Investigation on Microsoft¡¯s Involvement in the Chinese Communist Party¡¯s Human Rights Abuses

(August 2005)

Amnesty International believes that Microsoft is in violation of a new United Nations Human Rights code for multinational businesses, which says businesses should ¡°seek to ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human rights.¡± [1]

According to a February 1, 2004 report in the British newspaper The Observer [1], ¡°The human rights groups have slated Bill Gates' company for an 'inadequate response' to escalating human rights abuses in China. 'We don't believe this is appropriate or responsible,' said Mark Allison, an Amnesty International researcher who wrote the report. '[Microsoft] should be more concerned about human rights abuses and should be using its influence to lift restrictions on freedom of expression and get people out of prison. It is disappointing that they don't seem to have raised these issues.¡±

On the other hand, Microsoft told The Observer, ¡°We are committed to delivering the best technology to people throughout the world. However, how that technology is used is with the individual and ultimately not in the company's control. Moreover, two years ago, the World Trade Organization acknowledged that the big software companies in the U.S. could supply the Chinese government with software they need for the development in science and technology.¡±

Therefore, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has conducted further investigation on how the Chinese Communist Party uses Western High-Tech in human rights abuses, which let to the following report:

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