[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Nigeria: Oil, Poverty, and Rights, 1

[Alfred Kagan]

The latest on the Ogoni situation, 2 messages.

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>Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 08:01:29 -0500
>Subject: Nigeria: Oil, Poverty, and Rights, 1
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>Nigeria: Oil, Poverty, and Rights, 1
>Date distributed (ymd): 020709
>Document reposted by Africa Action
>
>Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information
>service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa
>Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American
>Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for
>Africa at http://www.africaaction.org
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
>
>Region: West Africa
>Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
>  +security/peace+
>
>SUMMARY CONTENTS:
>
>This posting contains two articles reporting on the decision by the
>African Commission on Human & Peoples' Rights to order the Nigerian
>government to compensate the Ogoni people for abuses against their
>lands, environment, housing, and health caused by oil production
>and government security forces. Another posting also sent out today
>has additional background on current issues concerning the
>distribution of oil revenues.
>
>The ruling and the initial petition submitted in 1996 are available
>at http://www.cesr.org/ESCR/africancommission.htm
>
>For more information:
>
>African Commission on Human & Peoples' Rights
>Kairaba Avenue, P.O. Box 673, BANJUL, The Gambia
>Tel.: (220) 392962; Fax: (220) 390764; Email: achpr at achpr.gm
>Website: http://www.achpr.org
>
>Felix Morka,Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC),
>16 Awari Cresent, Off Cocker Road, Obokun St. Illupeju-Lagos,
>PO Box 13616, Ikeja-Lagos Nigeria;  Tel: + 234 1 496 8605;
>Fax: + 234 1 496 8606; Email: serac at linkserve.com.ng;
>  seracnig at aol.com
>
>Center for Economic and Social Rights
>162 Montague St., 2nd Floor * Brooklyn, NY 11201
>Tel: (718) 237-9145 * Fax: (718) 237-9147 *
>E-mail: rights at cesr.org
>
>+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>AFRICA ACTION NOTES TO READERS
>
>(1) We need your continued support. Thanks to those of you who
>have supported our work with contributions this year. If you have
>not done so yet, please read our letter at
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>
>(2) Africa Action is adding new organizing staff. For a job
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>(3) These e-mail postings will be less frequent during the
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>housekeeping. After the two postings today, there will be no
>postings until the week of July 22.
>
>(4) Since our June 25 posting on the food crisis in southern
>Africa, we have received information about two additional recent
>reports on the subject.
>
>Oxfam UK Briefing Paper. "Crisis in Southern Africa"
>http://www.oxfam.org.uk/policy/papers/southernafrica/
>crisisinsouthernafrica.html [type URL on one line]
>and
>International Food Policy Research Institute, "Fighting Famine in
>Southern Africa: Steps out of the Crisis"
>http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/ib/ib8.pdf
>
>   -----------------------
>
>People versus Big Oil:
>Rights of Nigerian Indigenous People Recognized
>
>by Jim Lobe, July 5, 2002
>
>FPIF Global Affairs Commentary http://www.fpif.org
>
>Jim Lobe <jlobe at starpower.net> writes for Foreign Policy In Focus
>as well as for OneWorld.net and Inter Press Service.
>
>At a time when the petropolitics of the Bush administration seem
>to reign supreme, the rights of peoples affected by the global
>hunt for oil have received an important boost. An African
>commission has ruled the Nigerian government should compensate
>the Ogoni people for abuses against their lands, environment,
>housing, and health caused by oil production and government
>security forces. Nigerian and international groups say that the
>ruling by the nine-member African Commission on Human and
>Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) is a sweeping affirmation of what the
>human rights community calls ESC rights--defined by the UN's
>International Covenant on Economic, Social, and, Cultural Rights.
>
>The commission called on Nigeria to undertake a "comprehensive
>cleanup of lands and rivers damaged by oil operations." It must
>also ensure that the social and environmental impact of future
>oil development on its territory does not harm local communities.
>
>Human rights groups are hailing the commission's decision as a
>major breakthrough in the battle for international recognition of
>ESC rights, which have long been given lesser
>status--particularly by Western countries--than political and
>civil rights. "This is the first decision by the African
>Commission to specifically and comprehensively address violations
>of economic and social and cultural rights under the Africa
>Charter," said Felix Morka, director of the Lagos-based Social
>and Economic Rights Actions Centre (SERAC), which launched the
>case against the military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha in 1996.
>Morka observed that the recent ruling was the strongest and most
>articulate statement on the validity and enforceability of
>economic and social rights emanating from any intergovernmental
>human rights body.
>
>"It is a remarkable decision indeed," said Bronwen Manby, a
>Nigeria specialist at the London office of Human Rights Watch
>(HRW). "The very fact that it's a decision by the African
>Commission--which is a body of the Organisation of African Unity
>(OAU) and appointed by governments--means that it will certainly
>form a part of the body of international jurisprudence on
>economic and social rights."
