荷蘭法庭:尼日利亞農民可因石油泄漏起訴殼牌石油公司

A Dutch appeals court has ruled that a group of Nigerian farmers can sue the international oil company Royal Dutch Shell for pollution the farmers say was from oil leaking from Shell subsidiary pipelines.

The court in The Hague handed down its ruling Friday. The ruling was the first of its kind, meaning it could set a precedent for other Dutch-based companies being sued for the alleged negligence of their subsidiaries elsewhere.

Four Nigerian farmers, backed by the Dutch branch of the environmental group Friends of the Earth, say Shell should clean up oil spills in four villages. They also want Shell to pay compensation to the villagers and prevent further spills.

The plaintiffs first filed their lawsuit in 2008. A lower court in the Netherlands threw out most of the suit in 2013, saying the plaintiffs could not hold the parent company responsible for the spills. It held the subsidiary responsible in one claim, but not in the other three.

But the appeals court Friday ruled in favor of the Nigerians in all four cases. It also ordered Shell to make available the internal documents the plaintiffs could use to support their case.

The presence of international oil companies in the Niger Delta has been a sore point with impoverished locals who are irritated that most of the profits generated from the natural resources in their region are not fed back into their communities. As a result, oil company property is often targeted for sabotage -- a possible cause of the oil spills referenced in the lawsuit.荷蘭一家上訴法院裁決，一羣尼日利亞農民可以因他們所說的荷蘭皇家殼牌石油公司子公司管道漏油所造成的污染而起訴這家國際石油公司。

海牙法庭星期五做出了上述裁決。這類裁決以前從來沒有過，意味着可能開創先例，使設在荷蘭的其它公司可以因其子公司在其它地方被指稱的疏忽行爲而受到起訴。

得到環保組織“地球之友“荷蘭分部幫助的四名尼日利亞農民說，殼牌石油公司應該清理四個村莊的石油泄漏。他們還要求殼牌石油公司向村民提供賠償，並防止更多漏油事件的發生。

原告2008年首次提出起訴。荷蘭的一個下級法院2013年駁回了其中大部分指控，認爲原告不能讓母公司爲石油泄漏負責，最後只判決讓子公司爲四項指控中的一項負責。

但是，荷蘭上訴法院星期五在所有四項指控中都做出了有利於這些尼日利亞人的判決，並下令殼牌石油公司向原告提供可以用來支持其訴訟的內部文件。

國際石油公司在尼日爾三角洲的運作一直是貧窮的當地人的一個痛點。他們對本地區自然資源所產生的大多數利潤沒有反饋回他們的社區而感到憤怒，結果，石油公司的財產往往成爲被破壞的對象，這也可能是訴訟中提到的石油泄露的原因。