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GUEST: Dr. Marjorie Jobson, Acting National Director of Khulumani Support Group, live from South Africa

Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court allowed two cases to move forward that seeks redress for victims of apartheid from major corporations. Under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789 the plaintiffs of the lawsuits are claiming that companies violated international law by assisting the apartheid system in South Africa. The law allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts over international law violations and has been used in recent years to hold the US government, military, and corporations accountable in a court of law for human rights abuses committed as a result of their presence in a foreign country. Because 4 Supreme Court justices recused themselves from the cases due to personal investments in the companies in question, the nation’s highest court has affirmed an earlier decision by the Second Circuit Court to allow the suits to proceed in a New York District Court. The Khulumani Support Group, representing 87 victims and survivors of Apartheid era abuses, is leading one of the lawsuits and seeking damages.

For more information, visit www.khulumani.net.

NOTE: The introduction to this story, as it aired, was inaccurate in citing a single lawsuit, when in fact there are two lawsuits, one by the group we covered, and another, broader one seeking $400 billion and representing a much larger group. Our information was based on Western news media sources (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/13/america/scotus.php) that conflated both the lawsuits as one.