13 years after Nigerian farmers sued Shell Nigeria and its parent company, now Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) in The Netherlands, The Hague Court of Appeal found in their favour at the end of January 2021. And in early February the UK Supreme Court ruled the affected Nigerian communities can bring their cases for cleanup & compensation against Shell in the UK.

The Hague Court took an extremely important step by ordering RDS to ensure its subsidiary takes the required remedial action and acts with due care towards the villagers affected by the oil spills. If the company does not instal the court ordered leak detection system within a year it is not just Shell Nigeria who will be have to pay EUR100’000/day but Royal Dutch Shell as well.

The message is coming across clearly now: Head Office cannot use the excuse that they do not know what is going on on the ground. It is not good enough for HQ to be in a green building and merely recognising their employees’ human rights: multi-nationals need to start looking throughout the value chain. Human rights due diligences (which include environmental assessments) are become more and more important.

We can do #betterbusiness.

Read the full article here: Dutch court orders Shell to pay Nigerian farmers over oil spills