New York Attorney and human rights defender Steven Donziger (pictured above saying goodbye to his only child Matthew before being imprisoned by corrupt Texaco/Chevron Lawyers/Judge) spent 900 days in prison/house arrest, for winning a “landmark” pollution case against Texaco/Chevron, on behalf of 30,000 small farmers in the Amazon region of Ecuador.

“Why is a fossil fuel firm allowed to sponsor a high-profile children’s art competition?”

Game Changers: The tide is turning against advertising and sponsorship by fossil fuel companies like Texaco

Working with documentary maker Peadar King and human rights activist Colm Regan [in 2020], Roche launched SpoArts Washing calling out an uncomfortable truth. Fossil fuels don’t deserve the soft focus that sponsorship deals can bring. We need to be clear-eyed about the urgency of ending fossil fuel extraction, and Texaco’s sports and arts sponsorships give it a halo of community, putting it into the hearts of parishes, playing pitches and schools.

Sponsorship buys “social licence” to continue polluting activities. We are the society that is granting this licence and it’s up to us to withdraw it. Kudos to all the brilliant artists and winners over the decades. None of this takes from the beauty of their achievements. But it’s up to us as citizens, parents, teachers, editors and journalists to find a better way to reward the talent of our youngest artists and local sports teams.

SOURCE: Catherine Cleary – Irish Times

INTRODUCTION

Members of the Irish Development Education Association (IDEA), the Irish Centre for Human Rights (NUIG), and the Irish Environmental Network (IEN) as well as An Taisce Green Schools  and  member organisations of the DÓCHAS Network of Irish International Development Agencies and the UBUNTU Network (UL), have all turned a blind-eye to a blatant conflict of interest  – UNICEF Ireland Ambassador and board member Donncha O’Callaghan’s association with fossil fuel firm Texaco Sports Project and Texaco’s sponsorship of Children’s Art.

Will you?

Just imagine how you would feel if you or your brother/sister, or one of your sons, daughters or friends in Dóchas, IDEA, An Taisce or IEN here in Ireland, was prosecuted by a corporate body like Texaco, Circle K or Ryan Air. Imagine that during the trial you were denial a jury. Imagine you were sentenced by a judge with links to Texaco, Circle K and Ryan Air, to almost 1,000 days of detention, between house arrest (wearing an ankle bracelet) and a prison cell, had your passport confiscated, your bank account frozen and your licence to practice law taken from you. And all because you won a major court case against the criminal acts of the corporate entity involved – in this case Texaco (owned by Chevron).

Well that’s exactly what happened to my friend human rights defender Steven Donziger, in what has been described as the first corporate prosecution in history. The prosecuting corporation: Texaco-Chevron.

This campaign celebrates the courage, determination and resilience of forest communities in Ecuador and their human-rights defender, Steven Donziger. All of whom have, and continue to this day, to suffered grave injustice at the hands of oil giant Texaco and their US owner Chevron.

This following message just arrived from Steven:

“We are planning to hit the ground running in January to file a petition to restore my law license. We are trying to hit our end-of-year fundraising goal.

Can I count on your support?

Chevron (the owners of Texaco) spent billions of dollars, hired 60 law firms, and deployed 2,000 lawyers to retaliate against me for helping Amazon communities in Ecuador win a historic $10 billion pollution judgment against the company. Courts found that Texaco (owned by Chevron)  had deliberately dumped billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste onto ancestral lands.

Chevron’s lawyers thought that if they took my license, I would disappear. They thought they could starve me out and scare me into silence. The key fact is this: Chevron continues to regard my advocacy as a major threat to the company’s bottom line. I take that as a compliment.

But it also means the company will pull out all the stops – and use all of its political influence – to try to prevent my return to the courtroom.

I therefore will enter 2026 with a critical mission: to restore my law license and then use it to force Chevron to pay what it owes to its thousands of victims in Ecuador.

Tragically, many of Chevron’s victims already have died. Many others – some with cancer – will almost certainly pass if a clean-up does not happen soon. Time is of the essence. 

This is where you come in.

Without a public campaign to support the legal process to restore my law license, it will be inordinately difficult to overcome Chevron’s resistance. 

And Chevron will be that much closer to getting away with its grotesque ecocide in Ecuador.” 

 Steven Donziger

Get the whole story here: www.spoarts.ie

More about Steven Donziger: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/steven-donziger

More on Just Forests activism can be found here: www.justforests.ie