ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION IN THE NIGER DELTA OF NIGERIA: HUMAN RIGHTS VIS A VIS ECOCIDE LAW – WHICH WAY OUT?

Abstract

The life-threatening magnitude of environmental pollution in the Niger Delta of Nigeria calls for the employment of highly potent and effective measures to address the environmental enormities perpetrated in the region. The paper looks into certain hindrances to addressing environmental degradation in the Niger Delta. It critically appraises the human rights approach to find out if it gives a sure hope in tackling the problem. It x-rays the human rights approach to combating environmental degradation which was successfully adopted for the first time in Nigeria in Gbemre v. Shell. It recommends that machinery should be put in motion for the case whose outcome (though on appeal) constitutes a major breakthrough for the human rights approach in Nigeria to be finally decided. The paper also explores the origin and meaning of the term ecocide touching on the status of the crime of ecocide in international law and particularly in Nigeria. The paper therefore proposes that in tackling environmental pollution in the Niger Delta of Nigeria a double-barreled approach involving the application of human rights and ecocide law be employed as the way out.