Case Support: POSCO
See our report 'The Price of Steel': Human Rights and Forced Evictions in the POSCO-India Project
ESCR-Net Writes to Dow Jones Urging Them to Take POSCO Off Sustainability Index
See letter to Dow Jones here.
See press release about the similar actions undertaken from ILRF and UANI here as well as related media here.
Follow the campaign at: www.stoposco.org
Companies
- The POSCO Corporation (Parent Company)
- POSCO-India (Indian Sudsidiary & Project Operator)
Investors
- Berkshire Hathaway (High-Profile Foreign Investor)
- Bank of New York Mellon (High-Profile Foreign Investor)
- Deutsche Bank (High-Profile Foreign Investor)
- JP Morgan Chase (High-Profile Foreign Investor)
- Blackrock (High-Profile Foreign Investor)
Objectives of this Case Support
- Raise International awareness of the case,
- Pressuring the company and investors to withdraw from the project
- Assist the facilitation of a dialogue at the national level about the methods of development that best respects human rights
Activities to Date
- Stocktaking and greater coordination of the wide range of international advocacy actions being undertaken pre-2012
- Further develop international awareness raising strategies with the Anti-POSCO Peoples Movement, together with their existing international partners
- Conduct a field mission to the local area to assess human rights impacts of the project
- Produce a research report of the field mission's findings
- Coordinated an open letter from International civil society groups to the Indian Government officials, condemning the police pressure to evict local people
- Lobby investors to raise human rights concerns with POSCO at their Annual General Meeting (AGM)
- Support Indian activists to conduct media interviews and develop demands/materials for advocacy mission to South Korea
- Support US based allies to lobby Indian Embassy to conduct human rights assessment of the local situation
On-going Activities
- Coordinating various international actions to cooincide with the Anti-POSCO Peoples Movement activities planned for the annual June 22nd 'Black Day' (remembering the signing of the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Odisha and POSCO-India).
- Continue to pressure investors to lobby the POSCO Corporation to respect human rights in India.
- ESCR-Net has been alerting POSCO's investors about the adverse human rights impacts associated with the Odisha project. Letters have been written to high-profile shareholders, urging them to withdraw from all investment in POSCO if the corporation fails to respect the rights of the local people impacted by the project:
Included in these letters was a Briefing Note detailing the adverse human rights impacts of POSCO-India’s project.
Main Active Members & Allies
- Anti-POSCO Peoples Movement, known locally as the 'POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti' ('PPSS')
- National Centre for Advocacy Studies, India
- Korean House of International Solidarity, South Korea
- Housing International Coalition/Housing and Land Rights Network, India
- Video Volunteers, India
- Mining Zone Peoples' Solidarity Group, US
- WITNESS, US
- SOMO