DOCSLIB.ORG

A Criminal Enterprise?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Criminal Enterprise? A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990S Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. © Amnesty International 2017 Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed under a Creative Commons (attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, international 4.0) license. Cover photo: Collage over an image of a Shell gas flare at Bomu oil field, Ogoniland, 1994. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode © Tim Lambon / Greenpeace For more information please visit the permissions page on our website: www.amnesty.org Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Amnesty International this material is not subject to the Creative Commons lisence. First published in 2017 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benson House, 1 Easton Street London WC1X ODW, UK Index: AFR 44/7393/2017 Original language: English amnesty.org A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s 3 CONTENTS GLOSSARY 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 METHODOLOGY 14 PART ONE: THE OGONI CRISIS 17 1.1 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 17 1.2 TIMELINE 35 PART TWO: SHELL'S ROLE IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN OGONILAND 40 2.1 WHAT SHELL KNEW AND WHEN 41 2.2 SHELL IGNORED THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AND SAW OGONILAND AS AN ECONOMIC PROBLEM 46 2.3 SHELL SOLICITED THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE ARMED FORCES AND ENCOURAGED HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN OGONILAND 52 2.4 SHELL'S PAYMENTS AND ASSISTANCE TO THE SECURITY FORCES 61 2.5 COMPLICITY IN THE UNFAIR TRIAL AND EXECUTIONS 67 2.6 SHELL'S PARENT COMPANY DIRECTED ITS NIGERIA OPERATIONS 72 PART THREE: CORPORATE COMPLICITY 75 3.1 THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK 75 3.2 THE CASE AGAINST SHELL 82 CONCLUSION 86 ANNEX: SHELL RESPONSE 37 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NOVEMBER 2017, INDEX: AFR 44/7393/2017 4 A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s GLOSSARY ISTF Internal Security Task Force MOPOL Mobile Police, a paramilitary Nigeria police force MOSOP Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People NNPC Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NYCOP National Youth Council of Ogoni People SIPC Shell International Petroleum Corporation (headquarters in London) SIPM Shell International Petroleum Maatchappij (headquarters in The Hague) SPDC Shell Petroleum Development Company (headquarters in Lagos) SPY Shell Supernumerary Police, the Nigerian police unit seconded to guard Shell property and personnel SSS State Security Service, Nigeria’s internal security and intelligence agency AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NOVEMBER 2017, INDEX: AFR 44/7393/2017 A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s 5 Amnesty International torch lit vigil on Damsquare in Amsterdam, The Nether- lands on 11 1995 November, the day after the Ogoni Nine were executed © Amnesty International in Ogoniland. The military’s subsequent campaign directly led to widespread and serious human rights EXECUTIVE SUMMARY violations, including the unlawful killing of hundreds of Ogonis, as well as torture and other ill-treatment, including rape, and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. Many of these violations also amounted In November 1995, the Nigerian state arbitrarily to criminal offences. executed nine men after a blatantly unfair trial. The executions led to global condemnation. The United This report examines the role played by the UK- States and the European Union imposed sanctions Dutch multinational Shell in these human rights on Nigeria, and the Commonwealth group of nations violations and crimes. That the company was a central suspended the country’s membership. Officially player in the events in Ogoniland in the 1990s is accused of involvement in murder, the men had in fact undisputable: MOSOP was protesting against Shell’s been put on trial for confronting the Anglo-Dutch negative environmental and social impact on the oil giant, Shell, over its devastating impact on the Ogoni community and had told the company to leave Ogoniland region of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta. the area. Shell stopped operations in Ogoniland in early 1993 citing security concerns, but subsequently The executions were the culmination of a brutal sought ways to re-enter the region and end the campaign by Nigeria’s military to silence the protests MOSOP protests. of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), led by author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Shell has always denied that the company played one of the men executed. MOSOP said that others any part in the violence and gross human rights had grown rich on the oil that was pumped from violations that took place in Ogoniland in the 1990s. under their soil, while pollution from oil spills and However, Amnesty International has undertaken a gas flaring had, “led to the complete degradation of detailed review of thousands of pages of internal the Ogoni environment, turning our homeland into company documents and witness statements which an ecological disaster.” In January 1993, MOSOP expose what Shell knew and how it engaged with declared that Shell was no longer welcome to operate the Nigerian security forces throughout this period. