| Article 22:
Right to Social Security Activist: Ken Saro-wiwa |
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ARTICLE
22: Deep in the heart of Africa, in a country called Nigeria, the Ogoni tribe has lived in harmony with its land for hundreds of years. But in the last half-century, things have changed. Exploitation of the area by oil companies has slowly poisoned their environment, causing serious illnesses and unbearable living conditions as well as destroying the land. And until recently, a military dictatorship governed Nigeria without compassion for the well-being or security of this small but vital minority. Things started to change through the work of one vocal journalist named Ken Saro-wiwa, who founded a group called the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). The idea was to use nonviolent resistance and protests to protect the Ogoni and the environment, but tragically these peaceful efforts were met with violence from the Nigerian military. In 1995, Ken Saro-wiwa was hanged after being arrested on false charges. Four years later, in 1999, some of Ken Saro-wiwašs dreams are finally starting to come true. In May, Nigeria held democratic elections to replace its military government with a new President, Olusegun Obasanjo. The struggle continues today, but hope is high that Nigeriašs new democracy will further empower the Ogoni people to protect their environment, improve their quality of life, and regain a sense of safety in their own homes. The
idea cannot be destroyed. Its time has come. It will spread to all nooks
and corners of Nigeria... My joy is that I have successfully made it known
to the Ogoni and others that an ethnic minority group can fight non-violently
for its rights. According to the environmental organisation The Sierra Club, environmental rights are human rights. Nowhere is this truer than Nigeria, where more than thirty years of drilling by Shell Oil have devastated the land of the Ogoni people. Although Shell has pumped billions of dollars' worth of oil from Ogoni land, the people remain desperately impoverished. Because their water tastes like oil, local wells are now used as garbage dumps. Even rainwater and streams are polluted with oil residue, leaving no clean water to drink. Many people suffer from breathing problems and other illnesses that may be attributable to the oil-polluted land, water and air. Unfortunately, there are very few doctors available to treat the sick. Until recently, Nigeria was ruled by a military dictatorship, which cared little about the wellbeing of the Ogoni minority. Shell Oil worked closely with the military government in exploiting Ogoni land. Shell even purchased arms for the Nigerian police, who used them to carry out ruthless attacks against the Ogoni people when they began to protest what was happening to their land and their lives. By the late 1980s, the Ogoni people had had enough. To resist Shell's continued exploitation, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was founded. MOSOP organized many Ogoni activists, both young and old, to demand through non-violent protest the right to protect their own environment, the right to exercise political control over their own lives and the right to use a fair portion of their economic resources for their own development. These demands would eventually catapult MOSOP's president, Ken Saro-wiwa, into the center of an international scandal that would change Nigeria forever. Ken Saro-wiwa was born in 1941, when Nigeria was still a colony of Great Britain. In 1954, he enrolled in Government College, one of Nigeria's most prestigious schools. He was the only Ogoni boy among his three hundred classmates. While a student, he wrote several letters to the country's government-run newspapers criticizing Shell Oil's operations in Ogoni land. In 1967, Nigeria's Ibo ethnic group revolted in an unsuccessful attempt to establish the independent republic of Biafra in the area where the Ogoni lived too. Ken Saro-wiwa was appalled by the Ibo violence. He abandoned his teaching career and escaped from Biafra in a canoe. During the war civil war that followed, Saro-wiwa developed his criticism of Shell Oil and explained his ideas about environmental rights and economic justice for the Ogoni people. In the 1980s, Saro-wiwa wrote regular newspaper articles about Shell's exploitation. He also became a well-known author of Ogoni folktales, children's books, poetry and novels. He also wrote and produced a popular television sitcom called Basi and Company. Because of its satirical criticism of Nigerian society, the military government cancelled it in 1992. In 1990, Saro-wiwa brought his fellow Ogoni together to establish the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the product of his long-standing concern with Shell's economic exploitation of his people. He was tired of watching helplessly. The only solution, he concluded, was organized, non-violent resistance. The government's reaction to Ogoni protests was vicious. The Nigerian military attacked and destroyed dozens of Ogoni villages, killing and dislocating thousands. The government also arrested Saro-wiwa numerous times. Nevertheless, he continued to speak out bravely for human rights and social justice. On May 21, 1994, Ken Saro-wiwa was arrested and accused of conspiring to kill four Ogoni chiefs. However, these allegations are