I opened up my Facebook page this morning and saw that one of my colleagues had posted a link to a site where Shell apologised to the people of the Niger Delta. Gulping my coffee, I clicked through to the website. It was exciting stuff.

On the website the Board of Directors promised to:

  • Make our public commitments to the environment and human rights a reality;
  • Monitor the social and human rights impact of all our operations;
  • Disclose information and undertake respectful consultation with affected communities;
  • Clean up all the pollution we have caused in the Niger Delta.

Holy Moly! Could that be true? This is huge!

Alas...

It’s not real. Instead, it’s the latest offering from The Yes Men, the guys who brought us the alternative WTO. If you haven’t seen the film, I recommend it.

But it makes me wonder what it would take to get a corporation like Shell to be accountable for the environmental damage and human rights violations that are caused by their operations in the Niger Delta. There’s been oil spills the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez disaster every year for the last 50 years. Almost 60 percent of the population depend on the same land for their livelihood. The stark inequality between those who have benefitted from the oil industry and those who have not has led to conflict and insecurity throughout the region.

But Shell has refused to even acknowledge their role in this ongoing disaster.

Shell’s Annual General Meeting is on Tuesday 18 May in The Hague. It’s important to keep up the pressure on Shell in the lead-up to that meeting and let them know that even if they won’t admit to rights violations in Nigeria, we’re still watching.

I’m also keen to see what the Yes Men will do at that meeting - whatever it is, I bet it will be good.

Update

Amnesty International has been calling on the government of Nigeria and oil companies to address the devastating impact that the oil industry has had on human rights and the environment in the Niger Delta.

One of our key objectives has been greater transparency and disclosure of information on impacts of the oil industry in the Niger Delta.

In July 2009, AI, along with eight Nigerian NGOs, called on Shell’s new CEO, Mr. Peter Voser, to disclose a number of documents, including environmental impact assessments, information on oil spills and the Niger Delta Environment Survey - a major study initiated by Shell in the mid 1990s but never published.

Amnesty International representatives have had several meetings with Shell on this issue, and most recently raised the issue at Shell’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the Netherlands on 18 May 2010. We welcome Shell’s acknowledgement at the AGM that they need to do more to disclose information and their commitment to act on this issue, as well as their confirmation that the Niger Delta Environment Survey will finally be released.   

Amnesty International will continue to press both the Nigerian government and Shell for greater transparency and full and consistent disclosure of information on the impacts of the oil industry.