Wiwa v Shell

On May 26, 2009 the Ogoni people of Nigeria will finally have their chance at justice when the families of famed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues, who were sentenced to death in a sham trial in Nigeria and hanged in 1995, will show that Royal Dutch Shell was at the very least complicit in their deaths and likely colluded with the Nigerian military to quell peaceful protests through murder, torture and destruction of villages. The plaintiffs’ attorneys will use a U.S. law on the books since 1789 called the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) that allows violations of international law to be tried in U.S. courts. Violations include extrajudicial execution; torture; crimes against humanity; cruel inhuman and degrading treatment; arbitrary arrest and detention; and violations of the rights to life, liberty, security of person, and freedom of expression and association.

Background

Almost 20 years ago in a minority region of the Niger Delta called Ogoniland, a peaceful movement emerged called the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) that began to successfully challenge the environmental and economic destruction caused by oil extraction. Royal Dutch Shell, who began extracting oil from the Niger Delta in1958, has since bulldozed subsistence farms to install oil drills, erected gas flares that cause acid rain and asthma, and laid oil pipelines literally through villages that dot the marshy creek lands of the Delta. Oil spills are a regular occurrence, and natural barriers between the fresh water creeks and the Gulf of Guinea have been breached throughout the Delta causing the fresh water to become brackish and as a result fresh water fish have died in droves. Water that was once used for drinking, for cooking, for cleaning clothes not to mention the basis for a fisher economy is now filled with a mixture of salt and oil rendering it useless in many regions and in fact dangerous to the thousands of villages who depend on the creeks for their survival.

During the early 1990’s MOSOP emerged to peacefully protest and call for land restoration, and the right to protect their environment from further destruction. MOSOP bravely challenged a dictatorial government and powerful oil companies that colluded with the Nigerian military. Saro-Wiwa, a well known Nigerian author, and TV producer began inspiring and leading the Ogoni people to stand up against Shell who had decimated their land for decades. In January of 1993 MOSOP staged one of the largest protests the Delta had ever seen. Over 300,000 Ogoni people marched on what came to be known as Ogoni Day showing the power of peaceful protest. As a result, the Nigerian military clamped down on the villagers with the support of Shell. Villages were burned and people shot. In 1994 during another Ogoni protest, four Ogoni elders were killed and Saro-Wiwa along with other MOSOP leaders were framed and held in prison for several months without charges. After several months of torture and detention, they were convicted of inciting the murders in an internationally condemned military tribunal and hanged on November 10, 1995.

A year later, the families of some of those who were killed and other victims of military abuse,  filed suit in U.S. court against Shell for their collusion in the death and torture  of Saro-Wiwa and others. Last fall after many years in litigation, Judge Kimba Wood in the U.S. Southern District court of New York announced that the case would be set for trial.

Since the death of the Ogoni 9, the situation in the Delta has only worsened. Several other peaceful protests were violently suppressed by the Nigerian military that received payments from Shell, Chevron and others. Additionally, the oil companies have been accused of using divide and conquer tactics to incite ethnic violence in the Delta. Today’s Delta has descended into armed violence. Some angry, mostly young, men who have only seen their livelihood worsen have turned to militant groups who have varied agendas and have in effect declared war with the Nigerian military and the oil companies. Meanwhile, the oil companies have not changed their practices or cleaned up the environmental damage they have caused. They still utilize the services of the military to act as their personal security and continue to avoid responsibility for their actions.

Click here for more information about the case, Shell and the life of Ken Saro Wiwa

Today Judge Susan Illston denied the Nigerian plaintiffs in the Bowoto v Chevron case their request for a new trial. Below is the press release issued by Earth Rights International, co-counsel to the case.

COURT DENIES NEW TRIAL IN HUMAN RIGHTS SUIT AGAINST CHEVRON:

PLAINTIFFS TO APPEAL

March 4, 2009, San Francisco, CA – A U.S. federal court today denied a request by Nigerian victims of human rights abuses for a new trial against Chevron, which was found not liable for aiding and abetting those abuses after a jury trial last December.  The plaintiffs in Bowoto v. Chevron had argued that a new trial was warranted due to insufficient evidence for the defense verdict, erroneous legal rulings, and prejudicial misconduct by Chevron’s lawyers.  Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California disagreed, letting the verdict stand.

