1. Human Rights in the Nigerian Context: Gender, Oil & Resistance in the Niger Delta
Laine Strutton, PhD
48th Human Rights Workshop
SSK Human Rights Forum
December 8, 2016
Yonsei University, Yeonhee-kwan, Room 218

2. A rise in women’s resistance against human rights violations?

3. Overview Background on the Niger Delta
Background on the oil conflict and women’s protests
Two basic questions
First finding on women’s oil protests
Second finding on women’s view of law
Conclusion

4. I. Background on the Niger Delta
Image credit: U.S. Institute for Peace

5. I. Background on the Niger Delta
Small geographic area, highly diverse, dense creek cultures
High poverty rate but economically vital to Nigeria
Palm oil to petroleum
Three tiers of governance: federal, state, chiefdoms
Image credit: LS

6. I. Background on the Niger Delta
1958: Eureka! Black gold!
1960: Eureka! National independence!
1967: 3-year Biafran War starts
1977: Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) founded
1995: Death of Saro-Wiwa diminishes protests
2000: Democratic transition to 4th Republic
2002: Women begin oil installation takeovers
2006: Violent insurgency hits all-time high

7. II. Background on the Oil Conflict
Human rights violations: appropriation of informally held land, exploding pipelines, extrajudicial killings, etc.
Grievances: broken contracts, pollution
Demands: male employment, some cleanup, compensation, economic development

8. II. Background on the Oil Conflict
Water & Food Source Pollution
Air Pollution
Image credit: LS
Image credit: Amnesty International

9. II. Background on the Oil Conflict
Lack of employment
Lack of basic amenities
Image credit: LS
Image credit: LS

10. II. Background on the Oil Conflict
s: Little to no oil resistance
1970s-2000: Men resisted only violently until Wiwa in 1990s
2000-present: Women join movement
Image credit: LS

11. II. Background on the Oil Conflict
Women joined men’s rights movement circa 2000
Women joined a movement led by men  gender change
Women joined using peaceful tactics in an otherwise violent environment  tactical change
Men had been illegal, women were “extralegal”

12. III. Two Basic Questions
Q1: What is the role of women in determining the resistance preferences within the anti-oil mobilization after 2002?
Q2: How do common conceptions of law among women inform such rights mobilizations?
Methods: Constructivist grounded theory using Atlas.ti software based on interviews in 3 communities, observations & archives

13. IV. First Finding on Protests
What is the role of women in determining the resistance preferences within the anti-oil mobilization after 2002?
Women assist male negotiations:
Initiate and then support dialogue among men through protests
Women’s protests as a tool to solve a male collective action problem

14. IV. First Finding on Protests
Why women assist male negotiations
“Men, they are begging us”: Men had failed
“Men, they see us in our numbers”: Logic of numbers and peer pressure

15. IV. First Finding on Protests
How women assist male negotiations
Town criers
Women’s community networks furthering the call
Peaceful protests a singular option

16. V. Second Finding on Law
How do (constitutive) conceptions of law among women inform such rights mobilizations?
Mostly good laws, sometimes bad chiefs:
“A good thing on paper…a different thing on the ground”
“People up at the top…I don’t understand that down here”
“Chief is law”

17. V. Second Finding on Law
Image Credit: LS Image credit: LS

18. V. Seconding Finding on Law
Obstacles to using the law to further human rights
Low chance of success and anti-establishment framing
Colonial and indigenous legal constructs
Justice and law unrelated
Law as good and individuals as bad

19. V. Second Finding on Law
Chiefs as gatekeepers in a perceived law binary
Historical and spiritual power
Centrally positioned within the social structure
Chiefs benefits from this position, regardless of outcome

20. V. Second Finding on Law

21. VII. Conclusion
Seeming human rights mobilizations as an instrument for the powerful
Just as important to study when a human rights movement “fails” as when it succeeds
Possible beneficial secondary effects of compelled or co- opted rights mobilizations

22. Oil Activists in Bane, Niger Delta
Thank You
Questions or comments?
Contact: Laine Strutton,
Oil Activists in Bane, Niger Delta