Human Rights and the Oil Industry

The accelerating globalization process poses new challenges and opportunities for the realization of human rights worldwide. This process is largely driven by transnational corporations with resources and economic power, which by far outstrip those of many states. The petroleum industry is the forefront among these corporations. Some of them came under intense scrutiny during the last decade, such as Shell and its relationship to Nigeria. Several of the petroleum corporations are now recognizing their responsibility and seeking to develop new policies. This study is the first comprehensive description and analysis of the role and policies of transnational corporations with regard to human rights. Unique in their field, the pioneering studies in this book are written by leading experts and practitioners in the field. They explore the nature of the challenge major petroleum corporations are facing, the demands set by the international community, and the soulsearching responses within the corporations. The studies in this book are likely to play a major role in the emerging debate on how the transnational corporations can meet their social responsibility for human rights in the countries of operation and how they can be held accountable to the international community.

Asbjørn Eide is Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo (Oslo, Norway). As a researcher and specialist, he has been particularly concerned with indigenous and minority issues, and he has held important assignments in these fields both in Norway and in the United Nations system. He was Director of the Norwegian Center for Human Rights at the University of Oslo, and from 1971 to 1975, Secretary-General of the International Peace Research Association. He has been Torgny Segerstedt Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Visiting Professor at the University of Lund; and Adjunct Professor at the College of Law, American University in Washington. He has served as an expert member of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights since 1981, as well as being a former Chairman. He was also the first Chairman of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the Chairman of the UN Working Group on Minorities, and a member and President of the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention on National Minorities. He is also a Past-President of the FAO's Panel of Eminent Experts on Ethical Issues in Food and Agriculture, a post he held for eight years. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Lund University and is the author and editor of several books and numerous articles on human rights. The topics include minority rights, indigenous peoples' rights, children's rights, as well as economic and social rights including the right to food. He has also published a large number of articles and books, alone or together with Nordic and international colleagues in the fields of peace research and international human rights.