DOW Chemical Company (DOW), Union Carbide Corporation and the Bhopal Communities in India
The Role of the Governments of India and Madhya Pradesh
The government of India and the state government of Madhya Pradesh were aware that the Bhopal plant used hazardous substances and processes, There were also public warnings by the media and by workers' unions in the plant about dangerous conditions at the plant, as well as several accidents, some fatal. Just months before the accident, the state government granted legal titles to thousands of people who had built homes around the plant site. Nor did the government impose strict safety standards or press Union Carbide to review safety mechanisms.
In 1985 the government of India enacted the Bhopal Claims Act and took away from victims the right to represent themselves and vested itself with the exclusive right to represent victims. In 1989 the government agreed to a settlement with UCC. In return for a modest and arbitrarily determined financial payment to victims, the settlement bestowed sweeping civil and criminal immunity on UCC, trading off its legal liability, excluding the victims of the disaster from shaping the end of the case.
The payment of compensation to victims did not, however, begin until 1992 and involved numerous problems, including payment of inadequate sums, delayed payments, arbitrary rejection or downgrading of claims. Excessive bureaucracy in the claims process led to the entry of middlemen and rampant corruption, further reducing the amount of compensation money that victims were able to finally get.
In 1994, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) stopped all further research on the medical effects of the Bhopal disaster without explanation. The full results of the research carried out and the data with the ICMR have yet to be published.
The state Government efforts to provide rehabilitation have proven largely ineffective. The poor quality of the health care system has meant that most survivors have had to spend most of their compensation money on private medical treatment. The hospitals set for the treatment of gas victims provide only symptomatic treatment.
The social and economic rehabilitation measures have been poorly implemented and have failed to lessen the impoverishment of already economically vulnerable survivors. Those orphaned and widowed by the gas leak are in a particularly precarious condition.
Conclusions
Governments have the primary responsibility for protecting the human rights of communities endangered by the activities of corporations, such as those employing hazardous technology. However, as the influence and reach of companies have grown, there has been a developing consensus that they must be brought within the framework of international human rights standards.
Amnesty International also maintains that there is no substitute for taking steps to regulate the activities of corporations in both host and home countries. Laws in host countries must be developed and enforced to allow national governments and local communities to control the activities of companies operating in their territory. Transnational corporations should avoid double standards in safety and adopt the best practices in all aspects of safety in all their operations.
The Bhopal disaster and its aftermath demonstrate clearly the need for an international human rights framework that can be applied to companies directly, that could also act as a catalyst for national legal reform, and serve as a benchmark for national law and regulations. Ensuring public participation and transparency in decisions relating to the location, operational safety and waste disposal of industries using hazardous materials and technology is an essential step to heighten risk awareness and responsible behavior as well as to ensure better preparedness to prevent and deal with the consequences of disasters like Bhopal.
The concerned Governments and the international community must ensure that victims of human rights violations have effective access to justice and effective redress for the harm suffered, without discrimination, and regardless of whether those responsible for the violations are governments or corporations.
