http://www.indonesiaalert.org/article.php?id=38
Human Rights Abuses in Plantation and Land Rights Conflict in Bulukumba, South Sulawesiby Abdul Wahib SitumorangMay 27th, 2004
On July 21, 2003, 1,500 people in the Kajang district of Bulukumba regency, in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi, gathered at the PT Pan London Sumatra (Lonsum) plantation. The villagers started to clear land in Bonto Maringin that they claimed the company took from them in 1982. Twenty Mobil Brigade (Brimob) officers went to the scene and ordered villagers to disperse. Jusuf Manggabarani, Commandant of the South Sulawesi Police, has since admitted that the police did not follow proper procedures. They opened fire, and according to Ridha Saleh, Deputy Director of the Indonesian Forum on the Environment (WALHI), three people were killed, dozens hurt, and many more detained, including activists who had helped the villagers with their land claims.
According to news reports, the South Sulawesi Police interrogated 11 Bulukumba police officers, including the Commandant of Bulukumba district, Tigor Situmorang. Various NGOs, including WALHI, the Legal Aid Association (LBH), and the Indonesian Indigenous Peoples Alliance (AMAN) have protested the police violence, intimidation of protestors, and actions taken against activists who helped local people organize; M.M. Billah of the National Human Rights Commission pointed to serious human rights violations of those attacked in Bulukumba. But little came of these protests or the official investigation of the incident. On October 3, 2003, the police again opened fire on demonstrators; one person was shot, more were hurt, and four people were detained.
Lonsum: The Bulukumba plantations are owned by Lonsum, which has plantations in North and South Sumatra as well as in Sulawesi and was originally a subsidiary of the British company Harrison & Crosfield. According to Idham Arsyad, Deputy Director of WALHI South Sulawesi, the Indonesian consortium PT Pan London Sumatra Plantation (PLSP), owned by Anry Pribadi from the Napan group, Ibrahim Risyad from the Rijadso group and Henry Liem, bought Lonsum for $273 million in 1994. PLSP has sold 25 percent of its holdings to Happy Cheer Limited and 6 percent to Commerzbank. Lonsum has faced protests by the local community and environmental activists in Lubuk Linggau, South Sumatra, where fires set to clear land for planting spread out of control in 1997. Protests also dogged Lonsum over land conflicts and damage to the environment in North Sumatra. According to the newspaper Fajar, Lonsum has not paid taxes to local government.
Origins of the Conflict: In the 1980s Lonsum, given land use concession rights (Hak Guna Usaha, HGU) to 5,784,000 hectares to develop a rubber plantation by the government, removed indigenous Kajang people from South Sulawesi villages and destroyed their homes and gardens, with support from Bulukumba district government officials and military personnel. Like some other ethnic groups in South Sulawesi, the Kajang have traditionally claimed rights to forested lands where they gather non-timber forest products and plant fruit trees to increase their income. Maddoro, a Kajang villager, reports that his parents had grown crops in the area since 1953.
In 1982, 172 Kajang families therefore went to court to establish land rights against Lonsum. In 1988, the Supreme Court directed Lonsum to return 200 hectares to local villagers. While this decision validated Kajang land claims, it did not resolve the dispute, because the Kajang claimed rights to 564 hectares of land, an area determined by natural boundaries rather than evidence of cultivation. During the Suharto era, intimidation from local officials and military officers kept Bulukumba villagers from fighting for land rights. President Suharto’s fall in May 1998 opened a window of opportunity for villagers to reclaim their land. Hundreds went to the Bulukumba district legislature and government offices to present claims.
In 1999, the district court delegated Abdi Karo to confirm Kajang land claims. He validated the claim of 564 hectares based on natural boundaries, as the establishment of the plantation had eliminated all evidence of Kajang cultivation. Lonsum then demanded that the court abide by the original decision granting 200 hectares to Kajang villagers, and in 2000, the district court handed down a decision supporting Lonsum, directing that 200 hectares be returned to Kajang villagers and compensation be paid to villagers who did not receive land.
The Cycle of Escalating Violence:
Some Kajang villagers accepted payment for their land claims, but others refused. Between March 5 and 9, 2003, Lonsum employees attacked homes of the holdouts, burning down several houses and intimidating people with gunfire. Police who witnessed this violence did not stop it or detain the attackers. Subsequently 700 Kajang villagers demonstrated at the Bulukumba district legislature to demand that police confiscate the illegal guns of Lonsum employees. The Kajang people also accused Lonsum of forging signatures on documents agreeing to compensation and demanded that police investigate.