>
>The case was filed shortly after the execution in November 1995
>of nine leaders of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni
>People (MOSOP), including the world-renowned playwright and
>author, Ken Saro-wiwa. MOSOP and Saro-wiwa had led a global
>campaign to publicize the plight of the Ogonis, a minority in the
>oil-rich Niger Delta region, whose lands and rivers had been
>polluted for years as a result of operations by Shell Petroleum
>Development Corporations, the area's largest foreign oil
>producer, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
>Protests by the Ogoni, especially in the early 1990s, were met
>with fierce military repression, including what one internal
>government memo called "wasting operations" against Ogoni
>villages and suspected MOSOP activists. Scores of people were
>killed and their property looted and burned.
>
>After the 1995 executions, Shell became a target of an
>international consumer boycott, while a number of Western
>countries slapped diplomatic and other sanctions on the military
>regime, most of which lifted only after the return of civilian
>rule in 1999 when retired Gen. Obusegun Obasanjo won elections.
>Apart from one submission that confirmed the main allegations
>filed by SERAC, the Obasanjo government did not participate in
>the case, forcing the Commission to conclude that Nigerian courts
>were not prepared to act on the plaintiffs' case. Although the
>judgement was communicated to the government early last month,
>Abuja has not yet reacted officially.
>
>The decision, which runs 14 pages, asserts that the government
>violated seven articles of the 1981 African Charter on Human and
>Peoples' Rights, to which Nigeria is a signatory. They included
>the rights: "to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and
>mental health," "to a general satisfactory environment favorable
>to [the peoples'] development," and to "freely dispose of their
>wealth and natural resources."
>
>According to the ruling, "By any measure of standards, its
>practice falls short of the minimum conduct expected of
>governments." In a direct reference to the role of the oil
>corporations, the commission observed: "The intervention of
>multinational corporations may be a potentially positive force
>for development if the State and the people concerned are ever
>mindful of the common good and the sacred rights of individuals
>and communities."
>
>The decision is important for people throughout the world who
>suffer from corporate practices, said Roger Normand, director of
>the New York-based Center for Economic, Social, and Cultural
>Rights (CESR), which co-sponsored the case with SERAC.
>
>"I believe that this can serve as a precedent not only throughout
>Africa, but also for all similar efforts to hold governments
>accountable for gross human rights violations linked to abusive
>corporate practices," he added. Normand and others also agreed
>with Morka that the decision is the strongest affirmation to date
>by an inter-governmental body of ESC rights. Despite their
>inclusion in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this
>family of rights have tended to be given second-class status by
>the West, including Western-based human rights groups such as
>Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
>
>Western nations agreed most recently at the 1993 World Conference
>on Human Rights in Vienna that all rights in the Universal
>Declaration are indivisible and interdependent, however, "for
>most of the past 50 years, these rights were totally neglected by
>governments and human rights NGOs," according to Larry Cox,
>senior program officer for international human rights at the New
>York-based Ford Foundation. "But in the last five years, we've
>seen the beginning of real momentum on these rights, led first
>and foremost by groups in the Global South who are in many ways
>the most adversely affected by the lack of such rights," he
>noted. "That's the history of the human rights movement: people
>who make these rights real are the victims who are fighting for
>them."
>
>Although the U.S. government has long agreed that all of the
>rights included in the Universal Declaration are indivisible and
>interdependent, Washington has tended to treat economic and
>social rights more as privileges than as core rights. Indeed, the
>State Department's annual human rights country reports do not
>explicitly cover economic and social rights. In that respect,
>said Normand, the African Commission's decision "is moving ahead
>of western standards in the protection of economic, social, and
>cultural rights--an important achievement for Africa, but an
>example for the rest of the world."
>
>**************************************************************
>
>NIGERIA: Ogoni group wants action on African rights commission's
>ruling
>
>LAGOS, 28 June (IRIN) - Minority rights activists in Nigeria have
>called on the government to act urgently on a ruling by the
>African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) that the
>state perpetrated massive abuses in the southeastern area of
>Ogoniland.
>
>The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said in a
>statement sent to IRIN on Friday that it was seeking an audience
>with Justice Minister Kanu Agabi to obtain the prosecution of
>those who violated the rights of the 500,000-strong Ogoni and
>compensation for the victims as requested by ACHPR.
>
>The commission, based in Banjul, The Gambia, announced its ruling
>in a letter dated 27 May 2002. It found successive military
>governments in Nigeria guilty of massive violation of Ogoni
>rights. It also said the Ogoni had suffered from widespread
>environmental degradation by oil companies operating in their
>area, which is part of the oil-rich Niger Delta.
>
>The commission's decision was in response to complaints filed in
>1996 by a Nigerian human rights group, Social and Economic Rights
>Action, and the US-based Council for Economic, Social and
>Cultural Rights.
>
>"The Security forces were given the green light to decisively
>deal with the Ogonis, which was illustrated by the widespread
>terrorisations and killings," the ACHPR said. "The pollution and
>environmental degradation to a level humanly unacceptable has
>made living in Ogoniland a nightmare ... They affected the life
>of the Ogoni society as a whole."