widely considered to have been baseless. It appears clear that he was arrested solely because of his leadership of the MOSOP, which was carrying out an increasingly effective and well-publicised campaign of non-violent resistance to Shell Oil's exploitation of Ogoni land. Saro-wiwa and eight of his colleagues were held without charge for ten months. They were tortured and denied access to medical care and attorneys. In 1995, they were formally charged and tried before a military-appointed tribunal under a decree, specially created for their case. This decree said that people found guilty of inciting ethnic violence would be hanged, with no right of appeal. A guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion. After Saro-wiwa and his eight Ogoni colleagues were sentenced to death, he said, "Whether I live or die is immaterial. We must keep on striving to make the world a better place for all of mankind - each one contributing his bit, in his or her own way." Despite international outrage and calls for clemency, the nine intrepid human rights defenders were hanged on November 10, 1995. In May 1999, Nigeria held democratic elections to replace its military government, and Olusegun Obasanjo, the new president, committed himself to investigating the corruption of the former regime, including the scandalous hanging of Ken Saro-wiwa. If indeed environmental rights are human rights, then Nigeria's opening to democracy should further empower the Ogoni people to protect their environment, improve their quality of life, and control their own lives. Accordingly, Ken Saro-wiwa's martyrdom will not have been in vain. LESSON FOR ARTICLE 22: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE The case of Ken Saro-Wiwa raises many human rights issues, among them the rights of minorities, the right to development, the right to peaceful protest, the right to fair trials, economic justice and the death penalty. Article 22 addresses all these in its guarantee of "the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable with [a person's] dignity and the free development of [a person's] personality." The activities in this lesson development one strand of Saro-Wiwa's struggle: the human right to a safe and healthy environment. See also the lessons for Article 7, on the right to development, Article 9 on the death penalty, Article 16 on economic justice, and Article 24, which includes responsible consumerism as a response to corporate violations of human rights. ACTIVITY I: LINKING ENVIRONMENT RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS (1 hour) Material: Cards of 3 different colours for every member of the class, handout "Analyzing Experience, chart paper and markers. 1. Define terms:
2. Report experience: a) Give everyone three file cards (ideally of different colors). b) Ask "What is an environmental problem that affects your personal life?" and request everyone to respond by writing a word or phrase on one card (of the same color). Collect these cards. c) For the second card, ask "What is a regional or national environmental problem in our country?" and collect these cards. d) For the
final card ask, "What is an environmental problem that affects the whole
planet?" and collect these cards. 3. Analyze Experience: a) Divide
the class into three groups and give each group one of the three sets
of cards, chart paper, a marker, and a copy of the Analyzing Experience
chart, either to complete or copy on chart paper. b) Explain how to complete the chart below: Problem: Read all the problems and list them in this column. Place a check next to any problem mentioned more than once. Effects: Check the column if the problem affects people's Health, Livelihood, or Quality of Life or Culture. Write other effects in the column marked "Other." Rights
Involved: Write the specific right(s) violated by this problem. If
possible, list the relevant article(s) of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Action Being Taken: Note in this column whether the problem is being addressed by any individuals or organizations, whether governmental or non-governmental, naming them where possible. CHART FOR ARTICLE 22
c) When groups have completed their charts, hang them where everyone can see. Ask a spokesperson for each group to summarize their finding. 4. Compare analyses: Compare and analyze the charts by asking questions like these:
5. Discuss the Analysis:
6. Discuss the Link between Environment and Human Rights: Read the paragraph below aloud and use the following talking points to summarize the link between the environment and human rights and invite participants to take action. Fortunately,
the environmental and human rights movements have substantial common ground
on which to build further linkages. In particular, both have traditionally
focused on expanding access to information and upholding the rights of
