Letters from UN Experts on Niger Delta divestments heightens legal risk for companies

This weekend, the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights and 6 other United Nations Special Rapporteurs – holders of officially mandated duties under international law, and appointed by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations – published letters written to four oil and gas companies (Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and Eni) that have recently sold their onshore Nigerian assets, expressing "grave concern" that these sales violate international human rights by avoiding clean up of pollution from oil extraction in the Niger Delta. The letters were also sent to Nigeria, the UK, the US, France, Italy and the Netherlands, where the group head of each entity is (and has been historically) domiciled, importantly noting that the host states also have obligations under human rights law to exercise reasonable due diligence regarding the extraterritorial activities of companies causing or contributing to "ecological disasters" abroad.