CSC torture link challenges Norway’s ethical reputation

This is the latest blog I wrote for the Reprieve website – I’m currently a communications intern at this awesome organisation. Spread the word!

Despite its small size and relatively small voice in world politics, Norway is extremely wealthy. This is mostly because of the oil discovered in the 1970s, the profits of which are kept in the Government Pension Fund (better known as the Oil Fund), administrated by Norges Bank. The Oil Fund is at present worth nearly 369 billion pounds.

Importantly, strict ethical guidelines have been put in place to ensure that this money isn’t used for or doesn’t contribute to human rights abuses. The Council on Ethics – established by Royal Decree in 2004 – evaluates whether investments in certain companies are inconsistent with the guidelines, and the Ministry of Finance makes a decision on the basis of their recommendation. This has led to the banning of several companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp for their production of cluster bombs and Wal-Mart Stores Inc for their systematic infringement of human rights, in addition to nineteen companies for their production of tobacco. As a result, the Oil Fund’s global reputation is very good, and Norway is in many ways able to punch above its weight.

Last week, however, it emerged that the Oil Fund has invested in Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) – a firm involved in some of the worst human rights abuses in the US ‘War on Terror’. These abuses – specifically, organising ‘rendition flights’ for the CIA tosecret prisons where detainees were tortured – stand in stark contrast to the Oil Fund’s ethical guidelines:

The Ministry of Finance may, on the advice of the Council of Ethics, exclude companies from the investment universe of the Fund if there is an unacceptable risk that the company contributes to or is responsible for:

a) serious or systematic human rights violations, such as murder, torture, deprivation of liberty, forced labour, the worst forms of child labour and other child exploitation.

Recent investigations by Reprieve revealed that CSC – a multi-national IT and security company – arranged several illegal rendition flights for the CIA between 2003 and 2006. For the past 14 years, the Norwegian state has, through the Oil Fund, been a partner in this company, investing in it throughout the period in question.

The flights organised by CSC transported so-called ‘high value detainees’ within the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme. During the flights, the prisoners were stripped naked, dressed in a diaper and tracksuit, with their hands and feet shackled. While detained at the prisons to which CSC transported them they were exposed to sleep deprivation, stress positions, beatings – and worse. Some ended up in Guantánamo Bay and remain there today, regardless of the fact that they were wholly innocent of the crimes they were accused of. Aside from the British government – which holds a stake through British-owned band Lloyds – Norway is the only country involved as an investor on a political level.

Is this something Norway wants to support?

Despite its good reputation, this isn’t the first time the Oil Fund has been involved in human rights abuses through its investments. Just last December, the Ministry of Finance was reprimanded for not taking heed of the Council on Ethics’ recommendations to blacklist the Chinese oil giant PetroChina for its involvement in forced labour, torture, and other abuses in Burma. This was the first time the Ministry of Finance disregarded the Council’s advice, and they were accused of prioritizing profit over ethics.

Reprieve has called upon CSC to vow never to be involved in such serious human rights abuses in the future. So far, CSC has refused to do so – and it is time its investors took action.  Time will show whether Norway will ignore warnings once again, or live up to its global reputation as a protector of human rights.