Shell Oil's Human Rights Record

Marco Meza, Hanalee Hines, DP Bullington, Kevin Pelstring, Ashlee

Kildizew

What Does the Issue Entail

Shell Oil has had a bad reputation of violating human rights. In 1990, Shell violated some of the human rights of Nigerians, which contributed to the hangings of 9 Nigerians.  However, in 2000, Shell Oil became one of the founding memebers of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights which is trying to ensure respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.   

Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

Articele 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of person.  Article 23: (2) Everyone without discrimination has the right to equal pay for equal work Article 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of him self and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services...

                RECENT ISSUES

 Over thirteen years, Shell oil has done everything in its power to stop a trial from taking place from which the company must answer to charges that it colluded with the Nigerian military, because they had committed serious human rights abuses. They are doing everything in their power to keep this a secret and want to bring about peaceful resistance to its operations in the Niger Delta region called Ogoni, including conspiring to bring about the conviction and execution of a Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues. On Tuesday, there was a last-minte announcement that the trial is postponed with no new date given but it is expected to commence soon, and the plaintiffs -- Ogoni villagers and family members of people who were killed -- will finally have their day in court.

One example    1.A United Nations special report states that : "Shell Oil claims that more than 28 percent of these spills in the Niger Delta where it operates result from sabotage, either through drilling holes into pipelines or forced closure of flowstations.    2.A press-release by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People MOSOP stated that “Silent killers of Ogonis are the dangerous gases and fumes which has been injected into our environment and which we continue to breathe; the poisoned water from our streams which we have been drinking daily for the past 41 years of Shell's presence in our area."    

Example Continued

    3.Since 1958, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell Oil's parent company) has extracted $30 billion in oil from Ogoniland. The United States is Nigeria's biggest customer, consuming nearly half of its oil exports. Shell began receiving strong international criticism for its operations in Nigeria in 1995 when environmental activist and recipient of the 1995 Goldman Environmental Prize, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other members of the Ogoni ethnic minority were executed by the state for their campaign against Shell.        4.Another project (supported by Shell and other tans-national oil companies) that has drawn criticism is the proposed pipeline through central Africa, which according to human rights groups would give support to the governments of Chad and Cameroon (which have been cited for human rights abuses) while further impoverishing local rural residents.

Ken Saro-Wiwa

 -Activist who led a nonviolent campaign against the degredation of the land and water of Ogoniland -Arrested and hastily tried by a special military tribunal. Pronounced guitly and hanged in 1995. -Shell is now paying reparations of about 15.5 million for lawsuits by his family and others 

                LOCAL ISSUES

About 27 stations in Carlsbad...think next time you but from a shell station....