role in this disaster, and 916 unlined open toxic waste pits remain, poisoning Ecuadorians' drinking water to this day. Instead, Chevron has spent an estimated $2 billion to fund a legal and media attack campaign to “demonize Donziger” and other advocates, and evade accountability.
Chevron also counts on the support of a controversial U.S. federal trial judge, who has confiscated Donziger's passport, ordered him to turn over his computer and phone for review by Chevron, and put him under indefinite house arrest while he awaits trial on criminal contempt charges related to his challenges to Chevron. Donziger has been under house arrest for over 250 days – without having been convicted of a crime. This is unprecedented. Donziger appears to be the only lawyer in U.S. history who has ever been detained pre-trial on a contempt charge. Chevron’s strategic assaults are intended to smear Donziger, prevent Ecuadorians from seeing justice, and intimidate human rights lawyers and advocates who dare to stand up to big oil.
29 Nobel laureates are now demanding that Steven be freed and that Chevron face justice for Amazon pollution.