We All Stand Before History’: Corporate Impunity as a Colonial Legacy—The Case of the Niger Delta

April 2019

This article, authored by CAL staff, board, and advisors, and first published in the Harvard Human Rights Journal, is an interdisciplinary examination of the legal, economic, historical and psychological impacts of the human rights situation affecting the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta. The Ogoni have traveled the world seeking justice for the allegedly tortious business practices of Royal Dutch Shell (“Shell”) and its subsidiaries, and the resulting decimation of the Ogoni territory. Despite increasing awareness of the importance of access to remedy in the business and human rights field, victims of transnational corporations, like the Ogoni, continue to face major obstacles when they seek redress from corporate actors. 

The article studies the experience of the Ogoni people in their struggle to hold Shell accountable for decades of environmental and human rights abuse, ultimately highlighting the crisis of corporate impunity that victims face across the globe. Through an analysis of the legal options that the Ogoni have pursued and the psychological impact of corporate impunity, the article considers ways in which transitional justice can provide a new path to justice for the Ogoni from a decolonial perspective. The article contemplates ways in which transitional justice could incorporate elements of indigenous systems of justice along with a proposal to utilize innovation policy and Western intellectual property law to shape corporate behavior within transitional justice praxis.