Firestone wins Liberian child labor case in U.S.

[douglas9]

A federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit accusing the Firestone tire company of illegally using child labor in Liberia, but found that U.S. law allows companies to be held liable for human rights abuses abroad.

In an opinion written by Judge Richard Posner, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said companies are not immune from liability in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute for human rights abuses outside the country.

Posner nonetheless rejected claims by 23 Liberian children who challenged working conditions on a 118,000-acre latex-producing rubber tree farm in Liberia. Firestone has operated in the west-central African country since 1926.

"We won the war but lost the battle," Terry Collingsworth, a lawyer for the children, said in an interview on Tuesday. "It is a huge win for the effort to use the Alien Tort Statute to hold corporations accountable for human rights violations in the global economy."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/12/us-firestone-childlabor-idUSTRE76B62Z20110712?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews