Human rights charges persist against Cisco Systems

NEWS ADVISORY
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Contact: Jack Ucciferri 707/252-6166 or cell: 805/201-8096

http://www.harringtoninvestments.com


Attention: Daybook/News Desk

Human rights charges persist against Cisco Systems;
Investment firm sets Thursday news conference
to form board-level ‘human rights committee’

SANTA CLARA, Ca – Charges that Cisco Systems continues to violate human rights
in its dealings with China has led a socially-responsible investment firm to
formally propose Cisco impose a “Corporate Board Committee on Human Rights”
during the Cisco’s annual shareholders meeting here Thursday, Nov. 13.

Details of the proposal will be provided at a news conference just prior to the
10 a.m. start of the Thursday Cisco shareholders meeting.

When: Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
Where: Cisco System annual Shareholders Meeting
Santa Clara Convention Center
(outside the Elizabeth A. Hangs Theater),

Harrington Investments, Inc., (HII) a socially responsible investment advisory
firm, will host the news conference. HII is submitting a binding bylaw amendment
to mandate Cisco will create Corporate Board Committees on Human Rights.

Watchdog groups claim Cisco enabled the Chinese government's “Great Firewall”
filtering system, designed to stop Chinese citizens from accessing websites
criticizing the Chinese government. A leaked memo from Cisco earlier this year
confirmed Cisco saw the firewall as a chance to do more business with China.

“Protecting human rights is a fiduciary duty of every corporate director of
every publicly traded corporation in this country,” said John Harrington,
President and CEO of HII, based in Napa, CA.

"These fiduciaries directly represent shareholders. Their decisions can lead to
– or forestall – human rights violations. The associated legal, market and
reputational liabilities are not trivial," Harrington added.

HII has introduced resolutions proposing specific principles for doing business
in China on Cisco, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. Corporate management has
routinely opposed these measures.

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