Chevron Lobbying Efforts Disregard Human Rights in Burma

Media Contact:
Michael Givens
Associate Director of Strategic Communications
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Phone: +1-857-540-0617
Email: mgivens@uusc.org

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — With violence and political instability continuing to intensify in Burma (Myanmar), the New York Times reported today that Chevron is lobbying heavily against the imposition of new sanctions on businesses financing the military junta, including the state-owned oil and gas company.

“Chevron’s disregard for human rights in the pursuit of profit is appalling,” said Rachel Gore Freed, a human rights legal expert at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC). “The call from civil society on the ground is clear, and the U.S. government should act now to stop Chevron from financing an illegitimate military junta that has ramped up atrocities against the people protesting the recent coup.”

A group of 403 civil society organizations from Burma recently released an open letter to the CEOs of Chevron and Total to stop direct revenue payments to the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, which collects hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that prop up the military regime.

Experts at UUSC are available to comment about these reports and the situation on the ground in Burma.

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The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is a human rights and solidarity organization founded as a rescue mission in 1940 during the Holocaust. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and with a membership of more than 35,000 supporters across the United States, UUSC’s programs focus on the issues of climate change, migrant justice, and crisis response. 

UUSC’s Burma program spans 25 years of donor support to Burmese- and ethnic minority-led human rights and humanitarian aid organizations.