Plaintiffs’ counsel Theresa Traber, of Traber & Voorhees, stated, “We are disappointed in the ruling and we will appeal.  We continue to believe that there were errors in this trial, and these victims, who waited so long to have their day in court, will continue to pursue justice against Chevron.”

The court ruled that, even though much of the plaintiffs’ evidence was undisputed by any Chevron witnesses, the jury still could have disbelieved the plaintiffs’ witness, and found that no legal errors had been made during the trial.  The court did acknowledge that defense counsel used evidence improperly in his closing argument, but found that this misconduct was not so prejudicial as to warrant a new trial.

Bowoto v. Chevron Corp., No. 99-2506, charged the multinational oil company with complicity in gross human rights abuses arising from its use of the notorious Nigerian military and “kill and go” mobile police against those who protested environmental and economic harms caused by oil production in the Niger Delta.  The lawsuit is based on a 1998 incident in which Nigerian soldiers shot nonviolent protesters at Chevron’s Parabe offshore platform. The soldiers were admittedly paid by Chevron, ferried to the platform in Chevron helicopters and supervised by Chevron personnel. Two demonstrators were killed, others were shot and wounded, and several others were detained and tortured after the attack.

In addition to Traber & Voorhees, the plaintiffs are represented by EarthRights International, the private law firms of Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick and Siegel & Yee; and Cindy Cohn and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Robert Newman, Paul Hoffman, Richard Wiebe, Anthony DiCaprio, Michael Sorgen, and Judith Chomsky and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

For more information about the case, please visit www.earthrights.org.

Corporate Accountability Advocates Claim Victory, Despite Verdict in Human Rights Case Against Chevron

Bowoto Case Showed There is a Legal Foundation For Corporations to be Held Liable in US Courts for Human Rights Abuses Committed Overseas

SAN FRANCISCOO Monday, December 1, a US district court jury acquitted San Ramon-based Chevron Corporation of complicity in human rights abuses. The case of Bowoto v. Chevron, which pitted Chevron and its relationship with the notoriously violent Nigerian police and military against Nigerians who peacefully protested the destruction of their environment and livelihood by Chevron’s oil production activities. Despite the verdict, corporate accountability advocates vowed to continue the struggle to bring Chevron and other corporations to justice for human rights violations they commit overseas.

“The fact that Bowoto v. Chevron made it this far in the process is a victory in and of itself, because it means that we have demonstrated that there is a clear pathway in the US court system for holding corporations accountable to the rule of law. This is the first time a case against a company for aiding and abetting human rights violations overseas has even gone before a jury. And although we are disappointed that the plaintiffs did not prevail in this case, we are heartened by the fact that we are now entering a new era in the United States and abroad where people have seen the results of unregulated corporate excess (in the financial system and elsewhere) and want corporations to be reined in to prevent serious harms. Bringing this case to trial in the United States is a step on the path to corporate accountability. In the near future, corporations will no longer have a free ride to do operate with impunity in ways that are destructive and dehumanizing,” said Laura Livoti, founder of the group Justice in Nigeria Now.

“Regardless of the verdict, the Bowoto v. Chevron case represented a watershed in terms of corporate accountability. The details of the Nigerian case – of human rights abuses in the global operations of the oil and gas industry – can be replicated many times over in different industrial sectors in different parts of the world. Now communities around the world know that they have recourse to legal mechanisms to bring corporations that violate their human rights to justice,” said Michael Watts, a professor at UC Berkeley and author of numerous books on the Niger Delta, including Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta.

