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Protecting Environmental Rights in the Context of Oil Extraction in Africa

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Governance, Human Rights, and Political Transformation in Africa

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Abstract

This chapter reviews the protection of environmental rights in Africa through the individual communications mandate of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission). It examines the decision of the Commission concerning the Ogoni people of Nigeria. The complaint concerns the consequences of environmental degradation in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria caused by Shell Corporation in collusion with the Government of Nigeria. The Commission in its decision deals with the responsibility of the state to ensure the realization of rights even by private parties. This chapter contends that while the Commission took a commendable progressive approach in the interpretation of the African Charter, it did not invoke other relevant laws and the decision lacked a developmental approach which it must adequately address in future related communications.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dinah Shelton, “Legitimate and Necessary: Adjudicating Human Rights Violations Related to Activities Causing Environmental Harm,” Journal of Human Rights and Environment 6, no. 2 (2015): 139–155 at 140.

  2. 2.

    Ibid., at 141.

  3. 3.

    Michael Addaney, Elsabé Boshoff, and Michael Gyan Nyarko, “Protection of Environmental Assets in Urban Africa: Regional and Sub-regional Human Rights and Practical Environmental Protection Mechanisms,” Australian Journal of Human Rights 24, no. 2 (2018): 182–200.

  4. 4.

    Shelton, “Legitimate and Necessary,” 143.

  5. 5.

    Ibid.

  6. 6.

    Christina Voigt and Evadne Grant, “The Legitimacy of Human Rights Courts in Environmental Disputes,” Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 6, no. 2 (2015): 131–138.

  7. 7.

    Addaney, Boshoff, and Nyarko, “Protection of Environmental Assets in Urban Africa,” 182.

  8. 8.

    African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter), adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, 245 (1982), Art. 24.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., art. 21(10) states that, ‘all peoples shall freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources. This right shall be exercised in the exclusive interest of the people. In no case shall a people be deprived of it.’

  10. 10.

    Ibid., Art. 21(2).

  11. 11.

    Ibid., Art. 21(4).

  12. 12.

    Ibid., Art. 30; Frans Viljoen, International Human Rights Law in Africa, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 295.

  13. 13.

    Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) and Another v Nigeria (SERAC case) (2001) AHRLR 60 (ACHPR 2001).

  14. 14.

    Barisere Rachel Konne, “Inadequate Monitoring and Enforcement in the Nigerian Oil Industry: The Case of Shell and Ogoniland,” Cornell International Law Journal 47, no. 1 (2014): 181–204.

  15. 15.

    Amnesty International (Amnesty), “Nigeria: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta” (2009), 9. http://www.amnesty.eu/static/documents/2009/Nigeria0609Report.pdf.

  16. 16.

    Konne, “Inadequate Monitoring and Enforcement in the Nigerian Oil Industry,” 181.

  17. 17.

    “Report of an Independent Statistic and Analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Nigeria, Country Analysis Brief,” last updated on May 6, 2016, 2, https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis_includes/countries_long/Nigeria/nigeria.pdf.

  18. 18.

    Amnesty, Nigeria, 11.

  19. 19.

    Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, “Oil Production,” http://nnpcgroup.com/NNPCBusiness/UpstreamVentures/OilProduction.aspx.

  20. 20.

    U.S. Energy Information Administration, Nigeria, Country Analysis Brief.

  21. 21.

    Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), “The World Factbook: Nigeria” (2013), https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html.

  22. 22.

    Amnesty, Nigeria, 12.

  23. 23.

    Ibid.

  24. 24.

    Richard Boele, Heike Fabig, and David Wheeler, “Shell, Nigeria and the Ogoni: A Case Study in Unsustainable Development: I. The Story of Shell, Nigeria and the Ogoni People—Environment, Economy, Relationships: Conflict and Prospects for Resolution,” Sustainable Development 9, no. 2 (2001): 74–86, 74, 76.

  25. 25.

