On December 2nd, 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. Half a million people were exposed to the gas and 25,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure (Photo Credit: Giles Clarke/Getty Images).
By Joe Westby, Corporate Campaigner at Amnesty International Online
This week marked the 29th anniversary of one of the world’s worst-ever industrial disasters: the infamous gas leak from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India that, on the night of December 2-3, 1984, killed thousands. Many more have been left to suffer since then, given the abject failure by both the Indian government and the companies involved to provide survivors and their families with an adequate remedy and justice.
This week, there was also a major U.N. conference on business and human rights. During this annual Forum, 2000 participants, including myself, descended on Geneva to discuss how to prevent corporate human rights abuses and ensure survivors are not forgotten – essentially how to prevent another Bhopal from ever happening again.
These two events provide an opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made on business and human rights over the past decades – and how much more still needs to be done.
Despite much talk of progress, there was little evidence that governments are actually willing to tackle the root causes of problems around business and human rights.
The scale of the failures following the Bhopal gas leak is staggering. Even as people continued to die, Union Carbide was able to divest its interest in the company that owned the plant and walk away. The abandoned factory site is still polluted, with an estimated 350 tonnes of toxic waste remaining. As the polluter, Union Carbide has a responsibility to foot the bill for clean up; however, its present parent company Dow has consistently denied all responsibility for the ongoing impacts of Bhopal.
Governments in “home states” still turn a blind eye to serious human rights abuses involving their companies abroad. Many of the barriers to justice faced by the Bhopal survivors are systemic problems that require concerted action; however, avenues to justice seem to be closing rather than opening. Research conducted by Amnesty International into the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan in 2006 shows that corporate human rights disasters continue to happen, and that serious obstacles to obtaining an adequate remedy continue to exist.
Meanwhile, companies continue to publicly support human rights, but when faced with even modest demands – for example to disclose payments made to governments or publicly report on their supply chains or their impact on human rights – they fight tooth and nail to oppose them. It is overwhelmingly clear that companies will not go far enough on their own initiative – which is why the U.N. has such a potentially key part to play.
A child holds a candle during a vigil on the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst industrial accident in Bhopal (Photo Credit: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images).
The U.N. must take a much stronger lead in ensuring existing standards are implemented and strengthened – not only through guidance and support, but also by pressuring the governments and corporations that are falling short. In relation to Bhopal, U.N. Special Procedures should call for remedial action to be taken immediately.
In order to prevent another business and human rights catastrophe like Bhopal, States must better enforce existing laws that regulate business operations and their respect for human rights, and introduce further mandatory regulations that have extraterritorial effect. Efforts to improve access to remedy should focus primarily on state-based mechanisms, and governments in both home and host states must ensure that people whose human rights are abused by companies can file cases in their courts, without facing onerous obstacles.
At the Forum, we were eager to see appetite for such concrete measures. But as I listened to a great deal of talk but few real commitments, I found myself wondering whether we could confidently say that – almost 30 years on – the failures of Bhopal could not happen again today. Sadly, this year’s Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh suggests otherwise, as concerns around both inadequate safety measures before the incident, and ongoing delays in providing compensation to victims, seem all too familiar.
People whose human rights have been undermined by business operations should not have to wait 30 years without justice. The frustration among NGOs over slow progress exhibited at the UN Forum is borne out of the urgency required for the people of Bhopal and other communities around the world whose rights have been abused by corporate actors. We must mean it when we say “Bhopal: never again.”