communities to participate in decisions likely to affect their well being. a) "Environmental Justice" is a term used to express the positive interconnection of environmental and social rights. The term implies a world of communities in which environmental health is not a privilege of elite groups in society but a right that all people enjoy by virtue of being human. Currently, however, few people in the world enjoy environmental health. b) "Environmental racism," is used to express the disproportionate state of poor environmental conditions and health that people of color endure as one aspect of racial discrimination in society. In the USA, for example, poor neighborhoods of color are disproportionately exposed to dangers such as toxic waste dumping, construction of highways and airports, and sub-standard housing. c) Few problems are "just environmental." One way to promote environmental justice for a whole community is to uphold individual human rights such as free speech, self-determination, and access to information. Source: Adapted from Local Action/Global Change Learning about the Human Rights of Women and Girls, Mertus, Julie with Malice Dutt and Nancy Flowers (UNIFEM & The Center for Women's Global Leadership 1999). ACTIVITY II: BALANCING ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (1 hour) 1. Explain the Role Play: a) Read the following scenario to the class. THE NEW MINE: DEVELOPMENT OR DISASTER? Everyone in the community is very curious when they learn that a foreign mining company is exploring here because they think that a valuable mineral may lie under the ground. When they actually discover the mineral, people are very excited, expecting that this may mean many jobs and other economic improvements for the community. The government signs a contract with the mining company that splits the profits equally between them. However, as mining begins, things begin to get worse rather than improve. Only manual jobs are available to local people, and the work is dangerous, injuring many workers. It is also loud and dirty, causing heavy traffic, a bad smell and clouds of dust to spread across the area. Soon the water begins to taste funny and many people develop digestive problems that they think may relate to the mining. Plants near the mine begin to die. Things are not getting better. In fact, they are much worse. Yet the mine is very successful, creating a large profit for the company and the government. A community meeting is called to discuss the problem b) Explain that they will role-play a community meeting called to discuss these problems. Ask the class to suggest the different groups who would have a strong opinion about this situation and whose voices should be heard in the meeting. List these and then assign roles to small groups. Suggested roles:
Additional members of the class might serve as moderators for the community meeting. c. Encourage them to imagine this scenario taking place in their own community. 2. Plan the role-play: Give each group time to discuss how their group would be likely to regard the situation. Help them to see the conflicting interests of each group. 3. Discuss the Human Rights Issues Involved: Following the role-play, discuss the human rights involved for all those involved. Discuss what kind of citizen action would be appropriate and effective in this case. GOING FURTHER 1. Research Shell Oil: Encourage the class to find out about how transnational corporations like Shell are organized and operate, asking question like these:
Note: The last three questions will raise questions about accessing information. Help students strategize about finding and evaluating different sources of information. 2. Research the Global Compact: Explain that governments agree to honor human rights standards when they adopt and/or ratify regional and international human rights treaties conventions. However, most large corporations operate in many countries and are not parties to treaties and conventions. Many people are concerned that such corporations have more money and power than many governments but are not subject to the obligations that governments have to uphold human rights. Explain that recently the United Nations has launched the so-called Global Compact, an agreement among businesses and non-government organizations to support human rights standards. Assign students to find out more about the Global Compact.
3. Environmental Activism: Ask students to find out what groups in the community, region or country are working for environmental rights.
Encourage interested students to find out how they can support the work of these groups or do similar work in their own community. Where possible, encourage students to interview and/or invite representatives from the group to meet with the class. 4. Responsible Consumerism: See the actions suggested in Lesson 24. TAKING ACTION ON ARTICLE 22 1. RESEARCH SHELL OIL: Find out about how transnational corporations like Shell are organized and operate, asking question like these:
2. RESEARCH THE GLOBAL COMPACT: Governments agree to honor human rights standards when they adopt and/or ratify regional and international human rights treaties conventions. However, most large corporations operate in many countries and are not parties to treaties and conventions. Many people are concerned that such corporations have more money and power than many governments but are not subject to the obligations that governments have to uphold human rights. Recently the United Nations has launched the so-called Global Compact, an agreement among businesses and non-government organizations to support human rights standards. Find out more about the Global Compact.
3. ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM: Find out what groups in your community, region or country are working for environmental rights.
4. RESPONSIBLE CONSUMERISM: See the actions suggested in Lesson 24 |