EarthRights International is co-counsel in a case charging Chevron with complicity in brutal attacks against nonviolent demonstrators in Nigeria who protested the oil company's environmental estruction and economic disruption in their communities. In May 1998, members of the Ilaje community staged a peaceful protest at Chevron's Parabe oil platform off the Nigerian coast. Chevron called in the Nigerian military and "kill and go" police, flew them to the platform on Chevron-contracted helicopters, and supervised their attack against the protesters. Two demonstrators were killed, others were shot, and several others were detained and tortured. The victims' case against Chevron is scheduled for trial in a San Francisco federal court in September 2008, while a similar case seeking to stop Chevron's ongoing harmful practices is scheduled for trial in California state court in August.

Read the case overview.