The government agreed to proceed with an investigation, but between April 1 and 15, 86 Kajang villagers were summoned to police headquarters and intimidated. On May 28 and 29, 2003, the police and Lonsum destroyed homes in the villages of Bonto Mangiring and Bonto Baji and detained four residents. This led to further protests by the Kajang, with hundreds demonstrating at the district legislature between June 1 and 10, 2003. Protestors demanded that police remain neutral in the dispute between the Kajang and Lonsum, and that those taken into custody be released. Negotiations between the Kajang and the police and district legislature of Bulukumba led to an agreement that the detained Kajang would be released, but the authorities subsequently reneged, saying that the district police of Bone did not accept the agreement.
Unresolved Police Abuse
This triggered a further attempt by Kajang villagers to reclaim their land, ending in the killing of three villagers described at the beginning of this article. As of May 2004, no police officer has been brought to court or punished, even though there is clear evidence that police used excessive force and did not follow procedures. Instead, WALHI South Sulawesi and the Popular Education Institute (YPR) have been attacked as provocateurs. In August 2003, the South Sulawesi Police Chief accused Indah Patinaware, the Director of WALHI South Sulawesi, of defamation because she demanded that he resign after failing to curb police abuse of power in Bulukumba. She is now being prosecuted.
The Kajang-Lonsum conflict is only one of countless land conflicts in Indonesia. According to the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), the Indonesian government has made no serious effort to deal with land issues, although there are hundreds of ongoing land conflicts. Instead, as in Bulukumba, the government uses police and lower-level officials to protect the interest of big corporations, and activists who become involved are labeled provocateurs. Sources: 1. Amnesty International August 4, 2003. 2. Arsyad, Idham Personal Interview December 17, 2003. 3. Down to Earth “Dibalik Peristiwa Penembakan Masyarakat Adat: Awal Sebuah Tragedi Berdarah.”
dte.gn.apc.org/AMAN/kasus/bkgrkjg.html. 4. Kompas “Kapolres Bulukumba Tersangka Kasus PT Lonsum,” September 2, 2003. 5. LBH Palembang and WALHI Sumatera Selatan “Daftar Kasus-Kasus Pertanahan Di Sumatera Selatan,” 1998. 6. Ridha, Saleh Personal Interview, December 18, 2003. 7. Sinar Harapan “Diduga Terlibat Kasus Bulukumba 11 Anggota Polisi Diperiksa,” September 3, 2003. 8. Tempo Interactive “Komnas HAM Temukan Indikasi Pelanggaran Hak Asasi Manusia di Bulukumba,” August 8, 2003.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Plantations in Liberia
Human rights problems in Liberia require national, international response – UN
22 March 2007 – Problems relating to juvenile justice, due process, law and order structures and violence against women and children persist in Liberia, a new United Nations human rights report on the country says, calling for national and international efforts in response while citing progress in legislating against these abuses.
Covering the period between August and October 2006, the report pays particular attention to the fact that the Rape Amendment Act is not yet adequately implemented by the national authorities charged with the investigation, prosecution and trial of suspects, despite clear legislative provisions.
“The very small number of cases indicted and tried to date is an indicator that far more needs to be done to ensure that the various institutions of justice coordinate to address rape as a crime and as a human rights violation,” it states.
The report also draws attention to continued cases of possible excessive use of force by police officers and police custody beyond the 48 hour constitutional limit. Private security guards working on rubber plantations “failed to observe the limits of their authority,” while instances of mob justice and vigilante action marked a “worrying response to the incapacity of the police to protect the community from crime.”
Concerns are also raised regarding the inability of the judiciary to uphold human rights standards, constitutional guarantees and legal procedure. At the same time, conditions in prisons and detention facilities are called “very poor.” People in State custody are put at risk by “strained food supplies and unacceptably poor hygiene.” Lengthy pre-trial detention and bad conditions reportedly led to disturbances in several counties.
The administration of juvenile justice, long a problem in Liberia, also comes under scrutiny in the report, which cites cases involving juveniles not handled in accordance with the law.
Women and girls in some areas of Liberia remain at risk of female genital mutilation, including forced submission to the practice. In addition, trial by ordeal, where suspects are tested with torment, remains a “serious threat” to the establishment of the rule of law and the enjoyment of fundamental rights.
