Bianca Jagger – Right Livelihood

Jagger was part of a fact-finding mission to the area in October 2003 and 2004. She confronted ChevronTexaco’s CEO at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in April. “Instead of a single, dramatic spill that captured headlines around the world, what happened in Ecuador was far more… insidious,” she said. “Over the course of 20 years, Texaco slowly poisoned the residents of the Oriente Region by dumping toxic waste and crude oil into the water systems. None of my past experiences as a human rights’ campaigner prepared me for the environmental devastation I witnessed in the provinces of Orellana y Sucumbios. Nor was I prepared for the sad stories of human suffering and the heightened incidents of cancer and spontaneous abortions.”

She argued that the oil company neglected to use the technology available to protect the environment. “The reason why they did not do it is they believe life in the third world is worth nothing,” she said. “That’s why this case is so important. We need to make them accountable.” In an earlier speech in Ecuador itself, she said: “These visits lead me to conclude that until ChevronTexaco addresses the environmental damage it has caused in Ecuador, it should be treated as an outlaw company that does not deserve the right to do further business or make further investments in any country anywhere in the world.” Jagger also played a prominent role with Greenpeace in the launch of their “Boycott Esso campaign”.

In March 2004, Jagger made a keynote speech at the launch of Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign. In June that year, Bianca Jagger received the World Achievement Award from President Gorbachev for “Her Worldwide Commitment to Human Rights, Social and Economic Justice and Environmental Causes”.

Bianca Jagger has been a member of the Executive Director’s Leadership Council for Amnesty International USA, member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch -America. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Coalition for International Justice, as a member of the Twentieth Century Task Force to Apprehend War Criminals, and as a Board member of People for the American Way and the Creative Coalition. From 2007-2009, Bianca Jagger chaired The World Future Council.

Jagger has written human rights articles for the op-ed page of the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Miami Herald, the Observer (UK), The Independent on Sunday (UK), The Mail on Sunday (UK), The Guardian (UK), The Sunday Express  (UK), The New Statesman (UK), Liberation (FR), Le Journal du Dimanche (FR), Le Juriste International (FR), Panorama  (IT) and the European (UK), The Dallas Morning News, the Columbus Dispatcher, to name a few.