Peter Frankental

60 years of poorly maintained pipelines and wells, along with inadequate clean-up practices have damaged the health and livelihoods of over 30 million people living in the Niger Delta. But all this might be about to change.

The less the public and Parliament know about trade deals that are being negotiated, the less they are in a position to challenge their likely impacts.

By Peter Frankental, our Business and Human Rights Programme Director In a remote corner of the Pacific Ocean, the Australian government has created an island of despair, where refugees fleeing persecution are trapped and live in...

It’s a sad state of affairs when companies, confronted with allegations of slavery in their supply chains, admit to it with little sense of shame. They express concern, tell us it’s unacceptable and that they’re doing everything they...

F1 World Management had an NCP complaint lodged against it for holding the F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain, where human rights abuses by the authorities are rife. The complaint was only partially accepted. It seems somewhat perverse that the...

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders, hanged by the Nigerian state after they spoke out against the government and campaigned against Shell’s operations in Nigeria’s Ogoniland...

Prosecutors, the police and the Environment Agency have essentially told us that they can’t be bothered to investigate a UK company’s role in the dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast which left up to 100,000 people with skin...

On 20 May, the European Parliament took us all by surprise by voting in favour of a strong and binding law to tackle the deadly trade in conflict minerals. The trade in resources – such as gold, diamonds, tantalum, tin and coal...

When The Economist features an article titled Modern Slavery: Everywhere in supply chains , we can be sure that the issue of slavery is on the radar of many corporations, not merely for ethical reasons but as a potential reputational...

After decades of blaming anyone else for the ecological disaster in the Niger Delta, Shell has been forced to point the finger at itself. Why else would the company make an out-of-court settlement of £55m and admit to telling lies...

Today marks 30 years since the worst case of corporate negligence in living memory. It’s a day to commemorate, but more fundamentally to draw attention to the need for justice in what is a continuing present day human rights travesty...

It is three years since the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) published the findings of a ground-breaking scientific study into the appalling impacts of oil pollution in the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta. It found...

Are there any principles that the UK government is willing to stand up for in the face of business lobbying? Apparently not, if documents released through a Freedom of Information request are anything to go by. These show, in detail...

When two Secretaries of State – Hague and Cable - combine to launch a government plan for UK businesses to respect human rights , it’s safe to assume they consider it a Big Thing. But how much does the government really care what UK...

Indigenous people in Orissa, India, have blocked plans by UK-based Vedanta resources to open a mine in their sacred Nyamgiri Hills. Peter Frankental, our Business and Human Rights campaigner, reflects When in 2008 we began drawing...