In 1996, Nigerian villagers in Ogoniland filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Royal Dutch Shell, alleging complicity in torture, extrajudicial killings, and environmental devastation caused by decades of oil extraction in the Niger Delta. Their claim was one of the first major attempts to hold a transnational corporation accountable for human rights violations committed abroad. Although the case, Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Shell (2009), resulted in a settlement between the two parties, it also showed that while these corporations have huge power and resources that can impact communities worldwide, there are still no binding international legal mechanisms that hold them accountable for their human rights violations and environmental harms.

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