Nigeria. Petroleum, pollution and poverty in the Niger Delta

The oil industry has operated in the Niger Delta in Nigeria for more than half a century - bringing almost no benefit to the people living there. Instead, widespread and unchecked human rights violations have pushed many people deeper into poverty and deprivation, fuelled conflict and led to a pervasive sense of powerlessness and frustration. This multidimensional crisis is driven by many factors - abuses committed by the security forces and militant groups, extensive pollution of land and water, corruption, serious corporate bad practice and government neglect. Nigeria: Petroleum, pollution and poverty in the Niger Delta focuses on one dimension of the crisis: the impact of pollution and environmental damage caused by the oil industry on the human rights of those living in the Niger Delta. Many people in the oil-producing areas of the delta rely on fisheries, subsistence agriculture and associated processing industries for their livelihood. Decades of pollution and environmental damage have resulted in violations of the right to an adequate standard of living - including food and water - violations of the right to gain a living through work, and violations of the right to health. The report examines who is responsible for this situation in a context where multinational oil companies have been operating for decades. It highlights how companies take advantage of the weak regulatory systems that characterize many poor countries, and how the poorest people are often the most vulnerable to exploitation. The people of the Niger Delta have seen their human rights undermined by oil companies that their government can not - or will not - hold to account. They have been systematically denied access to information about how oil exploration and production will affect them, and are repeatedly denied access to justice. The Niger Delta provides a stark case study of the lack of accountability of a government to the people, and of multinational companies' almost total lack of accountability for the impact of their operations on human rights (authors abstract)