>
>The Commission said that during a mission to Ogoniland between 7
>and 14 March 1997, its members saw "the deplorable situation ...
>including the environmental degradation". It said they found
>violations of articles of the African Charter on Human and
>People's Rights that protect the right to life, enjoyment of
>economic, social and cultural rights, health, housing and
>development.
>
>It therefore appealed to the Nigerian government to take action.
>Measures it proposed included conducting an investigation into
>the human rights violations and prosecuting the security and
>other officials involved.
>
>"In response to this ruling MOSOP is seeking an urgent meeting
>with the Attorney-General to understand whether the federal
>government is finally willing to respond to its obligations to
>Ogoni," the group said. "We are also calling on President
>(Olusegun) Obasanjo to show leadership in respecting and giving
>his full support to the ruling of the Africa Commission."
>
>Founded in 1990 by Ogoni intellectuals, including late writer Ken
>Saro-Wiwa, MOSOP bore the full brunt of brutal repression under
>different military regimes for spearheading a campaign that drew
>attention to decades of environmental devastation by oil
>companies and the neglect of the Niger Delta by successive
>governments.
>
>In 1993, Royal/Dutch Shell, the main oil company with operations
>in the Ogoni district, was forced to pull out of the area in the
>face of intense hostility from local people.
>
>Eager to stop MOSOP and what it represented in the oil region,
>late Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha ordered the execution
>of Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists on charges of murder
>after what was widely condemned as a flawed trial. A special
>military force he stationed in the area was accused of numerous
>killings, rapes and other atrocities.
>
>***********************************************************
>
>Selected Excerpts from the Commission Ruling
>
>
>8. The Commission notes that in the present case, despite its
>obligation to protect persons against interferences in the
>enjoyment of their rights, the Government of Nigeria facilitated
>the destruction of the Ogoniland. Contrary to its Charter
>obligations and despite such internationally established
>principles, the Nigerian Government has given the green light to
>private actors, and the oil Companies in particular, to
>devastatingly affect the well-being of the Ogonis. By any measure
>of standards, its practice falls short of the minimum conduct
>expected of governments, and therefore, is in violation of
>Article 21 of the African Charter.
>
>16. The government's treatment of the Ogonis has violated all
>three minimum duties of the right to food. The government has
>destroyed food sources through its security forces and State Oil
>Company; has allowed private oil companies to destroy food
>sources; and, through terror, has created significant obstacles
>to Ogoni communities trying to feed themselves. The Nigerian
>government has again fallen short of what is expected of it as
>under the provisions of the African Charter and international
>human rights standards, and hence, is in violation of the right
>to food of the Ogonis.
>
>17. The Complainants also allege that the Nigerian Government has
>violated Article 4 of the Charter which guarantees the
>inviolability of human beings and everyone's right to life and
>integrity of the person respected.  Given the wide spread
>violations perpetrated by the Government of Nigeria and by
>private actors (be it following its clear blessing or not), the
>most fundamental of all human rights, the right to life has been
>violated. The Security forces were given the green light to
>decisively deal with the Ogonis, which was illustrated by the
>wide spread terrorisations and killings. The pollution and
>environmental degradation to a level humanly unacceptable has
>made it living in the Ogoni land a nightmare. The survival of the
>Ogonis depended on their land and farms that were destroyed by
>the direct involvement of the Government. These and similar
>brutalities not only persecuted individuals in Ogoniland but also
>the whole of the Ogoni Community as a whole. They affected the
>life of the Ogoni Society as a whole.  The Commission conducted a
>mission to Nigeria from the 7th - 14th March 1997 and witnessed
>first hand the deplorable situation in Ogoni land including the
>environmental degradation.
>
>For the above reasons, the Commission,
>
>Finds the Federal Republic of Nigeria in violation of Articles 2,
>4, 14, 16, 18(1), 21 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and
>Peoples' Rights;
>
>Appeals to the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to
>ensure protection of the environment, health and livelihood of
>the people of Ogoniland by:
>
>  - Stopping all attacks on Ogoni communities and leaders by the
>Rivers State Internal Securities Task Force and permitting
>citizens and independent investigators free access to the
>territory;
>
>  - Conducting an investigation into the human rights violations
>described above and prosecuting officials of the security forces,
>NNPC and relevant agencies involved in human rights violations;
>
>  - Ensuring adequate compensation to victims of the human rights
>violations, including relief and resettlement assistance to
>victims of government sponsored raids, and undertaking a
>comprehensive cleanup of lands and rivers damaged by oil
>operations;
>
>  - Ensuring that appropriate environmental and social impact
>assessments are prepared for any future oil development and that
>the safe operation of any further oil development is guaranteed
>through effective and independent oversight bodies for the
>petroleum industry; and
>
>  - Providing information on health and environmental risks and
>meaningful access to regulatory and decision-making bodies to
>communities likely to be affected by oil operations.
>
>************************************************************
>This material is being reposted for wider distribution by
>Africa Action (incorporating the Africa Policy Information
>Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa).
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu