The Versailles Court of Appeal ruled in favor this Thursday to 145 Cameroonians who wish to compel the Bolloré group to provide documents supposed to establish its links with the Société camerounaise de palmeraies (Socapalm), which they accuse of infringing on their rights.
Local residents denounce the exploitation of palm trees by Socapalm.
According to them, it condemns their access to land and burial places and pollutes the waters on which they depend.
Like the Nanterre court in the first instance, the Versailles Court of Appeal considered that the activities of Socapalm are “likely to infringe the fundamental rights” of the plaintiffs “and in particular their right to a healthy environment”.
“The graves of our ancestors are still buried under the plantations, our waters are still polluted,” explained Emmanuel Elong, one of the Cameroonian applicants involved in the procedure, during a press conference last month.
Their lawyer, Me Fiodor Rilov, wishes to compel the Bolloré group to produce documents intended to attest either to the control it exercises over Socapalm, or to the commercial relations established with it via a Belgian-Luxembourg holding company, the Société financière des rubbers ( Socfin).
If this were the case, the French giant would be subject to the “duty of vigilance” concerning the activities of Socapalm in Cameroon.
A 2017 law obliges the largest companies to prevent serious violations of human rights and the environment by their foreign subcontractors and suppliers.
File mentioned by MP Boyard in TPMP
This file recently returned to the forefront of the media scene when the deputy LFI Louis Boyard mentioned it on the set of the program "Touche pas à mon poste" (TPMP) on the C8 channel, provoking the ire of the animator Cyril Hanouna.
Unlike the Nanterre court at the start of the year, the Court of Appeal considered on Thursday "characterized the need for the companies Socfin and Socapalm to be ordered to produce the minutes of their general meetings over the last four financial years". to “determine the exact role played by Bolloré SE within them”, according to the judgment.
Either “an essential part of the documents that we were asking for”, indicates Me Rilov.
“I have just met the residents in Cameroon who are more determined than ever to continue the procedure, this decision significantly increases their chances of winning their case against Bolloré and Socfin,” he added.
The decision is accompanied by a penalty payment of 2,000 euros per day of delay.
Contacted, the lawyer for the Bolloré group was not immediately available.
