Remembering the Ogoni Nine 30 Years Onwards

Thirty years after the execution of nine Nigerian activists opposing Shell’s oil extraction, this roundtable brings together activists, academics, and legal practitioners to reflect on the long struggle for justice of the people of the Niger Delta and the potentials and pitfalls of using litigation for decolonial climate justice.

On November 10, 1995, nine anti-oil activists from Ogoni, Nigeria, were executed by the Nigerian government after a sham trial. The “Ogoni Nine”, as they would later be called, had played a key role in the growing popular resistance against the oil extraction in the Niger Delta by Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian military dictatorship. In 2025, thirty years after their execution, the Nigerian government issued an official pardon–a gesture widely condemned by the victims’ families, local communities, and human rights organisations as woefully inadequate given the ongoing environmental and social devastation in the Niger Delta caused by foreign oil companies.

Over the years, the Niger Delta’s families and communities have repeatedly used litigation before Dutch and UK courts to demand reparations for the murders and an end to the environmental destruction caused by oil extraction, with varying success. This event marks the anniversary of the murder of the Ogoni Nine as both a moment of commemoration and a space for critical reflection on the role of law in the ongoing struggle for decolonial climate justice.

This programme brings together activists, scholars, and legal experts working on decolonial climate justice in Nigeria, the Netherlands, and beyond. Together, they will discuss the links between the fossil fuel industry and colonial violence, and explore how litigation can be used to demand reparations for affected families and communities, as well as to push for a just energy transition. We will take a critical look at both the possibilities and limits of litigation as a tool of empowerment for people who are often excluded from political decision-making. The discussion will also explore the role of European courts and legal systems in addressing environmental crimes and violence in the Global South, and question what a just and fair transition really means in a world still shaped by extractivism and global inequality.

This event is co-funded by the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) and the Amsterdam School for Regional, Transnational and European Studies (ARTES).

Programme
15:45 – Doors open
16:00 – Introduction: A brief history of Shell in Nigeria and the Ogoni 9, introduction to the event
16:20 – Panel discussion
17:00 – Q&A: Floor is open to audience questions
17:45 – 18:00 Closing of event with short address, a moment of silence, and a music performance

Practical
Attendance is free, though we kindly ask you to register in advance.