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NOVEMBER 2017, INDEX: AFR 44/7393/2017 6 A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s Many of the company documents referenced in this also threatened to disrupt the flow of a pipeline report were released as part of legal proceedings in that carried oil from other regions across Ogoniland. the US and include accounts of meetings with the The government in Abuja was also worried that the Nigerian leadership, including the president General protests would spread throughout the oil-producing Sani Abacha, strategy papers, internal memos and region, where other communities had similar letters to officials. The report also draws on Amnesty grievances to the Ogonis. According to an internal International’s own archives and the organization’s Shell memo, General Sani Abacha, who seized power work in the Niger Delta at the time. This is the first in a coup in November 1993, “seemed to find it time any organization has brought all of this material unbelievable that such a small tribe could have the together and analysed it. In Amnesty International’s effrontery to cause such a lot of trouble.” view, the evidence raises serious questions about the extent of Shell’s involvement not just in gross violations but also in criminal conduct. SHELL KNEW MOSOP HAD A LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCE SHELL AND THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT: While framing the Ogoni protests as a largely “INEXTRICABLY LINKED” economic problem, Shell downplayed the community’s concerns about the environment and other issues. In the 1990s Shell was the single most important In public statements Shell denied that its operations company in Nigeria and in 1995 pumped almost had caused environmental problems. This was one million barrels of crude oil a day, roughly half completely false. Internal documents reveal that senior of Nigeria’s total daily oil production. Nigeria’s oil staff were highly concerned about the poor state of exports made up 95.7% of the country’s foreign Shell’s ageing, inadequately maintained and earnings so were vital to the economy. leaky pipelines. In November 1994, the head of environmental studies for Shell Nigeria, Bopp Van The country and the company had a shared interest Dessel, resigned over the issue, saying that he felt in ensuring that the oil kept flowing. Shell and the unable to defend the company’s environmental government were business partners, running the record “without losing his personal integrity.” Van highly profitable Nigerian oil fields as a joint venture. Dessel went public with these allegations in a TV The two entities were in constant contact. As the interview in 1996 stating: chairperson of Shell Nigeria from 1994-7, Brian Anderson, conceded, “The government and the oil “(Shell managers) were not meeting their industry are inextricably entangled.” own standards; they were not meeting international standards. Any Shell site that Shell’s Nigerian operations were also of great I saw was polluted. Any terminal that I saw importance to the multinational's overall balance was polluted. It was clear to me that Shell sheet. A 1996 internal strategy document revealed was devastating the area.” that Nigeria was home to the single largest portion of Shell’s entire worldwide oil and gas reserves and While Van Dessel’s comments relate to all of the that Shell Nigeria had, “access to the biggest low Shell operations in the Niger Delta, other credible cost hydrocarbon resource base in the Group, with sources provide evidence of the specific situation enough oil to sustain production for almost 100 in Ogoniland. After taking up the case of Ogoniland years at current levels.” in 1996, the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights found that pollution and environmental The Ogoni protests not only deprived Shell and the degradation in Ogoniland were at a level that was, government of access to wells in that area, they “humanly unacceptable and has made living in the AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NOVEMBER 2017, INDEX: AFR 44/7393/2017 A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s 7 Ogoniland a nightmare”. A 2011 scientific study Despite announcing its withdrawal from Ogoniland, of the environment in Ogoniland conducted by the and knowing that the Ogoni people no longer wanted United Nations Environment Programme confirmed them to be there, Shell decided that its contractors that the land, air and water of Ogoniland were badly should continue to lay a new pipeline through the polluted and made clear that the oil pollution dated area.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Palestinian Talk Thursday the Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker
    For Immediate Release Date: June 7, 2012 Contact: Tony Clark, 404-865-7109 [email protected] NEWS12-19 Palestinian Talk Thursday The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker Atlanta, GA. The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Amnesty International and ACappella Books present author and award-winning documentary filmmaker Jen Marlowe for a free reading and book signing on Thursday, June 14th at 7:00pm. Her book, The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker, tells the story of Sami al Jundi. As a teenager in Palestine, al Jundi had one ambition: overthrowing Israeli occupation. With two friends, he began to build a bomb to use against the police. But when it exploded prematurely, killing one of his friends, al Jundi was caught and sentenced to ten years in prison. It was in an Israeli jail that his unlikely transformation began. al Jundi was welcomed into a highly organized, democratic community of political prisoners who required that members of their cell read, engage in political discourse on topics ranging from global revolutions to the precepts of nonviolent protest and revolution. Al Jundi left prison still determined to fight for his people’s rights—but with a very different notion of how to undertake that struggle. He cofounded the Middle East program of Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence, which brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth. Marked by honesty and compassion for Palestinians and Israelis alike, The Hour of Sunlight illuminates the Palestinian experience through the story of one man’s struggle for peace.
