Letter from the Directors
2005 was a big year for EarthRights International. OK, so we say something like that every year— but this year, we mean it more than ever! Just to name a few milestones: The historic Doe v. Unocal settlement; two more graduating classes of EarthRights School students in the Amazon and Burma, and a third EarthRights Mekong School campus in the works; a controversial report criticizing US unilateralism; a new Board of Directors; indigenous peoples of Peru—led by our Amazon School alumni—resisted a US oil company; and ERI celebrated our 10 year anniversary!
All of this in a year when an oil war raged in the Middle East; an oilman president continued to abuse international law and claim unprecedented executive power; the so-called uncertainty of climate change became less uncertain; and the Burmese dictatorship remained as entrenched, and brutal, as ever. It reminds us that we have to take our victories where we fi nd them.
2005, and the extraordinary journey of the 10 years that preceded it, proved to us that our mission is as important and relevant as ever. In spite of overwhelming odds, ERI’s strategy to combine the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment really and truly works. Over the years, our small, dynamic organization has helped some very weak “Davids” take on some gigantic “Goliaths.” And win!
Now that’s what we call poetic justice.
We could never have done it without your support. We hope you will continue to be with us as we face the upcoming year, and decade, with a new sense of urgency for the fate of the planet and its peoples, but optimism and hope for what we can do when we work together.
Ka Hsaw Wa, Chana Maung, Katie Redford
