Oilwatch

1. WHAT IS OILWATCH

Oilwatch is a resistance network that opposes the activities of oil companies in tropical countries.

2. OILWATCH PRINCIPLES

Oilwatch is a network that builds solidarity and fosters a common identity among peoples of the South.

Oilwatch understands similarities in the current pattern of resource exploitation in countries of the South, which reflects historical legacy of disempowerment of peoples and considers the recognition of the right of peoples to self-determination as primary in the resolution of environmental problems.

Oilwatch is a network of resistance to the negative impacts of oil and gas industry activity on peoples and their environment.

Oilwatch members support all initiatives of local peoples to resist fossil fuels activities.

These initiatives include monitoring of devastation and violation that arises directly or indirectly from oil activity, and support for local demand for compensation and restoration.

Oilwatch is a network that applies and fosters decentralization. It works more as a movement rather than a centralized entity.

3. POLITICAL AIM

To stop the expansion of socially destructive and environmentally damaging oil activity in the tropics and other parts of the global South.

 

Support communities in the global South that resist the destructive activities of oil companies

 

Create consciousness of a model of development that is not based on destructive energy sources and respects sovereignty, justice, dignity and human rights.

 

Forge a network of national and regional organizations that acts at the local level so that they can intervene in a united way at the international level in protection of the lives and livelihood of local peoples.

 

Link the environmental impacts with that of the social impacts of the hydrocarbon activities, from a Southern prospective.

Analysis document/working paper/article