Update from the trial: to read more about the settlement go to Wiwa v. Shell or see video on the left and new article links below.  Also be sure to check out Michael Goldhaber's analysis on what the settlement means for those working to advance human rights.

In 1995, Ogoni author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the Nigerian military government.  Saro-Wiwa, and the eight other advocates executed alongside him, were part of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), a peaceful movement against the environmental destruction and human rights abuses caused by oil extraction by oil giant Shell in Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.  The trial that led to his execution was internationally condemned as a sham and, in his final statement, Saro-Wiwa predicted that the "ecological war [waged by Shell] in the Delta would be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war would be duly punished."

Now, 14 years later, oil giant Shell awaits trial under the Alien Tort Statute in a New York federal court in the coming weeks to answer charges of complicity in Saro-Wiwa's death.  Shell is also accused of collusion with the Nigerian government in a series of other human rights violations designed to suppress opposition and silence resistance against the oil companies operating in the Delta. 

If Shell is convicted, it will be the first time a corporation has been found guilty of human rights abuses before a jury and under the Alien Tort Statute.

We'll be following the trial with live updates from the courtroom as well as never-before-seen footage recorded by MOSOP - the organisation that Saro-Wiwa led. 

Straight from the Courtroom

Read the analysis of Michael Goldhaber - Senior International Correspondent for The American Lawyer and author of A People's History of the European Court of Human Rights - right here on the Hub. 

Watch footage from the courthouse rally held on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, including interviews with organizers Han Shan and Ben Amunwa and others.

- Paul Hoffman, Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman: "Shell Settlement a Sign of Hope for Corporate Accountability", in Forum Column, Daily Journal, 15 Jun 2009

- Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr: "Some release from the torments of the past", in Guardian, Comment is Free, 9 Jun 2009

Related Content

Shell has been extracting oil in the Niger Delta since the 1950s.  Local communities in the Niger Delta have been protesting the environmental degradation of their homeland since 1980, but these protests have only been met with violence.  This timeline outlines some of the main accusations against Shell in the Niger Delta over the past decades.

To learn more, watch:

● Ken Saro-Wiwa Memorial Video - by PEN USA on the 10th anniversary of Saro-Wiwa's death
● Nigeria: Living With Shell - a 2007 video shown in the UK Parliament
● Interview with Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. - a conversation with Saro-Wiwa's son on Saharatv

To see all videos relating to this trial, visit the Shell on Trial Hub group. 

Take Action

● Write to the CEO of Shell

● Join the Hub group or the Facebook cause to show your support

● Follow the similar case of Chevron in Ecuador

The trial in the news

Al Jazeera (International) Shell Settles Nigerian Killings Lawsuit                   

CNN (US): Shell Oil Accused

BBC (UK): Shell Case to 'act as precedent'

NYT (US): Op-Ed: Trying an Old Law

NYT (US): Oil Industry Braces for Trial on Rights Abuses

The Times (UK): Portrait, Ken Saro-Wiwa 

The Guardian (UK): Wiwa v Shell - the day of truth?