    [Show full text]
  • Conflict-Related Sexual Violence – Translating Words Into Action
    MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release Geneva, 12 June 2018 CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE – TRANSLATING WORDS INTO ACTION In fifteen years of existence, TRIAL International has acquired an expertise in legal responses to sexual violence. Aware of the importance of good collaboration, the NGO has partnered with other civil society actors to gather practical tools for the assistance of victims. For its fifteenth anniversary, TRIAL International is organizing a high-level event on the topic of conflict-related sexual violence. Many actors of this field will gather in Geneva on 18 and 19 June – the International day for the elimination of conflict-related sexual violence – to focus on the advances these organizations have conquered. The objective is to compile their experience and share concrete solutions. “It is probably the first time that these NGOs, which have developed cutting-edge techniques or IT apps, show such willingness to collaborate. Each one will bring a piece of the puzzle to move forward, patiently and professionally, the fight against impunity for conflict-related sexual violence”, enthuses Philip Grant, Director of TRIAL International. EXPERTS WILL PRESENT THEIR VICTORIES The public event on 18 June will offer a panorama of the advances victims of conflict-related sexual violence have enjoyed in their access to justice. The United Nations Deputy High Commissioner to Human Rights Kate Gilmore and the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, Ambassador Valentin Zellweger, will deliver keynote speeches.
    [Show full text]
  • U.N. Peacekeeping Operations in Africa
    U.N. Peacekeeping Operations in Africa September 23, 2019 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R45930 SUMMARY R45930 U.N. Peacekeeping Operations in Africa September 23, 2019 Many Members of Congress have demonstrated an interest in the mandates, effectiveness, and funding status of United Nations (U.N.) peacekeeping operations in Africa as an integral Luisa Blanchfield component of U.S. policy toward Africa and a key tool for fostering greater stability and security Specialist in International on the continent. As of September 2019, there are seven U.N. peacekeeping operations in Africa: Relations the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Alexis Arieff Republic (MINUSCA), Specialist in African Affairs the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the U.N. Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), Lauren Ploch Blanchard Specialist in African Affairs the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the U.N. Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), and the U.N. Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The United States, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, plays a key role in establishing, renewing, and funding U.N. peacekeeping operations, including those in Africa. For 2019, the U.N. General Assembly assessed the U.S. share of U.N. peacekeeping operation budgets at 27.89%; since the mid-1990s Congress has capped the U.S. payment at 25% due to concerns that the current assessment is too high. During the Trump Administration, the United States generally has voted in the Security Council for the renewal and funding of existing U.N.
    [Show full text]
  • What's in a Name? Transnational Corporations As Bystanders Under International Law
    St. John's Law Review Volume 85 Number 1 Volume 85, Winter 2011, Number 1 Article 1 What's in a Name? Transnational Corporations as Bystanders Under International Law Jena Martin Amerson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/lawreview This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in St. John's Law Review by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CP_Amerson (Do Not Delete) 7/14/2011 4:06 PM ARTICLES WHAT’S IN A NAME? TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS AS BYSTANDERS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW JENA MARTIN AMERSON† INTRODUCTION “You said we were Namers. I still don’t know: what is a Namer?” “I’ve told you. A Namer has to know who people are, and who they are meant to be.”1 The concept of naming is a powerful one. By naming a thing, the namer provides it with a sense of belonging, a characterization. By giving something that had previously been unidentified a name, the namer immediately imbues it with a set of characteristics. The name has powerful connotations: It can provide people with instant recognition based on a shared understanding. But there is also a danger in the act. If, instead of naming, the would-be namer labels—that is, imbues it with a quickly formulated, thoughtless identifier—then it does not provide people with a sound understanding of the thing, be it person or concept, that the labeler is trying to contextualize.
