Involvement of mining company in crimes of the Argentine military dictatorship

Argentina – Military dictatorship – Minera Aguilar

Case

In December 2012, ECCHR submitted a legal brief in the case of Bazán, Avelino and others relating to the unlawful detention and torture of 27 workers of the company Minera Aguilar SA during the Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983). The company's involvement is indicated by, among other things, the fact that its management provided state security forces with a list of workers who were subsequently arrested and tortured. Company vehicles were also used during the arrests.

Context

The crimes of dictatorships always have an economic dimension and are at least partly driven by financial interests. In its work on Argentina, ECCHR aims to bring to justice those economic actors who supported and profited from the crimes of the Argentine military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983. ECCHR is supporting three cases that are representative of the role played by corporations during the military dictatorship.

documents (2)

Topics (2)

Insight

Corporate responsibility

In Pakistan, workers died in a fire at a textile factory because fire safety measures had been neglected. In Peru, people living near a copper mine became ill after pollution leaked into the groundwater. In Bahrain, critics of the regime were arrested and tortured after police used commercial surveillance software to tap their phones and computers. In these three examples, responsibility for human rights violations can be traced back to foreign companies in Germany, Switzerland and the UK, respectively.

Both in economic and legal terms, transnational corporations are the winners of the globalized economy. They are often caught up in a broad range of human rights violations, but the people running the firms are only rarely called before the courts, and even more rarely convicted for their wrongdoing.

However, taking legal action against transnational corporations for violations in their global supply chain is slowly becoming a more viable option. Social movements and NGOs from the Global South are increasingly using legal tools to address human rights violations involving foreign companies by taking action in the countries where these firms are headquartered.

ECCHR aims to use legal mechanisms to help break down unjust economic, social, political and legal power relations around the world. In its Business and Human Rights program, ECCHR assists the political and social struggles of those affected by corporate human rights violations by supporting strategic legal interventions in Europe.

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