
Kenyan tea workers file UN complaint against Unilever over 2007 ethnic violence - onyva
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/aug/01/kenyan-tea-workers-file-un-complaint-against-unilever-over-2007-ethnic-violence
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manicdee
Executive Summary: Unilever uses multinational status to dodge litigation for
failure to protect workers.

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timwaagh
More like African community uses parent companies multinational status to file
a complaint to UK courts and the UN instead of the local, Kenyan, court
system. I don't think it's the only plantation which had to do such a thing,
but since most would be locally owned they don't get dragged before the UN.

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quercusgrisea
If a corporation is going to transplant workers to a plantation in an unsafe
place, then the corporation has responsibility for keeping the workers safe.

A big element of their case that's oddly not mentioned in this Guardian
article is that the violence was foreseeable and nothing was done to stop it.
The tensions did not bubble up overnight, and this was not the first instance
of violence in an otherwise peaceful place. There were many signs that
something like this could happen, and Unilever declined to spend resources on
keeping the workers safe. As a result many of the workers were raped and
murdered. Now the survivors are seeking justice, and they deserve it.

Unilever are the corporation who was ultimately profiting from the employees'
work, so the survivors have a right to seek justice from them directly.

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TomMarius
> If a corporation is going to transplant workers to a plantation in an unsafe
> place, then the corporation has responsibility for keeping the workers safe.

Citation needed - I never heard of a corporation being required (or allowed)
to do law enforcement (private security companies might be contracted bt the
government, but simply going and doing is most definitely not possible). The
UN declares that a responsibility of governments, and one of the keys to the
land claim and recognition of the state.

In _some_ jurisdictions it's legal to stop a crime by appropriate means, but
it is not a responsibility of any private person or entity, and it also does
not mean you do it normally - that's where you're crossing into the "private
army" territory.

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boromisp
There ought to be some consequences for knowingly putting and leaving people
in a place where they are likely to be raped and murdered. Contracting
adequate (local or foreign) private security is not the only way to resolve a
situation like this. You could also remove the people.

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TomMarius
That's what the government is for. Either let the corporation be wholly
responsible for safety (including things like surveillance, risk analysis,
prevention etc), or don't complain about the corporation not doing it when
there is a government saying they have it covered. Why are you not angry at
the government for not stopping this foreseeable crime?

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TomMarius
How can a foreign private company or person be responsible for protection of
people during a civil war? Or what is the complaint about? The unpaid wages?
Why is my unpaid wage not a human rights issue too, then - do I need to be
african for that?

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MaximumYComb
My reading is that Unilever had a large non-indigenous workforce living on a
plantation that was attacked. This was a western Kenyan plantation and I
suspect the workers had travelled there from other west-Kenyan areas based on
their tribe. I'm not expert on Kenyan law or the way these business contracts
play out but I feel the issue at play here is if Unilever has a responsibility
to protect workers when nationwide ethnic violence breaks out, and they have
non-indigenous workers.

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TomMarius
Are (foreign!) private people or corporations even allowed to operate a
private law enforcement unit in Kenya? I thought the UN discourages that, and
it's outright illegal in most countries of EU - meaning the corporation can't
have such unit anywhere, that applies to its subsidies too; personal
participation in such units is a serious crime as well.

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aorth
I lived in Kenya before, during, and after the 2007 ethnic violence caused by
the disputed results of the presidential election... but why is this on HN?
It's completely unrelated to technology or startups.

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neximo64
The means we found out had some kind of electronic transmission so there's a
bit of tech in it.

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Apocryphon
Actually, it's because Unilever hacked the corporate structure in order to
dodge litigation. Legal engineering.

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valuearb
Corporate structures are often used to shield from frivolous lawsuits, like
these.

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Apocryphon
From social engineering to societal engineering

