Question:
Discuss about the Global Criminology and Human Right.
Human rights are something which has been gaining a lot of interest in the past decade. This is not only because of globalisation, but also due to increased disregard of human life. When one has to cite the leading catastrophes of earth, some leading names which crop up are the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear blast, the two world wars and Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Through this research, an attempt has been made to explore the different aspects of what went down in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, which led to such a big disaster.
Tulchinsky and Varavikova (2014) summed up the statistics of this tragedy, which stuck on December 03rd, 1984. They stated that around 3,800 died within minutes of this incident and a number of others had to face lifelong illnesses. Varuggheese (2013) noticed that even though twenty six years had passed since the worst industrial catastrophe of the world, the repercussions of this incident continue to haunt the members of the nation, particularly of the city of Bhopal. Blanpain, Bromwich and Rymkevich (2011) chalked out the entire incident in his book and highlighted at different instances, the failure of the Union Carbide in taking the requisite steps to avoid the incidence of this magnitude, where a smaller incident had occurred just a few days before the real catastrophe struck, with a particular reference to CSR. Fortun (2009) reported the conviction of the seven former executives of the company for causing death due to negligence, which came in 2010.
Saraf and Karanjikar (2005) noted this tragedy as a watershed event with regards to the process safety, which has led to paradigm shift in the outlook of the public and the industry towards the risk management, particularly in the matter of processing industries. Palazzi, Currò and Fabiano (2015) also analysed this incident in the backdrop of an approach towards the safety equipment and the emergency time evaluation based on the actual information of this tragedy. Baofu (2011) noted that this incident not only had short term impact, but had a long term impact as well, due to the nature of the gas leak. He further noticed that even though a Relief and Rehabilitation Department had been formed by October 200, where 554,895 victims were awarded compensation for their loss, the after effects of this incident, still continues to char the people of that city. In this regard, he highlighted the loss of life, livestock, nature and the scarcity of pure water and safe food.
While analysing the relationship of business with the human rights, Baumann-Pauly and Nolan (2016) highlighted that with the rise of power with the civil society, in the previous two decades has made a huge difference to cases like these. They stated that in case this tragedy occurred now, the victims would not have to negotiate upon the compensation and instead would get direct corporate settlements. Broughton (2005) also reviewed upon this disaster and examined the health effects which were caused due to this disaster, along with the legal response. He also analysed on practices which have been adopted in India since the incident, to avoid the repetition of such catastrophe. Mukherjee (2016) emphasized upon the severe disabilities which took the ability of people to even earn for themselves. Their right of having a good life, right to information, right to clean toxic free environment management and the right to life of dignity was severely discarded in this incident.
Walters (2009) also covered the impact of this tragedy, with a particular reference to corporate crime and the harms of the powerful. This incident was a painful reminder to the unregulated corporate deviance and power which produced devastating impact over the environment, animals and humans. This was not an accident or a regrettable tragedy, but a corporate crime, and that too, a powerful one. The death of people and animals, along with the destruction of the local eco-systems took place as Union Carbide discarded and contravened the law, compromised on the health and safety regulations and also placed the workers and the local people deliberately in danger, all just to earn profits.
In any research, one of the key questions is the choice of the method of research. For the purpose of this research, both primary and secondary methods have been used. With regards the primary method, a questionnaire method would be adopted, which would have around 100 participants. This questionnaire would be focused on the future of such incidents and would pose questions like whether the present day laws are enough to safeguard another incident from taking place? By adopting a quantitative data analysis method, the raw numbers would be turned into a meaningful data by applying critical and rational thinking. The research would also adopt a secondary method approach, where an extensive literature review would be conducted, majorly focusing on the books published in this regard since the incident took place.
The literature has already shed light on the different consequences of this tragedy. This incident did not only cause a loss of life, but also of livelihood, economy, and health. High costs had to be incurred for compensating, rehabilitating, and re-establishing the people and their livelihoods. The health aspects can still be seen in form of deformities which the infants born in Bhopal still have to face (Eckerman, 2005).
