Abetting human rights violations

Time reports in this week's issue that UNOCAL is in court in the United States, accused of abetting and aiding human rights abuses committed by Burmese soldiers. The abetting happened when UNOCAL decide to undergo projects in Burma and allegedly turned a blind eye on the use of slave labor. The Burmese regime said they were volunteers and apparently UNOCAL took the regime's word for it despite massive evidence to the contratry.

The case is of paramount importance not only because it will pave the way for other similar cases, but because, in a sense, it makes globalization accountable. If the case is successfully prosecuted, it will show, as Joanne Mariner opines in a Findlaw commentary, that "one country's gross human rights abuses might be of legitimate concern to an outside forum, and that international human rights standards might be legally enforceable, rather than merely hortatory."