Violation of Human Rights in Nigeria: An Appraisal of the Activities of the Transnational Oil Corporations in the Niger Delta Region

Abstract

Non state actors play a significant role in international relations. They do not hold the characteristics of a legal sovereign but have some measure of control over a country's people and territories. Transnational corporations are non states actors with profit motive that operate in different sovereign states and continents in the world deriving their power most of the time from the law of these states. Economists, lawyers and social scientists alike have for a number of years agreed that foreign investments like TNCs have the potential to act as a catalyst for the promotion or violation of human rights, particularly in developing countries. This is even more so, considering that corporate investors are often not explicitly obliged under investment agreements to observe human rights even though they exert considerable power over individuals, communities and indigenous populations. Such assertions have strengthened the normative link between human rights violations and the activities of transnational corporations like the oil companies. It is on this premise that this paper discusses how the activities of transnational oil corporations in the Niger Delta region have led to violations of human rights and examines how the federal government of Nigeria through legislation has empowered these transnational oil companies to engage in activities that lead directly to such flagrant violation of human rights.