John Sentamu - It’s time to act against the oil companies causing death and destruction

By Dilip -
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.....
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/10/oil-companies-death-destruction-bayelsa-state-nigeria-john-sentamu

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