Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.6: Legal Strategy from the Local to the International
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rights violations and environmental damage in Bougainville
because of Rio Tinto’s Panguna mine, and Kiobel v Shell, in
relation to Shell’s support for the violent suppression of the
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in
Nigeria. 28
In fact the Ogoni’s legal actions are a good example of
what can be gained, but also the pitfalls. To quote an article
in the American lawyer, “Shell has been sued so many times
over its conduct in Nigeria that its cases offer a laboratory experiment
for human rights litigation.” 29 In the case of Wiwa v
Shell there were 13 years of arduous ACTA litigation, which
resulted in a US$15.5 million settlement in 2009. As noted
above there is also the case of Kiobel v Shell, which has been
in the US court system for around a decade and is now being
heard as a test case of the applicability of the Alien Tort Statute
Act to similar overseas company cases in the U.S. Supreme
Court. The decision on whether corporations are covered by
the Act will be crucial for any future actions.
In defending the ACTA in the case of Kiobel v Shell, human
Rights chief Navi Pillay said, “governance gaps created by the
rising reach and influence of business actors have not been
matched by a similar rise in the capacity of societies to manage
their impact and ensure accountability for adverse human
rights impacts resulting from business activities.” 30
A recent successful legal action by the Ogoni was the case
of Bodo v Shell. This was a complaint filed by farmers and
fishermen from the village of Bodo in the UK High Court
over pollution from oil spills. In August 2011, after only four
months, Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary admitted liability for a
pair of oil spills in return for the parent company’s dismissal
of the suit, paying out an unknown sum (which was estimated
to be up to $400 million). It is believed that the simultaneous
launch of a well-research report by the United Nations
Environment Program, documenting serious contamination
in the area, assisted greatly the rapid settlement. 31
The case taken against UK-based Monterrico Metals is an
example of an extraterritorial legal case against a mining company
for rights violations. The incident involved a number