Goldman Prize Recipients Issue Open Letter Hailing Trial
The Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International
April 20, 2009
CONTACT: David Lerner, Riptide Communications (212) 260-5000 or (917) 612-5656
GOLDMAN PRIZE RECIPIENTS ISSUE OPEN LETTER HAILING TRIAL AGAINST ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL FOR EXECUTION OF FELLOW PRIZE-WINNER KEN SARO-WIWA
LANDMARK TRIAL BEGINS NEXT MONTH IN NEW YORK
New York City – Former recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize issued an open letter today to coincide with the 2009 prize awards, hailing the landmark human rights trial against multinational oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell (Shell) that will begin on May 26th in federal court in New York City. The charges against Shell include complicity in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, who won the Goldman Prize in 1995 and was hanged seven months later because of his leadership in a nonviolent movement opposed to Shell’s practices in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta.
“Today, I and other Goldman Prize recipients spoke out publicly in memory of our brother, Ken Saro-Wiwa, raising our voices in unity to call for environmental justice, corporate accountability, and respect for human rights – in Ogoni and around the globe,” said Ka Hsaw Wa, a 1999 Goldman Prize recipient and the Executive Director of EarthRights International, the organization that is co-counsel for Wiwa v. Shell with the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We mourn Ken Saro-Wiwa’s unjust and untimely death, but also celebrate his and the Ogoni people’s victory in exposing Shell’s human rights abuses in Nigeria to the world.”
“The case going to trial on May 26th is a watershed for the global human rights movement,” said Marco Simons, Legal Director of EarthRights International. “Wiwa v. Shell holds Shell accountable for its devastating actions in Ogoni, and the letter from Goldman Prize winners today affirms the hope the case has given to affected communities everywhere that corporations will no longer be able to operate outside the law with impunity.”
Ken Saro-Wiwa received the Goldman Prize – the “Nobel prize of the environmental movement” – on April 17th, 1995, for his leadership in the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), a powerful non-violent movement that opposed the exploitation of the Ogoni people and their resources by Shell and the Nigerian government. Shell colluded with the Nigerian military forces in the November 10th, 1995, hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders.
Plaintiffs in Wiwa v. Shell include family members of executed activists Ken Saro-Wiwa, John Kpuinen, Dr. Barinem Kiobel, Saturday Doobee, Daniel Gbokoo and Felix Nuate; relatives of Uebari N-nah, who was shot and killed during a peaceful protest against Shell; and survivors Michael Tema Vizor, Karololo Kogbara and Ken Saro-Wiwa’s brother, Dr. Owens Wiwa.
The open letter is available at www.wiwaopenletter.org
For more information about Wiwa v. Shell, visit www.wiwavshell.org
-Ends-
On November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa, an acclaimed writer and leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), was hanged along with eight other Ogoni leaders, after a trial before a military tribunal that was condemned around the world as a sham. Ken Saro-Wiwa's last words were: "Lord take my soul but the struggle continues."