    [Show full text]
  • Police Abuse and Misconduct Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in the U.S
    United States of America Stonewalled : Police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the U.S. 1. Introduction In August 2002, Kelly McAllister, a white transgender woman, was arrested in Sacramento, California. Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies ordered McAllister from her truck and when she refused, she was pulled from the truck and thrown to the ground. Then, the deputies allegedly began beating her. McAllister reports that the deputies pepper-sprayed her, hog-tied her with handcuffs on her wrists and ankles, and dragged her across the hot pavement. Still hog-tied, McAllister was then placed in the back seat of the Sheriff’s patrol car. McAllister made multiple requests to use the restroom, which deputies refused, responding by stating, “That’s why we have the plastic seats in the back of the police car.” McAllister was left in the back seat until she defecated in her clothing. While being held in detention at the Sacramento County Main Jail, officers placed McAllister in a bare basement holding cell. When McAllister complained about the freezing conditions, guards reportedly threatened to strip her naked and strap her into the “restraint chair”1 as a punitive measure. Later, guards placed McAllister in a cell with a male inmate. McAllister reports that he repeatedly struck, choked and bit her, and proceeded to rape her. McAllister sought medical treatment for injuries received from the rape, including a bleeding anus. After a medical examination, she was transported back to the main jail where she was again reportedly subjected to threats of further attacks by male inmates and taunted by the Sheriff’s staff with accusations that she enjoyed being the victim of a sexual assault.2 Reportedly, McAllister attempted to commit suicide twice.
    [Show full text]
  • Applying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: a Case Study of Henry Kissinger
    Applying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Case Study of Henry Kissinger Steven Feldsteint TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .......................................... 1665 I. Background ........... ....... ..................... 1671 A . H enry Kissinger ........................................................................ 1672 B. The Development of International Humanitarian Law ............. 1675 1. Sources of International Law ............................................. 1676 2. Historical Development of International Humanitarian L aw ..................................................................................... 16 7 7 3. Post-World War 11 Efforts to Codify International Hum anitarian Principles ................................................. 1680 a. The 1948 Genocide Convention ......................................... 1680 b. The Geneva Conventions ................................................... 1682 c. United Nations Suite of Human Rights Conventions ......... 1684 C. The Development of International War Crimes Tribunals ....... 1685 1. N urem berg Tribunal ........................................................... 1685 2. IC TY and IC TR .................................................................. 1687 3. The International Criminal Court ....................................... 1688 4. U niversal Jurisdiction ......................................................... 1694 5. A lien Tort Claim s A ct ........................................................ 1695 I1. Individual Accountability
    [Show full text]
  • The Demobilization of the Ogoni Protest Campaign in the Niger Delta Tijen Demirel-Pegg Scott Pe
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by IUPUIScholarWorks Razed, repressed and bought off: The demobilization of the Ogoni protest campaign in the Niger Delta Tijen Demirel-Pegg Scott Pegg Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Abstract: This study examines the demobilization of the Ogoni protest campaign in the oil producing Niger Delta region of Nigeria in the mid-1990s. The contentious politics literature suggest that protest campaigns demobilize as a consequence of the polarization between radical and moderate protesters. In this study, we offer a different causal mechanism and argue that protest campaigns can demobilize before such indiscriminate repression. Moreover, states can prevent the subsequent radicalization of a protest campaign followed by harsh repression by coopting the radicals and the remaining moderate elites while continuing to use repression to prevent collective action. Our conclusion assesses how relations between extractive industry firms and their local host communities have or have not changed in the twenty years since the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. Published in Extractive Industries and Society This is the authors’ manuscript of the article published in final edited form at: Demirel-Pegg, Tijen, and Scott Pegg (2015), “Razed, Repressed, and Bought Off: The Demobilization of the Ogoni Protest Campaign in the Niger Delta,” in Extractive Industries and Society, Vol.2, pp. 654-663. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X15001343 Introduction On January 4, 1993, around 300,000 Ogoni people in Rivers State, Nigeria peacefully protested against the environmental devastation of their land caused by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), the Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell (hereafter, Shell).
    [Show full text]
  • United States District Court Southern District of New York ------X
    Case 1:96-cv-08386-KMW-HBP Document 199 Filed 09/12/2006 Page 1 of 21 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK -----------------------------------X KEN WIWA, et al., : Plaintifs, : -against- : 96 Civ. 8386 (KMW)(HBP) ROYAL DUTCH PETROLEUM COMPANY; : SHELL TRANSPORT AND TRADING COMPANY, p.l.c., : Defendants. : -----------------------------------X KEN WIWA, et al., : Plaintiffs, : -against- : 01 Civ. 1909 (KMW)(HBP) BRIAN ANDERSON, : MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Defendant. : -----------------------------------X PITMAN, United States Magistrate Judge: I. Introduction By notice of motion dated April 2, 2004 (Docket Item 131) defendants seek an Order pursuant to Rules 26(g) and 37(b)(2)(B) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure striking plaintiffs' interrogatory answers in their entirety and preclud- ing plainitffs from identifying any new individuals that purport to have personal knowledge of the allegations that are the subject matter of defendants' interrogatories. Plaintiffs oppose Case 1:96-cv-08386-KMW-HBP Document 199 Filed 09/12/2006 Page 2 of 21 the motion and seek an award of their attorney's fees pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(4)(B). For the reasons set forth below, defendants' motion is denied in all respects and plaintiffs' application for attorney's fees is granted. II. Facts A. Alleged Facts Underlying These Actions This action arises out of alleged human rights viola- tions in Nigeria during the period from 1990 through 1995. As set forth in the pending complaints, plaintiffs and their decedents were active in protesting oil exploration and development activity by defendants in the Ogoni region of Nige- ria; according to plaintiffs, these activities have had pro- foundly damaging ecological effects in the region (Second Amended Complaint 01 Civ.
    [Show full text]
  • In Girton Varsity Exclusively Reveals Allegations of Student Attack During the Early Hours of March 17Th
    GENERAL ELECTION 2005 - Varsity meets all your parliamentary candidates -PAGES 4 & 5 - Your Vote: Comment & Analysis -PAGES 5, 10, 18 - Howard Flight, Tessa Jowell & Lord McNally -PAGES 4 & 5 No. 619 The Independent Cambridge Student Newspaper since 1947 Friday April 29, 2005 Six undergraduates arrested over “serious sexual assault” in Girton Varsity exclusively reveals allegations of student attack during the early hours of March 17th Varsity News Reporter end-of-term bop with the title morning of the 17th and have crime scene. been careful to keep the inci- tioned by the police. They of “Rumble in the Jungle”, now been released on bail. The incident is alleged to dent discreet. No announce- have since been released on organised on March 16th by The individuals accused have occured during the early ment of the event has yet been bail pending further question- POLICE OFFICERS are the Girton College JCR. were seen returning to Girton hours in central Girton made to Girton students. ing at a later date.” investigating a report of a very Varsity has chosen not to dis- during the early hours of the College accommodation. Cambridge University Press The six male individuals serious sexual assault alleged close the names of the under- 17th wearing police overalls, Neighbouring students were Office confirmed that have been bailed to return to to have taken place in Girton graduate victim or those of his creating speculation that their particularly shocked at the “Cambridgeshire police were Parkside Police Station on College during the early hours six alleged male attackers. clothes had been confiscated fact that the event is said to called to an alleged incident at Thursday May 5th.
