Steven and his Ecuadorian clients

Free Steven Donziger!

U.S. human rights lawyer Steven Donziger has been placed on house arrest for 15 months without trial in an unprecedented move by a U.S. federal judge trying to protect a U.S. corporation from a historic environmental court judgment. Mr. Donziger has now been held four times longer pre-trial than the longest sentence ever given a lawyer for the same charge.

Please join 29 Nobel Laureates, hundreds of lawyers and bar associations from around the the world, and prominent NGOs Greenpeace USA, Global Witness, Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, and many others in calling for the immediate release of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger and for Chevron to immediately comply with the rule of law and pay the court judgment it owes to the people of Ecuador.


Please call on the US Congress to act on the request of members of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human rights and investigate the judicial harassment, violations of due process, and overall mistreatment of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger!

To: Members of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties

I call on you to address the concerns of the European Parliament and the countless other human rights organizations, lawyers, Nobel Laureates, and individuals like myself who view the attacks on Steven Donziger as attacks on the rule of law and Free Speech affecting all advocates as well as the very fabric of our nation’s democracy. We call on you to immediately investigate how Chevron has taken control of the government’s power to prosecute and used it to deprive a respected human rights lawyer of his liberty in an effort to intimidate and silence legitimate advocacy.

READ THE NOBELS' STATEMENT

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Donziger played a key role in helping Ecuadorian Indigenous peoples and local communities win a landmark $9.5 billion judgment in Ecuador against Chevron for its deliberate pollution of the Amazon rainforest while operating as Texaco from 1964 to 1992. 

Framed by Chevron with false evidence and corrupt testimony from a bribed witness, Donziger was ordered by the judge to turn over his email passwords, phone, and computer for review by Chevron. When Donziger appealed the order, the judge charged him with criminal contempt, seized his passport and ordered him detained. 

Donziger has been convicted of no crime, yet remains under house arrest for over eight months when the longest sentence ever imposed on a lawyer convicted of the charge is three months of home confinement. Donziger’s freedom to work and travel has been taken away, his family – including a young son – is suffering, and he is unable to continue in the campaign to help the affected communities poisoned by Chevron obtain justice. 

Join 29 Nobel Laureates and prominent NGOs Greenpeace USA, Global Witness, Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, and others calling for the immediate release of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger!

Legal expenses alone are expected to surpass $1 million. If you are able to donate, Steven is also urgently in need of financial support.