The plight of children living in orphanages is also a matter of concern, because of their vulnerability to neglect. “Unfortunately, orphanages remained an attractive option to parents and guardians who lacked financial means to provide for their children,” the report notes.
On the positive side, human rights at rubber plantations “appear to be improving” particularly on Guthrie plantation, according to the report, but it warns that the security situation in Firestone plantation “has deteriorated and may exacerbate the human rights concerns noted in relation to the exercise of police powers by the private security guards there.”
The 43-page report cites progress in strengthening Liberia’s legal framework, including the ratification of international treaties and the passage of key legislation. It also contains a number of recommendations aimed at supporting the Government’s continuing efforts to strengthen human rights protection through the democratic rule of law.
It calls on the Government of Liberia to complete ratification of all human rights treaties which it has already signed and to ensure that the Rape Amendment Act is fully implemented. “A concerted and ongoing effort towards community education and sensitization to sexual assault issues, including broader discrimination against women, should be undertaken in cooperation with nongovernmental organizations,” the report states, calling for a number of other concrete measures to address the problem of rape.
Courts, police stations and prisons should be equipped with adequate supplies of basic equipment to allow proper management of files and recordkeeping, to protect fair trial standards, UNMIL says, calling also for the Government to review the juvenile justice system and improve conditions in detention centres and prisons.
Measures are also needed to address the situation at rubber plantations, the report says, urging the Government and its international partners to work towards carrying out past agreements on the issue.
22 March 2007 – Problems relating to juvenile justice, due process, law and order structures and violence against women and children persist in Liberia, a new United Nations human rights report on the country says, calling for national and international efforts in response while citing progress in legislating against these abuses.
Covering the period between August and October 2006, the report pays particular attention to the fact that the Rape Amendment Act is not yet adequately implemented by the national authorities charged with the investigation, prosecution and trial of suspects, despite clear legislative provisions.
“The very small number of cases indicted and tried to date is an indicator that far more needs to be done to ensure that the various institutions of justice coordinate to address rape as a crime and as a human rights violation,” it states.
The report also draws attention to continued cases of possible excessive use of force by police officers and police custody beyond the 48 hour constitutional limit. Private security guards working on rubber plantations “failed to observe the limits of their authority,” while instances of mob justice and vigilante action marked a “worrying response to the incapacity of the police to protect the community from crime.”
Concerns are also raised regarding the inability of the judiciary to uphold human rights standards, constitutional guarantees and legal procedure. At the same time, conditions in prisons and detention facilities are called “very poor.” People in State custody are put at risk by “strained food supplies and unacceptably poor hygiene.” Lengthy pre-trial detention and bad conditions reportedly led to disturbances in several counties.
The administration of juvenile justice, long a problem in Liberia, also comes under scrutiny in the report, which cites cases involving juveniles not handled in accordance with the law.
Women and girls in some areas of Liberia remain at risk of female genital mutilation, including forced submission to the practice. In addition, trial by ordeal, where suspects are tested with torment, remains a “serious threat” to the establishment of the rule of law and the enjoyment of fundamental rights.
The plight of children living in orphanages is also a matter of concern, because of their vulnerability to neglect. “Unfortunately, orphanages remained an attractive option to parents and guardians who lacked financial means to provide for their children,” the report notes.
On the positive side, human rights at rubber plantations “appear to be improving” particularly on Guthrie plantation, according to the report, but it warns that the security situation in Firestone plantation “has deteriorated and may exacerbate the human rights concerns noted in relation to the exercise of police powers by the private security guards there.”
The 43-page report cites progress in strengthening Liberia’s legal framework, including the ratification of international treaties and the passage of key legislation. It also contains a number of recommendations aimed at supporting the Government’s continuing efforts to strengthen human rights protection through the democratic rule of law.
It calls on the Government of Liberia to complete ratification of all human rights treaties which it has already signed and to ensure that the Rape Amendment Act is fully implemented. “A concerted and ongoing effort towards community education and sensitization to sexual assault issues, including broader discrimination against women, should be undertaken in cooperation with nongovernmental organizations,” the report states, calling for a number of other concrete measures to address the problem of rape.
Courts, police stations and prisons should be equipped with adequate supplies of basic equipment to allow proper management of files and recordkeeping, to protect fair trial standards, UNMIL says, calling also for the Government to review the juvenile justice system and improve conditions in detention centres and prisons.
Measures are also needed to address the situation at rubber plantations, the report says, urging the Government and its international partners to work towards carrying out past agreements on the issue.
Ecuador: Widespread Labour Abuse on Banana Plantations
Ecuador: Widespread Labor Abuse on Banana Plantations: Harmful Child Labor, Anti-Union Bias Plague Industry
(New York, April 25, 2002) - Banana workers in Ecuador are the victims of serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.
In its investigation, Human Rights Watch found that Ecuadorian children as young as eight work on banana plantations in hazardous conditions, while adult workers fear firing if they try to exercise their right to organize. Ecuador is the world’s largest banana exporter and the source of roughly one quarter of all bananas on the tables of U.S. and European consumers.
Banana-exporting corporations such as Ecuadorian-owned Noboa and Favorita, as well as Chiquita, Del Monte, and Dole fail to use their financial influence to insist that their supplier plantations respect workers’ rights, the report found. Dole leads the pack of foreign multinationals in sourcing from Ecuador, obtaining nearly one third of all its bananas from the country.
“The Ecuadorian bananas on your table may have been produced under appalling conditions,” said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. “Banana companies have a duty to uphold workers’ rights. Ecuador is obligated under international law to do so.”
The use of harmful child labor is widespread in Ecuador’s banana sector. Researchers for the Human Rights Watch report, Tainted Harvest: Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Ecuador’s Banana Plantations, spoke with forty-five child laborers during their three-week long fact-finding mission in Ecuador. Forty-one of the children began working between the ages of eight and thirteen, most starting at ages ten or eleven. Their average workday lasted twelve hours, and fewer than 40 percent of the children were still in school by the time they turned fourteen.
In the course of their work, they were exposed to toxic pesticides, used sharp knives and machetes, hauled heavy loads of bananas, drank unsanitary water, and some were sexually harassed. Roughly 90 percent of the children told Human Rights Watch that they continued working while toxic fungicides were sprayed from airplanes flying overhead. For their efforts, the children earned an average of $3.50 per day, approximately 60 percent of the legal minimum wage for banana workers.
Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, Favorita, and Noboa have all, at some time, been supplied by plantations on which children labored, with more than 70 percent of the children interviewed saying they had worked on plantations that almost exclusively supply Dole. When Human Rights Watch asked Dole to confirm or deny its business relationship with these suppliers, it refused, claiming this is “business proprietary information.” Dole’s web site states, “Dole does not knowingly purchase products from any commercial producers employing minors.”
“Banana-exporting companies may tell you they’re not responsible for labor abuses,” Vivanco said. “But they have financial power and could use it to ensure respect for workers’ rights. They just don’t.” Adult workers face an environment in which they are often too scared to exercise their right to organize for better working conditions. Only approximately 1 percent of banana workers are affiliated with workers’ organizations—a rate far lower than any Central American banana-exporting country.
Ecuadorian law fails to protect effectively the right to freedom of association, and employers take advantage of the weak law and even weaker enforcement to impede worker organizing. Workers illegally fired for union activity have no right to reinstatement. Instead, in the unlikely event that the offending employers are found responsible, they must pay only a negligible fine—often less than $400. And employers circumvent labor laws by relying on subcontractors to provide workers and by hiring “permanent temporary” workers with even fewer rights than permanent workers. The heavy use of subcontracted “perma-temps” has created a workforce with no right to bargain with employers who control working conditions. Instead, subcontracted “perma-temps” only enjoy the relatively useless right to organize and bargain with their virtually powerless subcontractors.
“Most workers on these plantations can’t organize to protest their working conditions,” Vivanco said. “Either they suffer in silence, or they risk being fired.” Human Rights Watch urged banana-exporting corporations to demand that labor rights be respected on their supplier plantations and to monitor compliance with this requirement.
Human Rights Watch also called on Ecuador to enforce its labor laws. The organization also urged Ecuador to guarantee children’s right to education by ensuring, as required by the country’s own law, that all children under fifteen have access to free schooling. In addition, Human Rights Watch called for the amendment of labor legislation to guarantee workers’ right to freedom of association by banning anti-union discrimination in hiring, requiring reinstatement of workers fired for union activity, strengthening laws governing the use of temporary workers, and adopting meaningful sanctions for anti-union conduct Vivanco said the report’s findings highlight the need for effective labor rights protections in any future trade agreement with Ecuador, including the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Testimonies taken from Tainted Harvest:
Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Ecuador’s Banana Plantations Below are testimonies from workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch for the report, Tainted Harvest: Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Banana Plantations in Ecuador. The workers’ names have been changed to protect them from potential employer reprisals.
