Shell Jazz Fest
In New Orleans, Shell is sponsoring Jazz Fest.
In Nigeria, Shell sponsored murder & torture.
In May, Shell will go on trial for its crimes.
For people everywhere, Jazz Fest is an important celebration of music, community, weight loss, and the unique heritage of New Orleans. It’s good that multinational oil giant Shell is spending some of its enormous profits to make the 2009 festival happen. But what does the oil company hope to get from “presenting” Jazz Fest. No amount of corporate sponsorship or slick public relations can wipe away the horrific abuses that Shell has committed in Nigeria, and other communities where it does business.
In May 2009, Shell will stand trial in United States federal court to answer to charges that it conspired in horrific human rights abuses in Nigeria in the 1990s.
The lawsuit, Wiwa v. Shell, charges Shell with requesting, financing, and assisting the Nigerian military to use deadly force to repress opposition to Shell’s operations in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. The lawsuit also charges Shell with conspiring with the Nigerian military dictatorship in the prosecution of the leaders of this movement – the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). Shell bribed witnesses to give false testimony, ultimately leading to a death sentence for nine men, including acclaimed author, environmentalist, and MOSOP leader Ken Saro-Wiwa. On November 10th, 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were hanged.
But Shell’s crimes didn’t end there.
For over fifty years, Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta have caused environmental devastation and human suffering. And for fifty years, the associated gas produced with Nigeria’s oil has been burned off in huge roaring flares rather than being either re-injected or used commercially. This gas flaring poisons the land and air with a toxic cocktail of pollutants, including sulphur and nitrogen dioxides, benzene, xylene and dioxins. Devastating to the local environment and to the health of surrounding communities, Shell’s gas flaring was one of the abuses that Ken Saro-Wiwa and many other Ogoni people died seeking to end.
Shell’s gas flaring in Nigeria is a climate crime too. Gas flaring in Nigeria emits more greenhouse gases than all other sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined. In addition to harming the local environment and human health in Nigeria, Shell’s gas flaring is significantly contributing to global warming, adding to the peril our planet faces.
Shell’s crimes aren’t confined to Nigeria.
From its irresponsible investment in production of Canada’s environmentally destructive tar sands to its pollution of communities and impact on wetlands in the Mississippi Delta region, to its controversial pipeline project in County Mayo, Ireland to its enormous everyday emission of greenhouse gases, Shell’s crime scenes span the globe.
Sponsoring Jazz Fest is a snap for Shell, which made a staggering $27.5 billion dollars in profits in 2007. Shell must also spend its money cleaning up the messes its made in Nigeria, and around the world.
Tell Shell to come clean:
* Stop gas flaring in Nigeria, a practice devastating to the environment and human health, and a significant contributor to global warming.
* Disclose its role in the abuses committed against the Ogoni people in Nigeria, including the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9.

