Obama on Wrong Side in Shell Oil Human Rights Case | Black Agenda Report

Obama on Wrong Side in Shell Oil Human Rights Case

03 Oct 2012

🖨️ Print Article

Obama on Wrong Side in Shell Oil Human Rights Case

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Shell Oil, which profits most from the Ogoni people’s degradation and oppression, claims it is just a bystander, an innocent party.”

When Shell Oil walked into the U.S. Supreme Court building, this week, claiming that it is not responsible for the torture and murder of Nigerians in its oil fields in the Niger River Delta, the Dutch corporation had a friend in the courtroom: the Obama administration. The U.S. Solicitor General’s office was there to urge the High Court to rule in Shell’s favor in the case, and to shield other foreign corporations from being sued in U.S. Courts for complicity in human rights abuses overseas. Obama’s lawyers also asked the Supreme Court not to make any decision on whether U.S.-based corporations could be sued under the 200-year-old Alien Tort Statue. A ruling on that question would affect some of the biggest corporations in country: Exxon Mobile, Chevron, Unocal, Coca-Cola, Pfizer pharmaceuticals, and the Ford Motor Company – all of which have been sued under either the Alien Tort law or the Torture Victim Protection Act. By asking the court not to make a broad decision, the administration is also protecting these corporate giants from culpability for rights abuses.

In Shell’s case, 12 Nigerians charge the oil company with being an accomplice to torture, extra judicial executions and crimes against humanity. One of the plaintiffs is the widow of Dr. Barinem Kiobel, who was executed by the Nigerian government along with human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other leaders of the Ogoni people in 1995. Their homeland, the Niger Delta, had been turned into an environmental wasteland for the benefit of Shell Oil and corrupt Nigerian government officials, with the population living under martial law. Shell Oil, which profits most from the Ogoni people’s degradation and oppression, claims it is just a bystander, an innocent party – that it had nothing to do with the Nigerian government’s atrocities. But, of course, the Nigerian government’s murderous policies were designed to protect the profitability of Shell’s operations. Shell Oil created the nightmare in the Niger Delta – just as its sister corporations do all around the world, under the protection of friendly governments.

“Shell claims it is not a person.”

At the U.S. Supreme Court, Shell Oil argued that the United States should not “impose our law onto foreign countries.” What an outrageous position! Shell Oil imposes itself on the people of the Niger Delta, unleashing what is arguably the worst environmental disaster on Earth, and then asks for legal immunity.

Shell Oil also argues that it cannot be sued under the Alien Tort Statue, because it is not a person. Two hundred years ago, when the law was written, nobody thought corporations were people. Later, corporations fought for and got recognition as a kind of legal person in the United States, allowing them to claim the inalienable rights of actual human beings. But now, under these circumstances, Shell Oil claims it is not a person, subject to human law, but an entity possessing corporate immunities.

The Alien Tort Law was used to compensate Holocaust survivors who had been used as slave labor by corporations that worked with the Nazis. Shell Oil’s operations in Nigeria have also sown a holocaust, for which there must be no impunity.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

listen

http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20101003_gf_ShellSCOTUS.mp3

More Stories

BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
20 Apr 2022
Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
Mark P. Fancher
Patrick Lyoya’s Death Sentence for the Crime of “Contempt of White Cop”
20 Apr 2022
Police in the United States kill an average of three people every day and one of those persons will be Black. Patrick Lyoya was one recent victim of a police execution.
Black Community Hamburg
Statement: #AFRICANSFROMUA on Equal Treatment
20 Apr 2022
Germany and other EU member states granted immediate temporary protection status to citizens of Ukraine, but Black refugees who also fled the war are experiencing unequal treatment.
Abayomi Azikiwe
Our Case Against NATO: Africans and the Struggle Against Imperialism
19 Apr 2022
The Pentagon led political and military alliance continues to serve as major impediment to peace, liberation and a just world system.
US Out of Africa Network
AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #39
19 Apr 2022
The latest AFRICOM Watch Bulletin provides analysis of coups in Africa and an nterview with journalist and activist Owei Lakemfa.