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Houston-KBR Inc. shareholders – with the firm facing rape and bribery charges worldwide – will vote on a shareholder proposal that addresses the corporation’s horrifying human rights issues.

Harrington Investments Inc., located in Napa CA, introduced the resolution, which will be presented by Joseph Gonzalez of Christus Health.  This proposal is to amend the corporate bylaws by creating a board-level committee on human rights. 

“KBR’s management is obviously not taking their human rights footprint very seriously.  The board of directors is accountable to shareholders, but only if we assert ourselves as the real owners of the company.  Understandably, shareholders don’t like being associated with atrocities.” said John Harrington, CEO of Harrington Investments.

“The company’s shamefully inept response to high profile rape cases involving its very own employees in Iraq has exceedingly tarnished its public image and employee morale”, said Harrington, adding that:  “Rape is inexcusable and rather than facing the issue, KBR directors react by turning a blind eye”.  Numerous women have now filed suit with KBR, including Jamie Leigh Jones and Dawn Leamon, a paramedic for KBR, who was allegedly told to keep quiet about the incident involving KBR supervisors. 

As of June 9, 2008 eighty-one American and foreign KBR employees and subcontractors have been killed, and more than 380 have been wounded by hostile action while performing services under the company’s government contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.

Recently, the Justice Department announced KBR had been charged with paying “tens of millions of dollars” in bribes to Nigerian officials in order to win government contacts.  KBR was found guilty and ordered to pay $420 million in penalties.  Though not directly connected to human rights issues, bribery is closely associated by the World Bank to human rights downfalls. 

“If ever there was a need for responsible fiduciary human rights oversight within a company, it is with KBR.  This company has been castigated in the press, sued, and accused of bribery, rape, murder, political corruption, tax avoidance, and who knows what else,” Harrington concluded.

Harrington Investments, the filer of this resolution, has been a strong advocate for change, making shareholder advocacy one of its top priorities for the past twenty five years.