To read the Press Release, use this link.

To read the official Statement of the Plaintiffs, use this link.

To read the official Statement of the Attorneys, use this link.

To read the settlement documents, click here and here.

To read the deed for the Kiisi Trust, click here.

For a pdf document of all settlement agreements and orders, click here.

CONTACT: David Lerner, Riptide Communications (212) 260-5000 or (917) 612-5656

New York, June 3, 2009 – Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the District Court decision dismissing the Wiwa v. Shell plaintiffs’ claims against Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Ltd. (Shell Nigeria). The District Court had dismissed the case against Shell Nigeria on March 4, 2008, finding it did not have jurisdiction over the company because the plaintiffs had failed to establish that Shell Nigeria was doing sufficient business in the United States to justify trying them in U.S. courts.  The effect of the appellate court decision is to permit the plaintiffs to seek further information to establish Shell Nigeria’s connections to the United States.

“This is yet another victory in the plaintiffs’ long struggle for justice,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Cooperating Attorney Judith Brown Chomsky. “This is another step in holding Shell Nigeria accountable for its role in the human rights violations in Ogoni.”

The case, which concerns the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders and other abuses against the Ogoni people in Nigeria, has been continued several times. There is no information at the moment about what the next steps in the case will be.

The case, filed in 1996, is being brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International and other human rights lawyers, on behalf of relatives of murdered activists.  The case charges the defendants with complicity in the November 10, 1995, hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other leaders opposed to Shell’s pattern of human rights and environmental abuses in the Niger Delta.  The case also include claims for the torture, detention, and forced exile of Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s brother, Dr. Owens Wiwa, and Michael Tema Vizor; and the shooting of Karololo Kogbara and Uebari N-nah in two earlier attacks on peaceful protestors by Nigerian military.

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

Update: June 1, 2009:   The Wiwa v. Shell trial was originally scheduled to begin on May 27, 2009. On May 26, Chief Judge Kimba Wood ordered the trial postponed; she did not yet set a new trial date but set a hearing date for June 1, 2009.  That hearing has now been moved to Wednesday, June 3.  Please see the original order, here.  We will post updates to www.wiwavshell.org as soon as they become available.

May 29, 2009: The hearing set for Monday has been removed from the court’s calendar.

Fourteen years after the execution of the Nigerian author and advocate Ken Saro-Wiwa by Nigeria’s former military regime, Royal Dutch Shell will appear before a federal court in New York to answer charges of crimes against humanity in connection with his death. Read the entire article, here.

It will happen this month when relatives of victims of the Nigerian government’s violent crackdown on residents of the oil-rich region, where Royal Dutch Shell had drilling operations, will get to challenge the deaths and injuries in a U.S. court.

Read the rest of the article here.

See full article here.

At the hearing, Steve Kretzmann, Executive Director of Oil Change International, testified about environmental and human rights issues in Nigeria. “Shell claims that they completely pulled out of the Ogoni region in 1993 . . . . However, Shell continues to ship oil across Ogoni through the Trans-Niger Pipeline,” he stated. “More than a decade after Shell supposedly pulled out, the Ogoni are still suffering ongoing pollution from oil spills and fires on their land.” Congressman James McGovern (D-MA), co-chair of the Commission, inquired into the ways that the U.S. Government can ensure that international environmental and human rights standards are respected by corporations operating abroad, and stated that “environmental contamination is a basic human rights issue.”

Shell began oil production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in 1958, and in 2006, an independent team of scientists characterized the Niger Delta as “one of the world’s most severely petroleum-impacted ecosystems.” Of the nearly 27 million people living in the Niger Delta, an estimated 75 percent rely on the environment for their livelihood. Shell’s operations in the Delta led to the deep impoverishment of the Ogoni people and surrounding communities, and prompted the development of a powerful nonviolent movement – the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, or MOSOP – that pressed Shell to clean up its operations in Ogoni, and advocated for benefits for the Ogoni people from oil production in the area.

From 1990-1995, Nigerian soldiers, at Shell’s request and with Shell’s assistance and financing, used deadly force and conducted massive, brutal raids against the Ogoni people to repress the growing movement in protest of Shell. On November 10, 1995, nine Ogoni leaders were executed by the Nigerian government after being falsely accused of murder and tried by a specially-created military tribunal. The Center for Constitutional Rights, EarthRights International, and other human rights attorneys sued Shell for human rights violations against the Ogoni. The case will go to trial on May 26, 2009, in federal court in New York City.

“Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders died because they opposed Shell’s devastating practices in Ogoni lands,” said Jennie Green, attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We commend Congressman McGovern and other Members of Congress for their interest in the vital issue of environmental degradation and the impact of resource exploitation on the lands and livelihoods of indigenous communities like the Ogoni, and for seeking new ways of ensuring that companies abide by international law.”

For more information about the case, including the environmental impacts of Shell’s practices in Nigeria, see www.wiwavshell.org.

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