Dutch Socialist Party said it would press for environmental and human right laws that would compel Dutch multinational companies to adhere to strict international standard in their areas of operation. A Dutch parliamentarian, Sharon Gesthuizen, who spoke at a conference organised by the Niger Delta Campaign (NDC) with a theme: “Success and challenges of the Nigerian Government Amnesty Programme: The Role of International Community”, which held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands noted that the Netherlands government, over the years had not paid adequate attention to the situation in Niger Delta region. Gesthuizen, who led a Dutch parliamentarian delegation to Nigeria in February this year, tasked oil giant Shell, a Dutch company to clean up the environment, pointing out that oil majors and Nigerian government officials were culpable in the crisis in the region. Last week’s decision of a United States Supreme Court to hear an appeal accusing Royal Dutch Shell of human rights abuses in Nigeria may have opened the floodgates to other litigations against the oil giant. The Ogale village in Eleme local government area of Rivers State on Tuesday dragged Shell before a U.S Federal Court seeking $1 billion as compensation for environmental pollution.
The action filed by plaintiffs’ lawyers in Detroit cited a recent United Nations report over widespread pollution in Ogoniland for much of its evidence.
The Ogale village had been mention in a recent UN report as the area where observers found a drinking-water well polluted with benzene 900 times the international limit, the Associated Press had reported.
In the latest suit, the plaintiffs alleged that Shell acted willfully negligent in pursuing profits over protecting the Niger Delta. “It is not isolated or accidental, but part of a culture and ongoing pattern of conduct that consistently and repeatedly ignored risks to others in favor of financial advantage,” the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan read.
Ogale was one of the first operational oil fields discovered in Nigeria, where the nation’s first shipment of 22,000 barrels of crude oil exported to Europe came from, the lawsuit said. In the time since, the village suffered from the pollution of oil exploration, putting villagers at risk, the suit added.
A UN report released in August highlighted the plight of the village, describing how investigators found about 3 inches (8 centimeters) of refined oil floating on the surface of groundwater that serves the community’s wells.
It also described finding high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, in the water.
Lawyers filed the US lawsuit on behalf of the Nigerian villagers using the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute, a law increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court said it would use a separate lawsuit between Nigerian villagers and Shell to decide whether corporations might be held liable in US courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas under the law.
The Alien Tort Statute, also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA)) is a section of the United States Code that reads: “The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.”
This statute is notable for allowing United States courts to hear human rights cases brought by foreign citizens for conduct committed outside the United States.