
Hold Shell accountable for human rights abuses in Nigeria
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Feb 28, 2012
A global coalition of NGOs, human rights monitors, academics and analysts have joined Platform in sending a letter to the Board members of Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Nigeria which holds Shell to account for its role in recent human rights abuses in Nigeria. Below is a short extract from the letter: Today the US...

Top 7 Resources for Kiobel v Shell @ #SCOTUS
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Feb 27, 2012
Tomorrow the Supreme Court of the United States hears Kiobel v Shell, a case that alleges Shell aided and abetted human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Nigerian military against the Ogoni people from 1992 onwards. The case has significance for the global movement for corporate accountability. The outcome in Kiobel will...

The Big 3: oil co’s and legal cases this month
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Feb 16, 2012
Three of the world’s biggest private oil companies face landmark legal actions this February. Here is a brief run down of the main cases, what they are about and why they matter. 1. US v BP At the centre of the legal fallout from BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010 is a complex civil...

Legal Oil, Ethical Oil and Profiteering in the Niger Delta and the Canadian North
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Jan 30, 2012
In this guest blog post, Professor Anna Zalik of York University Canada explores how governments and multinationals criminalise protest and gloss over the environmental injustices of oil extraction. Q: What does the Canadian Government’s fury at opponents of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline have to do with the Nigerian ‘legaloil’ campaign? A: Both positions are...

Protest Exposes Shell’s Grim Record on Human Rights
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Nov 10, 2011
Last night Shell came face to face with its grim record on human rights in Nigeria at a corporate event for London’s bright young entrepreneurs. Protesters in haunting costumes from London Rising Tide stormed the Shell Live Wire event, unfurling a large banner and distributing leaflets to event attendees. Watch the video by you and...

Own Up, Clean Up, Pay Up: Amnesty’s new report on Shell
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Nov 10, 2011
Amnesty International today demanded that Shell immediately pay $1 billion towards an initial clean up fund for the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta, a scheme recommended by the UN this August. A new report today published by Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) has called on Shell to...

Shell hit with $1bn US lawsuit over Nigeria pollution
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Oct 21, 2011
Within a day of the US Supreme Court decision to hear the case of Kiobel v Shell, which accuses Shell of complicity in crimes against humanity and human rights abuses in Nigeria during the 1990s, the oil giant was hit by another class action lawsuit for 50 years of pollution in the Niger Delta. AFP...
Shell refuses to clean up devastating oil spills; cites “security”
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Oct 5, 2011
Al Jazeera reports that since Shell admitted liability for 2 major oil spills in Bodo after a lawsuit was filed against the oil giant in the High Court in London, the company has done nothing to clean up the extensive damage in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. While Shell cites ‘security issues’ as...
Report ties Shell to human rights abuse, environmental destruction in Niger Delta
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Oct 5, 2011
US radio station FSRN interviews Platform’s Ben Amunwa on the new report, Counting the Cost, which implicates Shell in new human rights abuses in the Niger Delta. The interview includes reference to the different ways that Shell’s ‘community development’ projects have undermined stability, and the company’s appalling record of environmental destruction and oil spills. The...
UNEP report on oil spills in Ogoni: a summary from SDN
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Aug 12, 2011
If you don’t have the time to read UNEP’s 262 page report on the impact of oil spill’s in Ogoni, don’t panic. Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), a group that works on the ground in the Niger Delta supporting community rights, has produced this helpful summary. As we noted previously, UNEP’s findings are particularly damning for Shell. As the main...
Shell sponsors oil clean up competition
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Aug 10, 2011
I challenge anyone to find a more cynical example of corporate sponsorship than this one. (Thanks to @Adammaanit in Brighton and @MsVanessaMurray in Australia for bringing it to our attention). In the same week that Shell was condemned by the UN for its devastating oil spills in Ogoni, and admitted liability for 2 massive spills in Bodo village in the...
The long struggle for justice in Ogoni
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Aug 10, 2011
US-based EarthRights International (ERI) use the law to defend human rights and the environment. They recently posted up their perspective on Shell’s admission of liability for oil spills in Bodo, Ogoni. ERI’s super-hot legal team worked with other leading human rights advocates to hold Shell accountable for its active involvement in crimes against humanity in Ogoniland in the 1990s....