Child Labor
Exposure to Toxic Substances
Fabiola Cardozo told Human Rights Watch that twice when she was twelve she became ill after aerial fumigation. She described that the first time, “I got a fever. . . . I told my boss that I felt sick. . . . He told me to go home. . . . [The second time,] I became covered with red things. They itched. I had a cough. My bones hurt. I told my boss. He sent me home.” Similarly, Carolina Chamorro told Human Rights Watch that after aerial fumigation, “I felt sick twice. I was ten years old. . . . I began to shake.” She said that she thought she was going to faint and told her boss, who sent her home. Cristَbal Alvarez, a twelve-year-old boy, also explained, “That poison - sometimes it makes one sick. Of course, I keep working. I don’t cover myself. Once I got sick. I vomited [and] had a headache . . . after the fumigation. I was eleven years old. . . . I told my bosses. They gave me two days to recover.”
The children told Human Rights Watch about the various methods that they used to protect themselves from the toxic liquid: hiding under banana leaves, bowing their heads, covering their faces with their shirts, covering their noses and mouths with their hands, and placing banana cartons on their heads. As one fourteen-year-old boy, Enrique Gallana, explained, “When the planes pass, we cover ourselves with our shirts. . . . We just continue working. . . . We can smell the pesticides.”
Sexual Harassment
Human Rights Watch interviewed three young girls, ages twelve, twelve, and eleven, who described being sexually harassed by the then “boss” of the packing plants on San Fernando and San Alejandro, plantations of the Las Fincas group. Human Rights Watch observed a roadside sign bearing the Dole logo above the name “Las Fincas,” strongly suggesting that the plantation group primarily supplies Dole. Marta Mendoza, a twelve-year-old who began working on Las Fincas at age eleven, explained to Human Rights Watch, “There is a boss at the plant who’s very sick. . . . This man is rude. He goes around touching girls’ bottoms. . . . He is in charge there and is always there. He told me that he wants to make love to me. Once he touched me. I was taking off plastic banana coverings, and he touched my bottom. He keeps bothering me. He goes around throwing kisses at me. He calls me ‘my love.’” Fabiola Cardozo, a twelve-year-old who began working on Las Fincas at age ten, similarly commented, “The boss of the packing plants . . . says, ‘Oh, my love.’ When we bend down to pick up plastic bags, he says, ‘Allي para meterle huevito.’ [‘There is a good place to stick my balls.’]”
Freedom of Association
After working as a “perma-temp” for a year and a half on the same two banana plantations, Gema Caranza was indefinitely “suspended” on May 7, 2001, allegedly for involvement in union activity. She explained that she was told by the boss of the packing plants that “[the administrator] has found out what you’re involved in and [is afraid] that you will want to speak with the people and organize.” According to Caranza, her boss, with whom she had a good working relationship, added, “I told you not to get involved in that, that you’d lose your job.”
Caranza said that in June 2000, she began to attend union-sponsored events and seminars. In most cases, she said, she invented excuses for her absence, afraid to disclose their true purpose. Before leaving for her first union-sponsored event outside Ecuador, however, she showed her boss the event invitation. She said, “He told me to be careful [and] that others might soon know [what I was doing].” Caranza said, “I knew that if they [the administrator, the plantation owner, or others in management] found out, they would fire me. . . . Because that’s the way it is. If they find out, they fire you. This is why most people are scared.”
Source: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/04/25/ecuado3876.htm
(New York, April 25, 2002) - Banana workers in Ecuador are the victims of serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.
In its investigation, Human Rights Watch found that Ecuadorian children as young as eight work on banana plantations in hazardous conditions, while adult workers fear firing if they try to exercise their right to organize. Ecuador is the world’s largest banana exporter and the source of roughly one quarter of all bananas on the tables of U.S. and European consumers.
Banana-exporting corporations such as Ecuadorian-owned Noboa and Favorita, as well as Chiquita, Del Monte, and Dole fail to use their financial influence to insist that their supplier plantations respect workers’ rights, the report found. Dole leads the pack of foreign multinationals in sourcing from Ecuador, obtaining nearly one third of all its bananas from the country.
