Bhopal demonstrates companies must be brought within an international human rights framework
Twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, questions of corporate accountability for the impacts on human life and the environment remain.
This report
exposes the failure by UCC/Dow and the Indian government to comply with their respective obligations and responsibilities to a) prevent the gas leak and address its consequences, and b) prevent and stop the continuing pollution of the environment and water through the dispersal of toxic and hazardous substancesusing a human rights framework to examine what happened, the report demonstrates what obligations under international law have been breached and what protective standards failedby showing how companies evade their human rights responsibilities it demonstrates the need to establish a universal human rights framework that can be applied to companies directly.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.
In particular there is a need for an international human rights framework that can be applied to companies directly, which:
would provide a common starting point for the consistent expectations of the role of companies in the respect and fulfilment of human rightscould provide common and universal standards, which could assist efforts to establish compatible regulatory regimes across national boundariesthe advocacy power of human rights is especially important in order to give vulnerable or marginalised communities a voice in cases where there is no effective remedy at the national level, as has been found in cases where some governments protect investors’ interests over the rights of the population.The report outlines a series of recommendations to the governments of India and Madhya Pradesh, Dow Chemical Company and UCC, the international community, and the UN Commission on Human Rights, including:
ensure the effective and prompt decontamination and clean-up of the Bhopal siteensure regular supply of adequate safe water for the domestic use of the affected communitiesensure adequate and accessible healthcare for all survivorsreassess the compensation received by victimsensure that UCC makes public all information it has on all reaction products released on the day of the gas leak and full information regarding their toxicity and impact on people and the environmentUCC should appear before the Bhopal Court in the criminal casethe UN Commission on Human Rights should work towards the adoption of an international, universally recognised normative framework for business, including minimum human rights standards for corporations to be incorporated into domestic lawthe UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should take a leading role in multilateral efforts to clarify the human rights responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises and offer the technical assistance of her office to ensure that mechanisms of reparation for survivors of the Bhopal tragedy accord with international human rights standards.
