The Pipe (2010)

The Pipe: Shell’s Crimes Against the People
For over a century, Shell has left a trail of destruction across the planet—poisoned waters, stolen land, shattered lives. The Pipe exposes how this corporate behemoth, already guilty of violating environmental and human rights laws worldwide, turned a quiet Irish village into a battleground.
In Rossport, County Mayo, Shell forced its gas pipeline through protected land, trampling the EU Habitats Directive and the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive—laws designed to safeguard communities and ecosystems. When locals resisted, they faced brutal crackdowns, police violence, and wrongful arrests, violating the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Article 3 (protection from inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 11 (right to peaceful assembly). The Irish government, bowing to corporate pressure, ignored the Aarhus Convention, which guarantees public participation in environmental decision-making.
This was not an isolated case. From the Clean Air Act (USA) to the Nigerian Oil Pipelines Act, Shell has broken laws across continents. In Nigeria, they were complicit in military atrocities against the Ogoni people, violating the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, Article 4 (right to life) and Article 24 (right to a healthy environment). They funded forces responsible for murder, rape, and torture—crimes that should have triggered investigations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Shell’s crimes are not accidents. They are not oversights. They are the business model. From the Niger Delta, where they left entire communities uninhabitable, to Texas, where their refineries violate the Clean Water Act, Shell has always operated above the law—shielded by wealth, protected by governments, and unpunished by courts.
But this time, the people fought back. The Pipe is a raw, unflinching look at corporate tyranny and the ordinary people who defied it. Because when laws no longer serve the people, the people must become the law.
This is more than a documentary. It’s an indictment.