Featured Allied Organization of the Week: Sherpa
February 27th, 2012
February 27th, 2012
Every other week, the Task Force highlights a Featured Allied Organization. The Task Force has more than 120 member organizations from all over the world which endorse its mission. The current featured Allied Organization is The Council on Geopolitics. To learn more about the Task Force Allied Organizations and to see a full list of our members please visit the Allied Organization webpage.
SHERPA is a non-profit organization that aims to protect and defend the victims of economic crimes in developing countries. SHERPA’s overall focus is deploying legal expertise to fight the injustices caused by economic crimes and to bring about effective changes to public policy and legal frameworks in order to ensure fair and sustainable development for citizens in developing countries. SHERPA brings together legal experts and lawyers convinced that law has a key role to play in ensuring fair and sustainable development for citizens in developing countries.
The organization was founded in 2001 by the renowned French human rights lawyer William Bourdon. His concern was that globalization was creating new forms of impunity which civil society did not have adequate tools or resources to combat. In fact, while perpetrators of the most serious international crimes (i.e. war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide) could finally be held accountable thanks to the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), there was (and still are) no similar forms of redress available to remedy human rights violations and other serious environmental and social impacts arising from the relentless pursuit of profit within the context of financial and economic globalization. SHERPA was created with the specific intention of addressing these economic crimes.
SHERPA was recently featured in the investigative documentary “Filthy Rich.” More information on the documentary can be found here here, along with a related article about SHERPA. To learn more about SHERPA please visit their website.