International Human Rights Program, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Presents
Ken Wiwa
“Creative Justice: Shell and the Ogoni in Niger Delta”
Monday September 21
12:30-2:00 pm
FLB
A light lunch will be served.
Ken Wiwa is an internationally acclaimed writer and journalist. Currently serving as a Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria, he was previously a weekly columnist for the Globe and Mail. His first book “In the Shadow of a Saint” was published worldwide and won the 2002 Hurston/Wright Foundation’s Legacy Award for non-fiction. A Fellow of the University of Toronto, he was selected in 2005 as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Ken will discuss the settlement he won against Shell Oil in June. The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York brought lawsuits against Shell Oil, its Nigerian subsidiary, and the head of its Nigerian operations, charging them with complicity in human rights abuses against the Ogoni people in Nigeria. The charges include the arrest and execution of Ken’s father, along with eight other environmental activists, in 1995 for protesting the environmental practices of Shell Oil in the Niger Delta. On 8 June 2009, on the eve of trial, the parties agreed to a settlement which provides a total of $15.5 million to compensate the plaintiffs, establish a trust for the benefit of the Ogoni people, and cover some of the legal costs associated with the case.
Please RSVP by contacting Kara Norrington at [email protected]