• Item #A32X
  • ISBN: 189184332X
  • ISBN13: 978-1-891843-32-7
  • Copyright 2005
  • 306 pp.
  • Form: Paperback, Trade paperback (US)
  • Also available in: Hardback, $34.95
  • Price: $19.95


The Bhopal Reader

Remembering twenty years of the world's worst industrial disaster

By Bridget Hanna, Ward Morehouse and Satinath Sarangi

Blurbs

Content Sample

In the twentieth anniversary, Amnesty International added its voice to the chorus of survivors and organizations, including Greenpeace, and followed shortly after by chapters of Friends of the Earth , demanding justice and rehabilitation in Bhopal. This is their conclusion:

In 1989, cutting short ongoing legal proceedings, the Indian Supreme Court announced a court-endorsed final settlement between the corporation and the government of India without consulting the victims. It said that providing relief to victims took precedence over settling questions of law and liability. In response to the modest financial payment to the victims, the settlement bestowed sweeping civil and criminal immunity on Union Carbide corporation, trading off its legal liability while excluding the victims of the disaster from shaping the end of the case. The payment of compensation did not, however, begin until 1992 and involved numerous problems including payment of inadequate sums, delayed payments and arbitrary rejection of claims.

In 1994, all government research on the medical effects of the Bhopal disaster was discontinued without explanation. The full results of the research [on the effects of the gas on survivors] have yet to be published,

Government efforts to provide rehabilitation have proved ineffective. The poor quality of the health care system has meant that most survivors have had to spend most of their compensation money on medical treatment. Economic rehabilitation measures have failed to prevent the impoverishment of already economically vulnerable survivors.

The report concludes that there is no substitute for taking steps to regulate the activities of transnational 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 transnational 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 operartions.

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 act as a catalyst for national legal reform, and could serve as a benchmark for national law and regulations. Ensuring public participation and transparency in decision 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 disasters like Bhopal.

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.

pp 295-96.