At issue in the appeal was whether Chief Dsta’hyl could make a defense on the ground that he was acting in accordance with a co-existing Indigenous legal order. Chief Justice Leonard Merchand, writing for the three-judge panel, held that the court would recognize the defense if violating a court injunction was a last resort. However, as the defendant could have challenged the injunction, the court found that violating the injunction was not necessary to uphold the Wet’suwet’en law of trespass.

In his concluding remark, Chief Justice Merchand wrote:

Indigenous law has been denied, supressed [sic], and at times outlawed, for over a century in Canada. Canadian law has a role to play in undoing that harm and is learning to make space for Indigenous legal orders in various ways. But that work does not include allowing parties, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, to breach court orders.

In 2019, the British Columbia Supreme Court issued an injunction banning protests in the construction area of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project. Defying the injunction, Chief Dsta’hyl organized a blockade in an attempt to halt the construction in 2021. At trial, he contended that the protests were necessary to uphold the traditional Wet’suwet’en law of trespass and fulfill his duties as a chief to preserve and protect their yintah (territory). The trial judge rejected the defense, holding that it was an impermissible “collateral attack” on the injunction.

When the trial judge found Chief Dsta’hyl guilty of contempt, Amnesty International declaredhim Canada’s first prisoner of conscience. The group contended that the 60 days of house arrest were an unjustified criminal penalty for his work to protect Indigenous rights and the environment. In 2023, the group also published a report, accusing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of conducting arbitrary arrests, harassment, intimidation and unlawful surveillance of the Wet’suwet’en and their allies that were incompatible with the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

Nationwide protests erupted in 2020 against the pipeline project. While Coastal Gaslink claimed that it had reached agreements with 20 elected First Nation councils, the Wet’suwet’en maintained that the Hereditary Chiefs who retained authority in the region had not agreed to the construction. According to Indigenous lawyers Kate Gunn and Bruce McIvor, the elected band councils only had the decision-making authority on reserve lands under the federal Indian Act. The project, also situated in the traditional unceded territories of the Wet’suwet’en beyond the reserve lands, was said to have violated the right to free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en.

From JURIST, April 30. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last report on the Indigenous struggle in British Columbia.

Image: Front Line Defenders

The Sudzha gas pipeline is also still carrying Russian hydrocarbons to European markets through Ukrainian territory.

Image: Soviet postage stamp celebrating oil pipeline. Via Wikipedia

Despite this, Prime Minister Denisse Miralles, serving under Peru’s recently seated interim President José María Balcazar, stated to the press: “There is enough fuel of all kinds: GLP, diesel, everything. Therefore, there should not be a price hike. Prices rise when there is a shortage, but that is not the case; what we have is hoarding and speculation.”

Nonetheless, repairs to the affected section of the disabled pipeline are being carried out. The cause of the incident is being investigated by Peru’s Supervisory Organism for Investment in Energy & Mining (Osinergmin). (Jurist, Andina, BNAmericas)

Photo: Ministerio de Defensa del Perú via Wikipedia

The Ogoni Nine were a group of environmental activists who campaigned against Shell oil company and the Nigerian central government over the destructive impacts of oil production in the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta. After brutally suppressing protests in the region, the government accused the Ogoni Nine of the murder of four pro-government Ogoni chiefs. The nine men, including the prominent writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, were convicted after what rights groups called an unfair trial and executed by hanging in 1995.

Isa Sanusi, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, welcomed the decision to pardon the activists but noted that much more needs to be done for the local communities, asserting that Shell’s activities in the region have left toxic pollution, affecting the health and livelihoods of many of the 30 million people living in the Niger Delta. According to Amnesty International, more than 13,500 Niger Delta residents have filed claims against Shell over the past decade.

Relatives of the Ogoni Nine have also accused Shell of complicity in the unlawful detention and execution of the activists. The family members took their case to the US and the Netherlands, but both courts held in favor of Shell.

Shell’s activities continue to cause severe environmental problems in the region. Last year, 40 Nigerian and international non-governmental organizations published a joint letter, charging that at least 17.5 million liters of oil leaked from Shell-related pipelines between 2011 and 2017. The letter also criticized Shell for using “legal gymnastics,” such as selling its subsidiaries, to escape responsibility for its wrongdoings.

The Niger Delta communities currently have ongoing claims against Shell in the UK.

From JURIST, June 15. Used with permission.

See our feature “Slippery Justice for Victims of Oil Spills: Nigerian Villagers Lose Lawsuit Against an Oil Giant”

Photo: 101LastTribes

A detailed 36-page “Letter Before Claim” was sent to BP on Dec. 19, outlining allegations against BP p.l.c. and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC Co). The claimants accuse BP of breaching international human rights commitments by supplying Israel with oil that supports its military activities.

The claim notes BP’s essential role in oil transportation to Israel via the BTC Pipeline, majority-owned and operated by the company. Since the escalation of conflict in October 2023, over 45,000 deaths have been reported in Gaza, alongside severe destruction of civilian infrastructure and disruption of essential services.

The claimants argue that BP’s actions contravene international law principles, including, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the prohibition on complicity in war crimes under customary international law, and BP’s own Human Rights Policy.

