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Amnesty International

CORPORATEACCOUNTABILITYShell & Vedanta

Youth Group Action : April 2010

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SHELL CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Amnesty Youth Groups

have sent more than1,500 postcards, letters,

placards and banners to

Peter Voser, the chief

executive of

Shell, protesting aboutthe companys behaviour.

Thanks to your efforts weve been keeping Shells human

rights record under the spotlight up and down the UK.

And your actions are really having an impact!

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OVERVIEW: SHELL IN THE NIGER DELTA

The Niger Delta has massive

and very valuable oil

deposits, but the majority of

Its 31 million inhabitants live

in poverty.

Shell is responsible for 80%

of oil and gas extraction in

the area. Its damaging

practices are stripping the

inhabitants of their human rights and keeping them in poverty.

Rather than protect its people, the Nigerian Government has

abandoned them to the oil companies.

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FACTFILE ON THE NIGER DELTA

Location: Nigeria, West Africa

Population: 31 million

Area: Approx 70,000 km2

Ethnic groups: over 40,

including the Efik Eburutu, IbibioNation, Annang Nation, Oron

Nation, & Ogoni people

Languages: 250 dialects are

spoken

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THE IMPACT OF SHELLS OPERATIONS ON

HUMAN RIGHTS

Oil spills, gas flaring* and pollution are all having a

devastating impact on the land and rivers these

communities depend upon.

Local people are left to drink polluted water, eat contaminated

fish, farm on spoiled land, and breathe air that stinks of oil

and gas.

In August 2008, a Shell pipeline leaked more than 1,600

barrels of oil into local waterways at Bodo Creek.

Sadly this is just one of a series of shocking pollution

incidents which Shell and the Nigerian Government have not

responded to adequately.

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HUMAN RIGHTS

* What is gas flaring?

When oil is pumped out of the ground, the gas produced is

separated and, in Nigeria, most of it is burnt as waste.

This is extremely wasteful and environmentally damaging, and

there are concerns that it has a negative impact on human

health. It has been illegal in Nigeria since 1984, but Shell

continue to do it.

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HUMAN RIGHTS

We want the Federal Ministry of Environment and Shell

Petroleum Development Company in particular to come and put

a stop to this My people dont go to fishing any longer youcan see the devastating effects and this is our main source of

livelihood.

Representative of the Bodo community, after oil spill at Bodo,

Ogoniland, 2008

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HUMAN RIGHTS

Decades of pollution in the Niger Delta has led to serious human rights violations,driving the people of the region into poverty.

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WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS IS SHELL ABUSING?

Right to

clean

water

Right to an

adequate

standard ofliving

Right to earn a

living through

work Right to health +a healthyenvironment

Right

to food

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HUMAN RIGHTS

A local fisherman described the

devastation caused by oil spills:

If you want to go fishing, you

have to paddle for about four

hours through several rivers

before you can get to where youcan catch fish some of the

fishes we catch, when you open

the stomach, it smells of crude

oil.

Hundreds of thousands of people are affected, particularly the poorest

and those that rely on traditional livelihoods such as fishing and

agriculture.

A fisherman with his canoe in Goi, Ogoniland.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/Regions/AFR/nigeria-niger-delta-03.jpg

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VIOLENCE IN THE NIGER DELTA

Poverty and pollution have sparked protests against Shell and

other oil companies, and some of these protests have been

violent.

Armed gangs have formed, and have been involved in sabotage,theft, property destruction, and kidnapping oil workers. Amnesty

condemns this violence.

The recent increase in confrontations between armed groups

and government security forces has negatively impacted on thepeople of the Niger Delta.

In June 2009, tens of thousands of people fled their homes to

avoid fighting between government forces and group known as

the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

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SHELLS RESPONSE TO AMNESTYS CAMPAIGN

Your actions are clearly having an impact,

as Shells PR machine has been going into

overdrive. Many Amnesty groups have

received letters from Shell in response totheir appeals to CEO Peter Voser.

Shells response has been disappointing but not surprising.

They focus on the complexity of the situation in the Niger Delta

without acknowledging their own role in human rights

violations.

Below you will find detailed responses to some of the claims

which Shell has been making in these letters.

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Shell claim that the situation in the Niger Delta is complexand that Amnesty has not adequately reflected this,ignoring the realities and root causes

Not true -Amnestys report (Petroleum, pollution and poverty inthe Niger Delta) focuses on some of the root causes of conflictand poverty in the region. These include: the impact of half acentury of pollution and environmental damage; the lack ofaccess to justice for the people of the Niger Delta, who faceextreme difficulties in bringing legal proceedings againstmultinational corporations like Shell; and a lack of transparencyin relation to the impacts of the oil industry. Communities arerarely given information about the impact of Shells operationson their environment and human rights.

