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By Danagogo, Tamunoba-abo Wenike
One area of Human Rights Protection and Enforcement Law which has not gained the prominence it deserves is the aspect of property, environmental and personal rights of tlie oil bearinglproducing coinmunities as it pertains to oil exploration and exploitation and tlie attendant hazards. The ~nultiiiational oil companies are crying out for lack of co-operation from the host coininunities who in turn insist on maltreatment from the oil
companies, which exploit without adequate compensation. The laws governing the rights of the host colnlnunities and compensation payable to them has been acclaimed to be so insufficient and ill conceived. There has always been a yawning need for urgent measures at addressing them squarely. This has often resulted in hydra-headed conflicts and disputes the settlement of which in most cases compel the host coi~linunitiest o recourse
7 to force, litigation, l~arassment etc. An X-ray of the disputes typology with the causative factors, which in the main, are acquisition and pollution and also the grossly deficient mechanisms for settlement (in wliicli tlie multinational companies are the accused, jury and judge) will raise a plethora of critical judicial questions. In the light of the foregoing it becomes imperative for us to formulate a Legal framework for disputes settlement in the oil industry which will accord with the tenets of the fundamental human rights enshrined
in international laws and conventions like the African Charter, particularly in Articles 14, 12 and 24 thereof. Of course, it has now become trite that the African Charter is an enforceable law in the Nigerian corpus juris.