ABOUT

WiwavShell.org is a joint project of the Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International, two organizations serving as co-counsel on two closely-related lawsuits – Wiwa v. Shell & Wiwa v. Anderson – to hold oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and a key Shell official accountable for complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria.

Shell began oil production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in 1958. After more than 30 years of environmental devastation and exploitation by Shell, a popular nonviolent movement of the Ogoni people developed in the early 1990s in opposition to its presence in the region. At the request of Shell, and with Shell’s assistance and financing, Nigerian soldiers used deadly force and massive, brutal raids against the Ogoni people throughout the early 1990s to repress the growing movement against the oil company. Shell also colluded with the military government to bring about the arrest, torture, and execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, head of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and eight other leaders  of the nonviolent movement to end the environmental degradation and human rights abuses accompanying Shell’s operations in their land.

The lawsuits charge Shell and the head of Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, Brian Anderson, with complicity in human rights abuses against the Ogoni people in Nigeria, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhuman treatment, arbitrary arrest, wrongful death, assault and battery, and infliction of emotional distress. The cases were brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The case against Royal Dutch Shell also alleges that the corporation violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell was originally filed in November 1996, while the suit against Mr. Anderson was filed in 2001. The two lawsuits will be tried together in federal court in New York beginning on May 27, 2009.