Napa, California
Harrington Investments, Inc. (HII) challenged Oracle’s human rights record
in China by introducing a shareholder resolution at the 2002 Annual
Shareholders’ meeting.
The shareholder resolution, which received over 7% of the vote according to
preliminary results, requested the company to comply with the China Business
Principles, a corporate code of conduct for companies operating in China.
Because the resolution received more than 3% it will be reintroduced in
2003.
“Oracle is providing software to the police and military in China which may
be leading to massive human rights violations”, said John Harrington,
President/CEO of Harrington Investments, Inc. at the October 14th Oracle
Annual Shareholders’ meeting in Redwood City, California.
Harrington’s resolution also asked Oracle to join with other high tech
companies to provide leadership and actively participate in the China
Working Group (CWG). The China Working Group is an informal group of
companies and organizations such as Amnesty International, the International
Labor Rights Fund and Global Exchange, that share best practices’
information and members’ experience working or operating in China and
educates members about Chinese government policies and human and labour
rights abuses.
“We know Oracle spent $2.3 million on lobbying Congress last year and has
donated over $821,000 in campaign contributions to politicians, but what has
the company spent in China to influence the government and convince it to
buy the company’s products? Is Oracle’s software being used to identify,
jail, torture and execute advocates of democracy in China?” Harrington
asked.
Harrington cited the 2001 report from the U.S. State Department’s annual
report on human rights violations in China, which said that “The Chinese
government continued to commit numerous and serious human rights abuses in
2001, . . . including arbitrary arrest, detention, forced labor, violence
against women, forced abortion and sterilization, abuse of children and
detention and torture of religious group members.”
Harrington specifically mentioned that several hundred members of the
peaceful Falun Gong religious movement have died in detention as a result of
torture or mistreatment by the Chinese government.
Harrington also said that China is ruled by an authoritarian Communist
government, has weapons of mass destruction, provided Pakistan nuclear
weapons, and provided Iraq fiber optic technology to assist the Iraq
military in shooting down U.S. aircraft in the no-fly zone. He added that
Oracle should not provide technology to the terrorist government of China
which may aid in human rights abuses.
“Failure of Oracle’s management to recognize and acknowledge human rights
violations in China and take an active role in finding solutions is a disgrace. China’s use of Oracle’s software to track down advocates of
democracy is no different than Nazi Germany’s use of IBM’s technology to
move Jews to concentration camps during World War II”, Harrington concluded.
http://fofg.org/news/oracle_corp_challenged.html
Posting date: 7/Nov/2002
Original article date: 18/Oct/2002
Category: World News