    Boele et al. argues that, like other indigenous communities in the Niger Delta, the Ogoni people have never directly controlled any part of the petroleum earnings. See, Boele, Fabig, and Wheeler, “Shell, Nigeria and the Ogoni: A Case Study in Unsustainable Development,” 74.

  26. 26.

    CIA, “The World Factbook: Nigeria.”

  27. 27.

    SERAC case, para. 30.

  28. 28.

    Act no. 58 of 1988, Chapter 131, Laws of the Federation on Nigeria, which established the FEPA.

  29. 29.

    Act no. 25 of 2007, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., Section 1(1).

  31. 31.

    Ibid., Section 2(a) and Section 2.

  32. 32.

    Onyenekenwa Cyprian Eneh, “Managing Nigeria’s Environment: The Unresolved Issues,” Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 4, no. 3 (2011): 250–263, 258.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., p. 259

  34. 34.

    Act no. 6 of 2000, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., Section 7(1) h and i.

  36. 36.

    Irekpitan Okukpon, “Phasing Out Gas Flaring in Nigeria: A Critical Assessment of the Regulatory Regime” (LLM dissertation, University of Cape Town, 2000), 54.

  37. 37.

    SERAC case (n. 15), para. 30.

  38. 38.

    Ifeanyi I. Onwuazombe, “Human Rights Abuse and Violations in Nigeria: A Case Study of the Oil Producing Communities in the Niger Delta Region,” Annual Survey International and Comparative Survey 22, no. 1 (2017): 115–160, 118, 119.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., 119.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., 123.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 124.

  42. 42.

    Christof Heyns and Magnus Killander, eds., Compendium of Key Human Rights Documents of the African Union (Pretoria: Pretoria University Law Press, 2013), 340.

  43. 43.

    Free Legal Assistance Group and Others v Zaire (2000) AHRLR 74 (ACHPR 1995) Communication 25/89, 47/90.

  44. 44.

    (2000) AHRLR 107 (ACHPR 2000), para. 32.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., para. 32.

  46. 46.

    Heyns and Killander, Compendium of Key Human Rights Documents of the African Union, 340.

  47. 47.

    Ibid., 338–339.

  48. 48.

    Civil Liberties Organisation v Nigeria [(2000) AHRLR 188 (ACHPR 1995)].

  49. 49.

    (2001) AHRLR 60 (ACHPR 2001), para. 69.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., para. 70.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., para. 52.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., para. 53.

  53. 53.

    Addaney, Boshoff, and Nyarko, “Protection of Environmental Assets in Urban Africa,” 182.

  54. 54.

    SERAV v Nigeria case, para. 54.

  55. 55.

    Ibid., para. 64.

  56. 56.

    Addaney, Boshoff, and Nyarko, “Protection of Environmental Assets in Urban Africa,” 182.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., 6.

  58. 58.

    Ibid.

  59. 59.

    Ibid., 6.

  60. 60.

    SERAC v Nigeria case, para. 65.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., para. 52.

  64. 64.

    SERAV v Nigeria case.

  65. 65.

    Addaney, Boshoff, and Nyarko, “Protection of Environmental Assets in Urban Africa,” 190.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 9.

  67. 67.

    SERAV v Nigeria case, para. 71.

  68. 68.

    Ibid., para. 71.

  69. 69.

    Ibid.

  70. 70.

    Chairman Okoloise, “Contextualizing the Corporate Human Rights Responsibility in Africa: A Social Expectation or Legal Obligation?” African Human Rights Yearbook 1 (2017): 191–220.

  71. 71.

    Tinashe Madebwe, “A Rights-Based Approach to Environmental Protection: The Zimbabwean Experience.” African Human Rights Law Journal 15 (2015): 110–128; John Knox. “Human Rights and the Environment: Carrying the Conversation Forward.” In Human Rights and the Environment 13th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights, October 21–23, 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, www.aseminfoboard.org.

  72. 72.

    Ben Boer, “Environmental Principles and the Right to a Quality Environment” (Legal Studies Research Paper No. 17/05; January 2017).

  73. 73.