“The Ecuadorian bananas on your table may have been produced under appalling conditions,” said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. “Banana companies have a duty to uphold workers’ rights. Ecuador is obligated under international law to do so.”
The use of harmful child labor is widespread in Ecuador’s banana sector. Researchers for the Human Rights Watch report, Tainted Harvest: Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Ecuador’s Banana Plantations, spoke with forty-five child laborers during their three-week long fact-finding mission in Ecuador. Forty-one of the children began working between the ages of eight and thirteen, most starting at ages ten or eleven. Their average workday lasted twelve hours, and fewer than 40 percent of the children were still in school by the time they turned fourteen.
In the course of their work, they were exposed to toxic pesticides, used sharp knives and machetes, hauled heavy loads of bananas, drank unsanitary water, and some were sexually harassed. Roughly 90 percent of the children told Human Rights Watch that they continued working while toxic fungicides were sprayed from airplanes flying overhead. For their efforts, the children earned an average of $3.50 per day, approximately 60 percent of the legal minimum wage for banana workers.
Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole, Favorita, and Noboa have all, at some time, been supplied by plantations on which children labored, with more than 70 percent of the children interviewed saying they had worked on plantations that almost exclusively supply Dole. When Human Rights Watch asked Dole to confirm or deny its business relationship with these suppliers, it refused, claiming this is “business proprietary information.” Dole’s web site states, “Dole does not knowingly purchase products from any commercial producers employing minors.”
“Banana-exporting companies may tell you they’re not responsible for labor abuses,” Vivanco said. “But they have financial power and could use it to ensure respect for workers’ rights. They just don’t.” Adult workers face an environment in which they are often too scared to exercise their right to organize for better working conditions. Only approximately 1 percent of banana workers are affiliated with workers’ organizations—a rate far lower than any Central American banana-exporting country.
Ecuadorian law fails to protect effectively the right to freedom of association, and employers take advantage of the weak law and even weaker enforcement to impede worker organizing. Workers illegally fired for union activity have no right to reinstatement. Instead, in the unlikely event that the offending employers are found responsible, they must pay only a negligible fine—often less than $400. And employers circumvent labor laws by relying on subcontractors to provide workers and by hiring “permanent temporary” workers with even fewer rights than permanent workers. The heavy use of subcontracted “perma-temps” has created a workforce with no right to bargain with employers who control working conditions. Instead, subcontracted “perma-temps” only enjoy the relatively useless right to organize and bargain with their virtually powerless subcontractors.
“Most workers on these plantations can’t organize to protest their working conditions,” Vivanco said. “Either they suffer in silence, or they risk being fired.” Human Rights Watch urged banana-exporting corporations to demand that labor rights be respected on their supplier plantations and to monitor compliance with this requirement.
Human Rights Watch also called on Ecuador to enforce its labor laws. The organization also urged Ecuador to guarantee children’s right to education by ensuring, as required by the country’s own law, that all children under fifteen have access to free schooling. In addition, Human Rights Watch called for the amendment of labor legislation to guarantee workers’ right to freedom of association by banning anti-union discrimination in hiring, requiring reinstatement of workers fired for union activity, strengthening laws governing the use of temporary workers, and adopting meaningful sanctions for anti-union conduct Vivanco said the report’s findings highlight the need for effective labor rights protections in any future trade agreement with Ecuador, including the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Testimonies taken from Tainted Harvest:
Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Ecuador’s Banana Plantations Below are testimonies from workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch for the report, Tainted Harvest: Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Banana Plantations in Ecuador. The workers’ names have been changed to protect them from potential employer reprisals.
Child Labor
Exposure to Toxic Substances
Fabiola Cardozo told Human Rights Watch that twice when she was twelve she became ill after aerial fumigation. She described that the first time, “I got a fever. . . . I told my boss that I felt sick. . . . He told me to go home. . . . [The second time,] I became covered with red things. They itched. I had a cough. My bones hurt. I told my boss. He sent me home.” Similarly, Carolina Chamorro told Human Rights Watch that after aerial fumigation, “I felt sick twice. I was ten years old. . . . I began to shake.” She said that she thought she was going to faint and told her boss, who sent her home. Cristَbal Alvarez, a twelve-year-old boy, also explained, “That poison - sometimes it makes one sick. Of course, I keep working. I don’t cover myself. Once I got sick. I vomited [and] had a headache . . . after the fumigation. I was eleven years old. . . . I told my bosses. They gave me two days to recover.”
