Several nongovernment organizations have filed an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to review the ruling of an appeals court that corporations, under international law, cannot be held liable for damages from serious human rights violations.
The Supreme Court should accept the case and hold that, if supported by the evidence, civil damages is an available remedy against corporations for aiding and abetting international wrongs.
In Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a lawsuit filed in 2002, the complainants, who are members of the Ogoni community, alleged that human rights violations took place in the 1990s. The Ogoni number approximately half a million people who live in a 650-sq.-km region in Rivers State, Nigeria.