    [Show full text]
  • Framing Environmental Justice: from American to Global Perspectives
    Framing Environmental Justice: From American to Global Perspectives By Ali Brox Submitted to the graduate degree program English and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson Byron Caminero-Santangelo ________________________________ Lawrence Buell ________________________________ Giselle Anatol ________________________________ Paul Outka ________________________________ Paul Stock Date Defended: July 3, 2013 ii The Dissertation Committee for Ali Brox certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Framing Environmental Justice: From American to Global Perspectives ________________________________ Chairperson Byron Caminero-Santangelo Date approved: July 3, 2013 iii Abstract This dissertation contests the idea that environmental justice discourse emerges solely from the United States. It creates dialogue between texts that represent a traditional American environmental justice frame and those that depict situations of environmental injustice outside of U.S. borders. It identifies eight coordinates that are crucial components of what can be considered environmental justice discourse. These characteristics become a rubric for establishing a traveling theory of environmental justice and include: issues of scale, types of knowledge and the institutions that produce it, anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives, realist and constructivist representations, individual and societal responsibilities, identity constructions like race and class, particularist and totalizing representations, and genre considerations. Analysis of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s A Month and a Day, Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People, and Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide reveals that certain coordinates that comprise environmental justice discourse are more fraught than others. I focus on the role of the American activist as reader or character in the texts and how the authors emphasize the coordinates to varying degrees.
    [Show full text]
  • Royal Dutch Shell and Its Sustainability Troubles
    Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles Background report to the Erratum of Shell's Annual Report 2010 Albert ten Kate May 2011 1 Colophon Title: Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles Background report to the Erratum of Shell's Annual Report 2010 May 2011. This report is made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) Author: Albert ten Kate, free-lance researcher corporate social responsibility Pesthuislaan 61 1054 RH Amsterdam phone: (+31)(0)20 489 29 88 mobile: (+31)(0)6 185 68 354 e-mail: [email protected] 2 Contents Introduction 4 Methodology 5 Cases: 1. Muddling through in Nigeria 6 1a) oil spills 1b) primitive gas flaring 1c) conflict and corruption 2. Denial of Brazilian pesticide diseases 14 3. Mining the Canadian tar sands 17 4. The bitter taste of Brazil's sugarcane 20 4a) sourcing sugarcane from occupiers of indigenous land 4b) bad labour conditions sugarcane harvesters 4c) massive monoculture land use 5. Fracking unconventional gas 29 6. Climate change, a business case? 35 7. Interfering with politics 38 8. Drilling plans Alaska’s Arctic Ocean 42 9. Sakhalin: the last 130 Western Gray Whales 45 10. The risky Kashagan oil field 47 11. A toxic legacy in Curaçao 49 12. Philippines: an oil depot amidst a crowd of people 52 3 Introduction Measured in revenue, Royal Dutch Shell is one of the biggest companies in the world. According to its annual report of 2010, its revenue amounted to USD 368 billion in 2010. Shell produces oil and gas in 30 countries, spread over the world.
    [Show full text]
  • All for Shell: a Brief History of the Struggle for Justice in the Niger Delta1
    All for Shell: A brief history of the struggle for justice in the Niger Delta1 Shell started producing oil in the Delta in 1958. In 1970 the first seeds of the current conflict were sown when Ogoni Chiefs handed a petition to the local Military Governor complaining about Shell, then operating a joint venture with BP. According to the petition, the company was “seriously threatening the well-being, and even the very lives” of the Ogoni1. That year there was a major blow-out at the Bomu oilfield in Ogoni. It continued for three weeks, causing widespread pollution and outrage2. By the eighties other communities were beginning to protest. The Iko people wrote to Shell in 1980 demanding “compensation and restitution of our rights to clean air, water and a viable environment where we can source for our means of livelihood.” Two years later, when the Iko organised a peaceful rally against Shell, the company called the police3. In 1987, when the Iko once again held a peaceful demonstration against Shell, the notorious Mobile Police Force (MPF), locally known as “kill-and-go” was called. 40 houses were destroyed and 350 people were made homeless by the MPF’s attack. 4 In August 1990, the Ogoni elders signed the Ogoni Bill of Rights, which called for “political control of Ogoni affairs by Ogoni people, control and use of Ogoni economic resources for Ogoni development, adequate and direct representation as of right for Ogoni people in all Nigerian national institutions and the right to protect the Ogoni environment and ecology from further degradation”5.
    [Show full text]