A US judge has granted victims of South Africa’s apartheid era the right to sue some of the world’s largest corporations for supporting the white government as it carried out human rights abuses.
Last Wednesday a New York federal judge ruled that apartheid era victims could sue General Motors, IBM, Daimler and others in an American court for knowingly selling their vehicles and computer technology to a regime that was using them to break international human rights laws.
Rheinmetall, the German parent company of Swiss-based arms manufacturer Oerlikon, was included in the class action for supplying equipment and machinery to South African security forces for the suppression of dissidents.
The decision made by Judge Shira Scheindlen has come six years after the victims’ groups first began litigation against more than 50 international companies. The number was reduced significantly when the court asked for detailed submissions on each company.
The companies, who have yet to respond to the ruling, are now expected to face demands for hundreds of millions of euro in damages from thousands of apartheid victims. The trial is not expected to start until 2011.
Michael Hausfeld, one of the attorneys representing the South African plaintiffs, hailed the judgment as “a major advancement in international law”. Khulumani, a South African organisation that helps apartheid victims and one of the plaintiffs in the court action, said the decision was an important step in healing the wounds inflicted by the apartheid regime.
“We are convinced that this lawsuit, should it be successful, will go a long way in satisfying members’ material needs; and that will go a long way in contributing to social reconciliation,” said Khulumani director Marjorie Jobson.
But both the US and South African governments were against the case going ahead, believing it would damage relations between the two countries and hamper the latter’s economic growth.
In her 144-page ruling Judge Scheindlen said the plaintiffs could pursue claims against Daimler, GM and Ford “for aiding and abetting torture ... extrajudicial killing, and apartheid”. IBM had argued it was not its place to tell clients how to use its products.
But Judge Scheindlen disagreed, saying: “That level of wilful blindness in the face of crimes in violation of the law of nations cannot defeat an otherwise clear showing of knowledge that the assistance IBM provided would directly and substantially support apartheid.”
Some companies, including Barclays and UBS banks, were cleared of any wrongdoing, as the judge ruled their interaction with the apartheid regime was on a business level only.