John Sentamu - It’s time to act against the oil companies causing death and destruction
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins: “All human
beings … should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” It is now
widely acknowledged that human rights cannot be enjoyed without a safe, clean
and healthy environment. The right to a healthy environment is enshrined in
more than 100 constitutions all over the world because human and environmental
rights are intertwined.
However, despite the
endorsement of the UN
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, oil companies exploiting
irreplaceable resources in the Niger Delta are callously flouting fundamental
human rights. That is the conclusion I have been forced to draw from my work as
chair of the Bayelsa
State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC).
In numerous recent
visits with my commission colleagues, I have had first-hand experience of the chronic damage being inflicted on the people of Bayelsa
state and their environment. Colossal oil spillages across the land have
contaminated the air they breathe, the water they drink and fish in, and the
food they grow. As many as 10m gallons of oil may have been spilled over the
past 50 years. That’s equivalent to an Exxon Valdez disaster, an oil tanker that ran aground off Alaska
in 1989, causing one of the worst environmental disasters.....