The children told Human Rights Watch about the various methods that they used to protect themselves from the toxic liquid: hiding under banana leaves, bowing their heads, covering their faces with their shirts, covering their noses and mouths with their hands, and placing banana cartons on their heads. As one fourteen-year-old boy, Enrique Gallana, explained, “When the planes pass, we cover ourselves with our shirts. . . . We just continue working. . . . We can smell the pesticides.”
Sexual Harassment
Human Rights Watch interviewed three young girls, ages twelve, twelve, and eleven, who described being sexually harassed by the then “boss” of the packing plants on San Fernando and San Alejandro, plantations of the Las Fincas group. Human Rights Watch observed a roadside sign bearing the Dole logo above the name “Las Fincas,” strongly suggesting that the plantation group primarily supplies Dole. Marta Mendoza, a twelve-year-old who began working on Las Fincas at age eleven, explained to Human Rights Watch, “There is a boss at the plant who’s very sick. . . . This man is rude. He goes around touching girls’ bottoms. . . . He is in charge there and is always there. He told me that he wants to make love to me. Once he touched me. I was taking off plastic banana coverings, and he touched my bottom. He keeps bothering me. He goes around throwing kisses at me. He calls me ‘my love.’” Fabiola Cardozo, a twelve-year-old who began working on Las Fincas at age ten, similarly commented, “The boss of the packing plants . . . says, ‘Oh, my love.’ When we bend down to pick up plastic bags, he says, ‘Allي para meterle huevito.’ [‘There is a good place to stick my balls.’]”
Freedom of Association
After working as a “perma-temp” for a year and a half on the same two banana plantations, Gema Caranza was indefinitely “suspended” on May 7, 2001, allegedly for involvement in union activity. She explained that she was told by the boss of the packing plants that “[the administrator] has found out what you’re involved in and [is afraid] that you will want to speak with the people and organize.” According to Caranza, her boss, with whom she had a good working relationship, added, “I told you not to get involved in that, that you’d lose your job.”
Caranza said that in June 2000, she began to attend union-sponsored events and seminars. In most cases, she said, she invented excuses for her absence, afraid to disclose their true purpose. Before leaving for her first union-sponsored event outside Ecuador, however, she showed her boss the event invitation. She said, “He told me to be careful [and] that others might soon know [what I was doing].” Caranza said, “I knew that if they [the administrator, the plantation owner, or others in management] found out, they would fire me. . . . Because that’s the way it is. If they find out, they fire you. This is why most people are scared.”
Source: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/04/25/ecuado3876.htm
Firestone: The Mark of Modern Slavery
The human rights practitioners working in the plantation sector is referred to "Firestone: The mark of Modern Slavery" - a publication of The Save My Future Foundation, which is a non-governmental organization established in 1987 by a renowned Catholic and two conservationists.
This report is the result of an inquiry into Liberia’s Firestone Rubber Plantation Company’s 69 yrs of operation. It raises three interrelated issues of human rights abuses, unfair labour practices and environmental pollution.
The report reveals that Firestone between 2000 and 2003 exported about 167,165 tons of dry rubber from the country. The market value as well as the company’s income is not known since the Company does not publish her tax returnes and revenue intake. This report also reveals that Firestone’s facilities have not been upgraded, and bulk of its labor force live in dilapidated buildings and do not have access to safe drinking water. They also live in quarters with poor sanitary conditions, lack of a high school, electricity even though the Company operates a dam and other equipments that provide these facilities for senior staff members and their families. For details contact samful@yahoo.com. (Summarized by Bipin Adhikari)
This report is the result of an inquiry into Liberia’s Firestone Rubber Plantation Company’s 69 yrs of operation. It raises three interrelated issues of human rights abuses, unfair labour practices and environmental pollution.
The report reveals that Firestone between 2000 and 2003 exported about 167,165 tons of dry rubber from the country. The market value as well as the company’s income is not known since the Company does not publish her tax returnes and revenue intake. This report also reveals that Firestone’s facilities have not been upgraded, and bulk of its labor force live in dilapidated buildings and do not have access to safe drinking water. They also live in quarters with poor sanitary conditions, lack of a high school, electricity even though the Company operates a dam and other equipments that provide these facilities for senior staff members and their families. For details contact samful@yahoo.com. (Summarized by Bipin Adhikari)
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