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Shell claim that 85% of the oil spillage in the Niger Delta is causedby attacks and sabotage

It is difficult to put an accurate figure on the proportion of oil spills caused by sabotage,as opposed to corrosion and equipment failure. There is often no independentinvestigation into the cause of a spill, and given that Shell has to pay compensation if a

spill is caused by corrosion or equipment failure, their own figures may not be reliable.

This is illustrated by the case of a major oil spill at Batan in Delta State in 2002. Shellwrote to the Governor of Delta State claiming the spill was caused by sabotage. Theletter was written two days before the investigation was done. An independentinvestigation showed the cause of the spill to be equipment failure.

By their own admission, most of the oil spilt by Shell between 1989 and 1994 was due tocorrosion or operational problems and only 28% was attributed to sabotage. In 2007Shells estimates had risen to 70% and in response to Amnestys report, Shell estimates85%.

While Amnesty acknowledges that sabotage and vandalism are serious problems, we are

not aware of any credible evidence to support this data.

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Shell claims it does disclose its social and environmental impact

assessments

Shell asserts that Environmental and Social Impact Assessments have

been and are being made public, but the company did not provide any

Environmental Impact Assessments to Amnesty International, despite

repeated requests made whilst researching our report.

Although assessments are meant to be available in government offices,

when Amnesty tried to obtain copies from one local government office,staff were afraid to provide them but did not say why. We believe

assessments should also be made available to the affected

communities not just sitting in local offices.

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Shell does not believe Amnesty has adequately

acknowledged the companys contribution to Nigerias

economy and community development in the Niger

Delta.

Amnestys report acknowledges that Shell has made some

positive contributions in Nigeria. However, human rights

abuses cannot be offset. The funds spent by Shell on

education, as well as infrastructure, do not reverse thedamage done to communities as a result of Shells core

business activities in the Delta.

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TAKE ACTION 2: SHOW THE FILM

See how 200 students from Amnesty groups across the UK

marched a 40-metre-long gas pipeline through the streets of

London to protest about Shells harmful practice of gas

flaring in the Niger Delta. The film is available online at

www.amnesty.org.uk/youth

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RESOURCES

You can read the full report Petroleum, pollution

and poverty in the Niger Delta at

www.amnesty.org.uk/dignity

Watch the video:Shells damaging practices in the Niger Delta are

revealed.

http://www.protectthehuman.com/videos/welcome-to-

shell

Watch the video:

Exeter University Amnesty group head to their local

Shell station to give it a jolly good clean up!

http://www.protectthehuman.com/videos/the-big-

shell-cleanup

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MINING COMPANY IN THE SPOTLIGHT OVER

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

On 9 February an Amnesty delegation

Presented Vedanta Resources with a

report showing how pollution from their

alumina refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa,

India threatens the health of localpeople and their access to water. The

report also shows that Vedantas plans

to open a bauxite mine in the nearby Niyamgiri Hills could threaten

the way of life of the indigenous Dongria Kondh community, who

depend on the hills for their water, food, livelihoods and culturalidentity.

The Dongria Kondh do not cut trees or cultivate the top of the hill as

they believe that their deity (god) Niyam Raja Penu lives there. Now

they face the prospect of a 700-hectare open-cast mine in their

holiest place.

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MINING COMPANY IN THE SPOTLIGHT OVER

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Just days before the Amnesty report was published, the Church

of England announced that it was withdrawing its investments

from Vedanta because of its concerns over the companys

human rights record. The Rowntree Trust, Marlborough Ethical

Fund andMillfield House Foundation sold their shares, worth 2.2 million,

soon afterwards.

Amnesty International is calling on Vedanta to address the

human rights and environmental impacts of their aluminarefinery, and not to expand the refinery or begin mining until the

current problems are resolved. Amnesty is also calling on the

Indian authorities to set up a process to seek the consent of the

Dongria Kondh before allowing Vedanta to start mining.

For more information: www.protectthehuman.com/vedanta

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TAKE ACTION 3: SIGN THE PETITION

We have launched a petition to hand over at Vedantas AGM in July

this year.

Please send all signed petitions back to us by 20th June at the

latest.

You can also sign the petition online at

www.protectthehuman.com/vedanta

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