    Addaney, Boshoff, and Nyarko, “Protection of Environmental Assets in Urban Africa,” 190.

  74. 74.

    Ibid.

  75. 75.

    Justice C. Nwobike, “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Demystification of Second and Third Generation Rights Under the African Charter: Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) & The Centre for Economic Social Rights (CESR) v Nigeria,” African Journal of Legal Studies 1, no. 2 (2005): 142–143.

  76. 76.

    Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council v Kenya (2009) AHRLR 73.

  77. 77.

    UN Convention on Biological Diversity 1760 UNTS 79 (1992).

  78. 78.

    UN Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals 1651 UNTS 333 (1979).

  79. 79.

    See, for example, the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1037 UNTS 151, 27 UST 37 (1972) 11 ILM 1358 article 11(4); Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (the Ramsar Convention) (1972) 11 ILM 963 article 2; UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) 21 ILM 1261 article 236; Alice Louise Bunker, “Protection of the Environment During Armed Conflict: One Gulf, Two Wars,” Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 13, no. 2 (2003): 201–213.

  80. 80.

    Dinah Shelton, “Legitimate and Necessary: Adjudicating Human Rights Violations Related to Activities Causing Environmental Harm or Risk,” Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 6, no. 2 (2015): 139–155.

  81. 81.

    Erika de Wet and Anél du Plessis, “The Meaning of Certain Substantive Obligations Distilled from International Human Rights Instruments for Constitutional Environmental Rights in South Africa,” African Human Rights Law Journal 10, no. 2 (2010): 346–376.

  82. 82.

    Addaney, Boshoff, and Nyarko, “Protection of Environmental Assets in Urban Africa,” 185.

  83. 83.

    Konne, “Inadequate Monitoring and Enforcement in the Nigeria Oil Industry,” 190.

  84. 84.

    Ibid., 184.

  85. 85.

    “Buhari Sets to Launch Ogoni Land Clean-Up,” The Vanguard (Lagos), March 5, 2016, https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/buhari-sets-to-launch-ogoniland-cleanup-minister/.

  86. 86.

    “Ogoni Clean-Up Will Cost $1b, Niger Delta Needs a New Vision Says Osinbajo,” The Vanguard (Lagos), February 14, 2017, https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/ogoni-clean-will-cost-1b-niger-delta-needs-new-vision-says-osinbajo/.

  87. 87.

    Nathaniel A. Inegbedion, “Constitutional Implementation: The Nigerian Experience,” In The Implementation of Modern African Constitutions: Challenges and Prospects, ed. Charles Manga Fombad (Pretoria: Pretoria University Law Press, 2016), 25–41.

  88. 88.

    Kehinde Mowoe, Constitutional Law in Nigeria (Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited, 2008), 273.

  89. 89.

    Olawale Ajai, “The Balancing of Interests in Environmental Law in Nigeria,” In The Balancing of Interests in Environmental Law in Africa, ed. Michael Faure and Willemien du Plessis (Pretoria: Pretoria University Law Press, 2011), 379–411.

  90. 90.

    (2002) 9 Nigerian Weekly Law Report (NWLR) (Pt. 772), 222.

  91. 91.

    Ademola O. Jegede, “From Military Rule to Constitutional Government: The Case of Nigeria,” in Constitutionalism and Democratic Governance in Africa: Contemporary Perspective from Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. M.K. Mbondenyi and T. Ojienda (Pretoria: Pretoria University Law Press, 2013), 352.

  92. 92.

    App. No. 36220/97, ECtHR Reports of Judgments and Decisions.

  93. 93.

    De Wet and Du Plessis, “International Human Rights Instruments for Constitutional Environmental Rights in South Africa,” 351.

  94. 94.

    Known as the Exclusive Legislative list.

  95. 95.

    (2001) 51 Weekly Report of Nigeria (WRN) 1, paras. 83–85.

  96. 96.

    Nwobike, “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Demystification of Second and Third Generation Rights Under the African Charter,” 133.

  97. 97.

