NAPA, CA - Harrington Investments, Inc., (HII) a socially responsible investment advisory firm, will re-introduce a bylaw amendment to create a Board Committee on Human Rights at Yahoo. 

"Yahoo's directors have been unresponsive to the reality that human rights are a real element of fiduciary responsibility," said John Harrington, CEO of Harrington Investments.

Yahoo's mismanagement of human rights policy resulted in former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos lambasting Yahoo co-founder and CEO, Jerry Yang, saying that: "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies. This testimony has been an appallingly disappointing performance."

Aside from such embarrassing media attention, Yahoo! recently settled a lawsuit with victims' families for an undisclosed sum. 

Harrington believes that a Board Committee on Human Rights would serve investors by respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. HII and Human rights advocates have asked Yahoo! to take all possible legitimate action to:

• avoid complying with government requests that may contravene human rights;

• challenge government policies that violate human rights in the context of the Internet;

• provide transparency in its filtering process used to limit search results;

• ensure that its Chinese partner, Alibaba, as well as other partners and subsidiaries in other countries, abide by the same principles;

• use the opportunity provided by the Beijing Olympics to call on the Chinese government to release those detained for their peaceful use of the Internet.

Yahoo's compliance with the Chinese government's demands for account-holder information has led to long prison sentences for Chinese dissidents who were peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, a right entrenched in both international law and the Chinese Constitution.  In a related breach of international human rights standards, Yahoo! has long complied with state directives to restrict its search results, including information about human rights. 

"Shareholder sponsored Human Rights Committees may be our only means of reminding corporate directors that they are fiduciaries.  These directors are responsible for overseeing global management. Their decisions can lead to - or forestall - human rights violations.  The associated legal and financial liabilities are not trivial," Harrington added.

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