Blog #7 Human Rights Victims Seek Remedy At High Court

Two cases of alleged violations of human rights is reported in this article. The two cases have been brought before the United States Supreme Court by foreign nationals. One case has been brought against Royal Dutch Shell Oil by twelve Nigerian citizens accusing the company of of aiding and abetting the Nigerian government of committing atrocities back in the1990s. Shell Oil was conducting oil exploration in Nigeria and oil spills were ruining a lot of the farmlands. Peaceful; protesters were being tortured and many of them killed. Charles Wiwa, one of the survivors, fled to the United States for safety.Wiwa and other Ogoni refugees have brought the case against Shell Oil. The lawsuit is based on the Alien Tort Statue which was enacted in 1789 by the first U.S. Congress. According to this statue, "U.S. trial courts can hear civil damage suits brought by foreign nationals for wrongs committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States". Shell Oil contends that "corporations cannot be sued in the U.S. under the Alien Tort Statue because international law dosen't recognize corporate liability for human rights crimes. The other case has been brought up by the family of Azzam Rahim who was born on the West Bank but had become a U.S. citizen in 1970. While visiting his home village in 1993, he was picked up by individuals posing as cops. His body was brought back to the family two days later covered with cigarette burns and broken ribs. The family was told that he died of a heart attack. The Palestinian Authority and the PLO have been sued by the family under the Torture Victim Protection Act. The Palestinian Authority contends that the statue speaks in terms of suits against individuals, not a group.

Large corporations and governments need to be held accountable for any violations of human rights that they may be directly or indirectly be responsible for. As to whether a U.S. court should be deciding such cases, I am not sure if that is the proper channel. I am not an expert on international law. I actually know nothing of international law, but I do know that all human beings have the right to be free from torture and other nameless atrocities that are being committed against so many. Proper investigations by the United Nations would seem to be in order here.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/28/147507940/human-rights-victims-seek-remedy-at-high-court