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Dozens of Harvard Law School students assisted with Class Action Suit filed in Southern District of New York on behalf of South African plaintiffs alleging Defendant complicity in crimes against humanity, extrajudicial killings and torture

New York, NY - Human rights attorneys have filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York alleging that five multinational companies collaborated and acted purposefully with the South African government to commit human rights violations including apartheid, itself a crime against humanity. Other claims allege complicity in extrajudicial killings, torture, de-nationalization, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment during the apartheid regime. The companies named in the suit are Barclays Bank PLC (Barclays), Ford Motor Company (Ford), General Motors Corporation (GM), Daimler AG (Daimler) and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

More than twenty-five Harvard Law School students have assisted with this case on behalf of the victims of apartheid over the past three years. The students have worked closely with a team of South African and U.S. attorneys, including leading U.S. human rights litigator Paul Hoffman, a partner with Schonbrun De Simone Seplow Harris and Hoffman LLP. The students have been supervised by Human Rights Program Clinical Director Tyler Giannini, Clinical Litigation Fellow Susan Farbstein (J.D. '04), and Henigson Human Rights Fellow Nathan Ela (J.D. '07).

The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). By actively participating with apartheid security forces to suppress anti-apartheid organizations and movements, the complaint argues that Defendants violated international law.

"The products and expertise of foreign corporations, including Barclays, IBM, Ford, GM and Daimler, were critical to apartheid's survival." said Hoffman. "The automobile companies actively supported the apartheid system by providing armored military vehicles used to violently suppress and terrorize the black population."

Hoffman also commended the work of Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic in the case.

"The work by the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic in this case has been extraordinary and essential to the litigation of this case," said Hoffman. "It is a wonderful program and an important contribution to the human rights cause in U.S. litigation."

The complaint details how each of the five companies aided the apartheid regime. In addition to the automobile companies, Defendant IBM actively implemented apartheid by knowingly producing race-based identity documents that stripped plaintiffs of their nationality and citizenships and restricted their travel. Defendant Barclays purposefully promoted apartheid's goal to geographically separate the races by systematically denying black individuals the opportunity to work in or transfer to offices in predominately white areas.

This suit is an amended complaint of allegations previously filed. The allegations address claims exclusively between private persons and corporations, and do not involve any claims against the government of South Africa. Since none of the five Defendant companies applied for amnesty before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the government of South Africa expressly reserved the right for civil actions to be filed in court.

"This amended complaint address concerns previously raised by the South African government," said John Ngcebetsha, a South African attorney also representing the plaintiffs. "As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, litigation seeking compensation from corporations complicit in apartheid's gross human rights violations does not conflict with any policies of the South African government."

More than 25 law students have worked on this case, participating in nearly half a dozen trips to South Africa to conduct on-site documentation and research. The most recent trip was in October 2008, where Julianne Stevenson (LL.M. '09) and Leigh Ann Webster (J.D. '10) traveled with Lecturer on Law Tyler Giannini to Johannesburg.

"It was an incredible opportunity to be involved in so many aspects of the preparation and drafting of a complaint that has such potential to provide accountability for human rights violations involving multinational corporations," said Stevenson. "This is particularly the case as an international student whose main purpose in coming to Harvard was to gain the experience necessary to pursue a career in the human rights field."

Said Webster: "It was incredible to be involved with such interesting and important litigation at this level as a second year law student. Not only did students have a real impact on the actual litigation, but in the process, we got to do something that could potentially help thousands of victims of apartheid, which is both rewarding and inspiring."

The legal team includes Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris and Hoffman; attorney Judith Chomsky; Tyler Giannini from the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School; advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, with Duma Nokwe Group of Advocates in South Africa; attorney John Ngcebetsha, with Ngcebetsha Madlanga Attorneys in South Africa; Helen I. Zeldes of Zeldes and Haeggquist LLP; advocate Michael Francis Osbourne; attorney Medi Mokuena, lawyer with Mokuena Attorneys in South Africa; and the law firm of Nagel Rice, LLP.

Harvard Law students that have worked on this case include: Cori Crider (J.D. ’06), Sarah Knuckey (LL.M. ’06), Nathan Ela (J.D. ’07), Andrew Woods (J.D. ’07), Sarah Rice (J.D. ’07), Kelsey Shannon (J.D. ’07), Amanda Perwin (J.D. ’07), Jillian Ashley (J.D. ’07), Yvonne Osirim (J.D. ’07), Jose Klein (J.D. ’08), David Zionts (J.D. ’08), Jonathan Jenkins (J.D. ’08), Meghan Morris (J.D. ’08), Andrew McIntyre (LL.M. ’08), Wieli Shaw (J.D. ’09), Matthew Bugher (J.D. ’09), Leigh Sylvan (J.D. ’09), Katherine Glenn (J.D. ’09), Katherine Currie (J.D. '09), Alexia DeVincentis (J.D. ’09), Patrick Childress (J.D. '09), Julianne Stevenson (LL.M. '09), Kate Allan (LL.M. '09), Leigh Ann Webster (J.D. '10), Esti Tambay (J.D. '10), and Aarti Reddy (J.D. '10).

For more information, contact the Human Rights Program at 617-495-9214 or mijones@law.harvard.edu.