Court case against Shell can proceed.

• Author: Larson, Vanessa
• Position: Environmental Intelligence

A U.S. federal court ruling has cleared the way for a human-rights abuse lawsuit against petroleum giant Shell to proceed. Judge Kimba Wood ruled in February that the company can be held liable in the United States for collaborating with the Nigerian government in the executions of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, youth leader John Kpuinen, and seven other environmental activists. The suit was filed in 1996 on behalf of Saro-Wiwa's and Kpuinen's surviving relatives.

Royal Dutch/Shell has been drilling in Saro-Wiwa's home region of Ogoniland since 1958. The company's operations generate more than a third of Nigeria's total daily output of 2 million barrels of oil, but have also caused severe environmental damage in the Niger Delta and particularly in badly impoverished Ogoniland. Saro-Wiwa founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and led it in organizing peaceful rallies against Shell's oil development in Ogoniland in 1993 and 1994. These activities were often violently suppressed by the Nigerian military, allegedly at Shell's behest and with its financial support. The "Ogoni Nine" were sentenced to death by a...