    Olawale Ajai, “The Balancing of Interests in Environmental Law in Nigeria,” In The Balancing of Interests in Environmental Law in Africa, ed. Michael Faure and Willemien du Plessis (Pretoria: Pretoria University Law Press, 2011), 379–411.

  98. 98.

    Linda Stewart, “Adjudicating Socio-economic Rights Under a Transformative Constitution,” Penn State International Law Review 28, no. 3 (2010): 487–512.

  99. 99.

    Michael Kidd, Environment’ in Iain Currie & Johan De Wall, The Bill of Rights Handbook (Cape Town: Juta, 2013), 518.

  100. 100.

    2007 (6) SA 4 (CC).

  101. 101.

    Ibid., para. 45.

  102. 102.

    Kariuki Muigua and Francis Kariuki, “Towards Environmental Justice in Kenya,” January 2015, http://www.kmco.co.ke/attachments/article/140/Towards%20Environmental%20Justice%20in%20Kenya-January%202015.pdf.

  103. 103.

    2010 Constitution of Kenya, Art. 42.

  104. 104.

    ELC Suit No. 825 of 2012.

  105. 105.

    Muigua and Kariuki, “Towards Environmental Justice in Kenya,” 23.

  106. 106.

    Tebite v Nigeria Marine and Trading Co. (NMTC) (1971) 1ULR.432; Abiola v Ijoma (1970) 2All NLR 268.

  107. 107.

    Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) AC 562.

  108. 108.

    Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) A/CONF.151/26. Article 2, 18 and 19.

  109. 109.

    Donoghue v Stevenson.

  110. 110.

    Tebite V Nigeria NMTC and Abiola v Ijoma.

  111. 111.

    Madebwe, “A Rights Based Approach to Environmental Protection,” 116–117.

  112. 112.

    Section 12 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

  113. 113.

    African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

  114. 114.

    Ben Boer, “Environmental Principles and the Right to a Quality Environmental,” in Principles of Environmental Law, ed. Ludwing Kramer and Emanuela Orlando (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2018), 69–70.

  115. 115.

    Onyeka Williams Igwe, “The Challenges of Domesticating the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Holus Bolus: The Case of Nigeria,” Australian Journal of Management Policy and Law 2 (2015): 19–27.

  116. 116.

    Article 60 of the African Charter provides that, ‘The Commission shall draw inspiration from international law on human and peoples’ rights’.

  117. 117.

    Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), Chapter A9 (Chapter 10 LFN 1990) (No. 2 of 1983).

  118. 118.

    This unwilling attitude is evidence from the fact that the Nigerian Superior Courts have so far only declared the violation of the right guaranteed under the African Charter in an isolated decision of Gbemre v Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited and Others (2005) AHRLR 151 (NgHC 2005).

  119. 119.

    Section 6(6)(c) places a bar on judicial powers thus: ‘shall not except as otherwise provided by this Constitution, extend to any issue or question as to whether any act of omission by any authority or person or as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy set out in Chapter II of this Constitution’—and unfortunately so, Section 20 which guarantees to Nigerians right to the environments falls under Chapter II. The Supreme declared thus on the status of the African Charter in Nigeria: ‘…To this extent I agree with their Lordships of the Court below that the Charter possesses “a greater vigor and strength” than any other domestic statue. But that is not to say that the Charter is superior to the Constitution as erroneously, with respect, was submitted by Mr. Adegbrouwa, learned counsel for the respondent. Nor can its international flavor prevent the National Assembly or the Federal Military Government before it removing’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Environmental Law, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Michael Addaney & Charlotte Kabaseke

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Bamisaye Olutola

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  1. Research Institute of Environmental Law, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Michael Addaney

  2. Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Michael Gyan Nyarko

  3. African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Banjul, The Gambia

    Elsabé Boshoff

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Addaney, M., Olutola, B., Kabaseke, C. (2020). Protecting Environmental Rights in the Context of Oil Extraction in Africa. In: Addaney, M., Nyarko, M.G., Boshoff, E. (eds) Governance, Human Rights, and Political Transformation in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27049-0_15

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