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By Pamela A. MacLean
National Law Journal and Law.com Legal Newswire
October 20, 2008
"An epic legal battle going to trial in federal court in San Francisco this week will ask jurors to decide whether oil giant Chevron Corp. sanctioned human rights abuses [in violation of the Alien Tort Claims Act] that killed and wounded protesters at its Nigerian facilities[.]
[ ... ]
"'We are trying to hold a corporation liable for their bad actions in another country, even if it is committed by their surrogates, a wholly owned subsidiary or by the brutal Nigerian government regime,' said Dan Stormer of Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson & Renick in Pasadena, Calif., representing a group of Nigerians who were injured during protests on a Chevron offshore oil platform in 1998.
[ ... ]
"The suit, Bowoto v. Chevron, No. C99-2506SI (N.D. Calif.), alleges that Chevron, in conjunction with the Nigerian military, engaged in torture, assaults and the killing of two protesters over Chevron's environmental record and failure to hire locals in the delta region near its oil drilling operations.
[ ... ]
"Royal Dutch Shell Co. faces a similar trial in the Southern District of New York on Feb. 9, 2009, in a pair of cases charging it with human rights violations and racketeering in Nigeria."
To read the full article, click on the Title Line, above.
See Also:
- Open Wounds
Big Oil and Big Mining face a host of allegations that they helped commit human rights abuses.
By Michael D. Goldhaber
American Lawyer
October 1, 2008
"The Chevron suit is one of nine cases against oil, gas, and mining companies, representing about a quarter of active corporate alien tort claims, according to Beth Stephens of Rutgers School of Law who tracks these cases. Directly or indirectly, Big Oil and Big Mining are accused of ethnically cleansing the Christians of Sudan, hanging a Nobel Peace Prize nominee in Nigeria, ordering a hit on Colombian union leaders, and killing 2,000 children in Papua New Guinea by blocking the delivery of vaccines to a rebel island."
- Backgrounder and news archive, Chevron human rights controversy & lawsuit - Nigeria
Maintained by Business and Human Rights Resource Center
- Chevron Paid Nigerian Troops After Alleged Killings
Villagers in lawsuit say 4 people died -- oil company questions if attacks took place
By David R. Baker
San Francisco Chronicle
August 4, 2005
- News archive on Nigeria
Maintained by Business and Human Rights Resource Center
- Nigeria
Events of 2007
From World Report 2008
Human Rights Watch
- Background reports and publications on Nigeria
Human Rights Watch
- News and article archive, Nigeria
Human Rights Watch
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