Further reinforcing the claim, International Court of Justice (ICJ) rulings in 2024 acknowledged a “real and imminent risk” of genocide in Gaza.

The lead claimants have suffered grave personal losses due to the conflict. These include:

– A British citizen of Palestinian origin who lost 16 family members to air-strikes, with surviving relatives experiencing severe humanitarian distress in Gaza.
– Another claimant who has faced family fatalities and displacements, compounded by inadequate access to medical care and essentials.

Other participants in the case report enduring serious physical and psychological trauma.

Tayab Ali, head of international law at Bindmans LLP, emphasized the necessity for corporate accountability, stating: “This legal action marks a new phase in accountability for those complicit in alleged war crimes. The evidence suggests BP’s failures to adhere to its human rights policies have significantly contributed to the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.”

From JURIST, Dec. 25. Used with permission.

See our last reports on genocide accusations against Israel, and the ICJ case.

Photo: Fossil Free London via MEMO

Mongolia, however, seems to be playing both sides in the Great Power game. The drills follow a visit to Mongolia by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month, during which he praised the deepening ties between Washington and the landlocked Asian country.

The exercise also comes days after Mongolia’s new coalition government voted not to include outlays for a new natural gas pipeline linking Russia and China through the country’s territory in its spending plans for the next four years—a sign that the mega-project may be on hold. The Power of Siberia 2 line, a joint project between the China National Petroleum Corporation and Russian parastatal Gazprom, would bring gas from the Yamal Peninsula fields in Siberia’s far north to Chinese markets. It is viewed as strategic to Russian economic and political ambitions in the region. (The Moscow Times, RFE/RL)

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has also expressed concern about fighting around the Kursk nuclear power plant, urging Russia and Ukraine to use “maximum restraint” to “avoid a nuclear accident.” (Newsweek)

Ukraine and Russia each blamed the other after a fire broke out at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Aug. 11. (BBC News)

Image: Soviet postage stamp celebrating the Urengoy-Uzhgorod pipeline. Via Wikipedia

MAGA excoriates Walz for his supposed coddling of the “rioters” in 2020, when in fact the National Guard troops he mobilized committed human rights abuses. On the other hand, he did open a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis police department, finally resulting in a consent decree mandating “changes to address race-based policing.” Similarly, Walz capitulated to the oil interests on Line 3, which went operational in 2021. But despite this betrayal, he has won plaudits from progressives for his policies in support of labor and decarbonization of the state economy. And the cannabis legalization bill he signed in 2023 expicitly recognizes the sovereign powers of Native American nations, allowing a cannabis economy to take hold on the state’s Anishinaabe lands.

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Orano, which has been present in Niger since 1971, has other operations in the country. A mine at Arkokan has been closed since 2021, but Orano continues to run a uranium mine in the northern region of Arlit. However, exports are beset by what the company calls “logistical” difficulties. Niger, which accounts for about a quarter of the natural uranium supplied to Europe, is landlocked, depending on sea access through neighboring Benin. And Benin authorities shut the border in May as tensions between the two countries grow.

The dispute also places in jeopardy Niger’s plan to begin exporting oil via a recently completed Chinese-built pipeline through Benin.

Russian companies have meanwhile indicated interest in picking up the uranium mining lease at Imouraren. (Al Jazeera, BBC News, BBC News)

The uranium dispute comes as French and US forces have been forced to withdraw from Niger, and Russian forces have moved in.

Also June 20, the chief of the Pentagon’s Africa Command (AFRICOM), Marine Corps Gen. Michael E. Langley, appeared to confirm that he had had traveled to other West African countries to discuss the stationing of US troops following the withdrawal of US forces from Niger. Addressing a virtual news conference after a meeting of African military leaders in Gaborone, Botswana, Langley expressed concern about extremist organizations exploiting instability in regions with weak governance, especially naming West Africa.

When asked whether Benin, Ghana or Ivory Coast are being considered for a US military base, Langley replied: “Yes, I’ve travelled across West Africa, across coastal West Africa. Those that are up against the growing threat, whether it’s on their borders or already across their borders… I listen to what they need to be successful.” (MyJoyOnline)

Map: World Sites Atlas

One day earlier, a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed in a presumed Israeli air-strike in Syria. Seyyed Razi Mousavi was was slain in an strike on the Sayyida Zeinab area southeast of Damascus. Israel has carried out intermittent air-strikes in Syria for years, generally targeting Iranian-aligned forces, but the pace has picked up significantly since Oct. 7. (BBC News)

Israel meanwhile continues to trade cross-border fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Air-strikes on southern Lebanon were carried out Dec. 27 after Hezbollah rockets struck the largely evacuated northern Israel town of Kiryat Shmona. Senior Israeli minister Benny Gantz said: “The situation on Israel’s northern border demands change. The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out; if the world and the Lebanese government don’t act in order to prevent the firing on Israel’s northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the [Israeli military] will do it.” (Al Jazeera, ToI)

Amid all this, Yemen’s Houthi armed movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks targeting the Israeli port city of Eilat and “other areas in occupied Palestine.” The Houthis are aso continuing to launch missiles on shipping vessels in the Red Sea. (Al Jazeera)

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is now fighting on “seven fronts”—Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Yemen. (PRI)

Image: Pixabay