• Wiwa v. Shell: Landmark Human Rights Trial

• Lawsuit Against Shell for Pollution in Nigeria: Anglo-Dutch Company Sued in The Netherlands

Wiwa v. Shell

“I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial… There is no doubt in my mind that the crimes of the Company’s dirty war against the Ogoni people will be punished….”
–Ken Saro-Wiwa, before the military tribunal that sentenced him to death, 1995

UPDATE: June 8, 2009– Royal Dutch Shell Forced to Settle Human Rights Case Out of Court.

After legal battles lasting nearly fourteen years, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has been forced to pay a $15.5 million out-of-court settlement. Plaintiffs from the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta have successfully held Shell accountable for complicity in human rights atrocities committed against the Ogoni people in the 1990s, including the execution of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. The legal action is one of the few cases brought under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute that have been resolved in favor of the plaintiffs. The settlement includes establishment of a $5 million trust to benefit local communities in Ogoni. Read our press release.

Responding to appeals from individuals who were tortured and family members of people who were killed, both by soldiers working with Shell, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and EarthRights International (ERI), with help from other human rights attorneys, brought a series of cases to hold Shell accountable for human rights violations in Nigeria, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhuman treatment and arbitrary arrest and detention. The lawsuits have been brought against Royal Dutch Shell and Brian Anderson, the head of Shell’s Nigerian operation.

The cases were brought under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 statute giving non-U.S. citizens the right to file suits in U.S. courts for international human rights violations, and the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows individuals to seek damages in the U.S. for torture or extrajudicial killing, regardless of where the violations take place. Several cases involving the various charges have been consolidated into one trial, referred to as Wiwa v. Shell.

Wiwa v. Shell charges Shell with requesting, financing, and assisting the Nigerian military which used deadly force to repress opposition to Shell’s operations in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. The lawsuit also charges Shell with conspiring with the Nigerian military dictatorship in the prosecution of the leaders of this movement – the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). Shell bribed witnesses to give false testimony, ultimately leading to a death sentence for nine men, including acclaimed author, activist, and leader of MOSOP Ken Saro-Wiwa. On November 10th, 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were hanged.

As Ken Saro-Wiwa’s son Ken Wiwa told The Observer on April 9th:

“We need to know the truth. We need to have people account for their role in the executions and the displacement of the Ogoni people, many of whom feel traumatised. It will be a relief. It will enable people to face the future. That’s the most important thing. Let’s account for the past, so we can move forward.”

This landmark trial for human rights and corporate accountability will be watched by people around the world, including public officials, corporate executives, the legal community, human rights and corporate social responsibility campaigners, and of course, those who have suffered the abuses in Shell in Nigeria, and around the world.

If Shell is found to be liable, it will send shockwaves through corporate boardrooms worldwide and send a signal that corporations can be held liable for committing human rights abuses no matter where they occur.

And even if Shell, with its massive resources, is somehow able to prevail in court and convince the jury that it wasn’t responsible for the crimes that no-one disputes happened, we have an unprecedented opportunity – and responsibility – to do everything we can to hold Shell accountable for its ongoing crimes against people and the planet we all depend on.

We’re turning up the heat on Shell to demand that it comes clean:

• Stop gas flaring in Nigeria, a practice devastating to the environment and human health, and a significant contributor to global warming.
• Disclose its role in the abuses committed against the Ogoni people in Nigeria, including the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9.

To learn more about the Wiwa v. Shell case, visit www.WiwavShell.org, the website of plaintiffs’ co-counsel EarthRights International and the Center for constitutional Rights.

“Lord take my soul but the struggle continues…”
–Ken Saro-Wiwa’s last words

Lawsuit Against Shell for Pollution in Nigeria

But the Wiwa v. Shell case to be heard in U.S. federal court in May is not the only lawsuit Shell faces. In 2008, four Nigerian citizens and Friends of the Earth Netherlands/Nigeria filed a lawsuit against Anglo-Dutch multinational Shell in The Netherlands, where the company is headquartered. The People of Nigeria vs. Royal pollution in Nigeria. The Nigerians are fishermen and farmers whose lands and livelihood suffer major damage from oil spills and contamination by Shell.

In one incident covered by the lawsuit, a massive oil spill occurred in October 2004 from Shell’s Trans-Niger pipeline, which runs through the Ogoni region of the the Niger Delta to the Bonny export terminal. Following the spill a fire broke out. With the shifting tides in the Delta region, the oil spill and fire eventually reached the mangrove area of the Goi community, where Plaintiff Chief Barizaa Dooh lives. Shell came to put out the fire, but didn’t succeed for three days. In the end, an estimated 15 hectares of mangrove forest were destroyed, about 20 canoes were burned, all aquatic life was killed and many hundreds of economically valuable trees (raffia palm, mango, coconut, avocado and more) were reduced to ashes.

Plaintiff Chief Barizaa Dooh of Goi speaks:

“Due to the oil spill and accompanying fire, my land was destroyed; my fish ponds, my canoes, my vegetable gardens and fruitbearing trees that I planted. I was left behind empty-handed. I hope that the judge in the Netherlands can force Shell to take the right action. That is where my hope lies.”

To learn more, visit the website of ShellGuilty coalition partner Friends of the Earth International, where there is a page about the lawsuit in Dutch courts.