Bowoto v. Chevron concerned a 1998 incident in which Nigerian soldiers and police shot unarmed residents of the Ilaje community in southern Nigeria who were staging a nonviolent sit-in at Chevron’s offshore Parabe Platform to demand that Chevron change its practices. Chevron’s operations have devastated local communities’ access to food and clean water. The protester also demanded that the company support the local economy by hiring local residents. In response to the peaceful protest, Chevron summoned the notoriously violent Nigerian police and military and transported them in Chevron helicopters to the oil platform. Under the supervision of Chevron personnel, the Nigerian military and police killed two protesters and permanently injured others. Several protesters were taken to Nigerian jails, where they were tortured.

The jury was charged with deciding whether Chevron aided and abetted the Nigerian military, in violation of international law. The legal basis for the case was the Alien Tort Statute, a law that enables foreign victims of human rights violations by corporations to hold a US corporation accountable in US court for violations of the law of nations overseas. The Alien Tort Statute has been used in cases charging Unocal with violating the human rights of Burmese villagers during the construction of an oil pipeline in Burma, and charging Yahoo with giving the Chinese government information that allowed it to identify and arrest a Chinese dissident. Both of those cases ended in out-of-court settlements. Bowoto v. Chevron would have been the first time a U.S. corporation has been held liable by a jury in U.S. courts for aiding and abetting human rights abuses committed overseas.

After spirited closing arguments yesterday by both attorneys for the plaintiffs and the defendants in the case of Bowoto v Chevron being tried in San Francisco, the 9-member jury for the Northern California District Court began deliberations late in the day.  As of Wednesday afternoon at 1pm (when court closed for the holiday weekend) a verdict is still to be determined.  For an account of the closing statements  read the latest articles in the San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Egelkos and The LA Times piece by  Richard Paddock

The jury will need to find liability on the part of Chevron for the killing, injury and torture of the Nigerian plaintiffs for the following violations under the Alien Tort Statute:

• Torture
• Wrongful Death
• Cruel, inhumane, degrading treatment
• Assault
• Battery
• Negligence

Be sure to read the Bowoto v Chevron Blog for a full account of the court proceedings since the trial opened on October 27.

On Monday Chevron will present its final day of testimony and evidence. Closing arguments will be given on Tuesday, November 25 and jury deliberations will begin on Wednesday, November 26, the day before Thanksgiving. It’s unknown how long the jury will deliberate, but this landmark case could hear a verdict very soon.

We encourage those of you in the Bay Area  to quietly and respectfully observe the closing arguments on Tuesday to show your solidarity with the Nigerian plaintiffs who have worked so hard to bring their case to Chevron’s home town. Go to   450 Golden Gate, 19th floor Courtroom 10 in San Francisco. Court is in session from  8:30am-3:30pm on Tuesday November 25.

Ken Saro Wiwa Hanged by the Nigerian Government with 8 other activists:

Ken Saro Wiwa: October 10,1941 - November 10, 1995

This week marks the 13th anniversary of the death of famed Nigerian activist, Ken Saro Wiwa. On November 10, 1995 Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni activists, known as the Ogoni 9 were ruthlessly executed by the then Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha.  Wiwa and his colleagues were members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) who peacefully protested against Shell Oil and the Nigerian government for human rights abuses and environmental damage in their community.

Early next year, Wiwa’s son will have his day in court in New York when it will be decided whether or not Royal Dutch Shell will be held liable for their complicity for human rights abuses against the Ogoni people in Nigeria, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhumane treatment, arbitrary arrest, wrongful death, assault and battery, and infliction of emotional distress. Similar to the case against Chevron currently being heard in the Northern California Federal District Court, the two cases against Shell were brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). In addition, the Shell cases will be tried under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The cases also allege that the corporation violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, according to Earth Rights International, co-counsel for the case.

Wiwa was known for his ability to mobilize hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters that successfully drove Shell out of their community.  His death serves as a shift in Nigerian history when political and social unrest in the Niger Delta was addressed in a peaceful way to a gradual move toward a violent approach that faces the Niger Delta today. The current violence stems from decades of demands not being met, and corruption and divide and rule tactics that continue to tear the region apart. Violent responses were taken to new levels in 2006 with the formation of the well armed group - the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta known as MEND.