The consequence of it was long term health consequences as a result of a high number of people being exposed to poisonous gas. This disaster indicated that there was a need for enforcing international standards for the preventive strategies for avoiding similar accidents, environmental safety and the industrial disaster preparedness. The national governments, along with the international agencies focus upon the techniques for the corporate responsibility and also for accident prevention, particularly in context of the advanced industrial nations (Broughton, 2009).
When the additional compensation was announced by the Indian Government, the United Nations Special Rapporteur welcomed it, particularly because of the violation of human rights and the toxic waste. Though, the human rights expert stressed upon the fact that financial compensation was not enough for stopping the present human rights violations of the toxic legacy of Bhopal. This is particularly because each day new victims of this tragedy are born and they continue to suffer lifelong adverse impact on their health. Without cleaning the contamination, the toxic legacy left by the company, particularly with regards to the number of victims, continues to grow, which is a financial liability for India, as a result of the rising number of victims. And so, the Special Rapporteur, i.e., Baskut Tuncak of Turkey, stated that in order to prevent harm, there was a need for environmental remediation (OHCHR, 2014).
One also cannot deny that the international pharmaceutical companies got the guinea pigs for experimentation, as they conducted clinical trials on the new drugs on the survivors of this tragedy. Quintiles and Sanofi were two pharmaceutical majors who were alleged to have flouted the different norms created by the pharmaceutical majors while conducting the clinical trials on humans. And this is the reason why the Supreme Court of India ordered the Health Ministry of the nation to stop the clinical trials of 157 new formulations/ drugs till the time a stringent regime was formed and adopted. Apart from this, there also has been a pending petition y two of the Bhopal based NGOs regarding the people being treated as guinea pigs at Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre with regards to the clinical trial of the new drugs. Also, three specific incidents were raised where the pharmaceutical companies were not paying the requisite obligatory compensation to the survivors of this incident, who had volunteered to the clinical trials of these new drugs and formulations (Times of India, 2013).
With regards to the national context, this tragedy led to the laws of India but put in question, due to the failure of the different governing and regulatory bodies in taking any action against Union Carbide, which could have avoided such an incident from occurring. In the international context, US had to face a bit of heat due to the company having its headquarters Houston, Texas. A number of questions were also raised with regards to the violations of human rights and the blatant denial of responsibility and respect towards the human life. This is with a particular reference to the concept of International Labour Organization Conventions, Corporate Social Responsibility, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Management, and the different standards set by United Nations (Pandey, 2011).
References
Baofu, P. (2011). The Future of Post-Human Chemistry: A Preface to a New Theory of Substances and their Changes. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Baumann-Pauly, D., & Nolan, J. (2016). Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice. Oxon: Routlegde.
Blanpain, R., Bromwich, W., & Rymkevich, O. (2011). Rethinking Corporate Governance: From Shareholder Value to Stakeholder Value. The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.
Broughton, E. (2005). The Bhopal disaster and its aftermath: a review. Environmental Health, 4(6).
Broughton, E. (2005). The Bhopal disaster and its aftermath: a review. Environ Health, 4(6).
Eckerman, I. (2005). The Bhopal Saga: Causes and Consequences of the World’s Largest Industrial Disaster. Hyderabad: Universities Press.
Fortun, K. (2009). Advocacy after Bhopal: Environmentalism, Disaster, New Global Orders. London: The University of Chicago Press.
Mukherjee, S. (2016). Surviving Bhopal: Dancing Bodies, Written Texts, and Oral Testimonials of Women in the Wake of an Industrial Disaster. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
OHCHR. (2014). Bhopal gas tragedy: “Financial compensation will never be sufficient without clean-up” – UN rights expert. Retrieved from: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15335&LangID=E
Palazzi, E., Currò, F., and Fabiano, B. (2015). A critical approach to safety equipment and emergency time evaluation based on actual information from the Bhopal gas tragedy. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 97, 37-48.
Pandey, A. (2011). The Bhopal Gas Tragedy: On Whether and How the Indian Companies Act, 1956 can be used to make a case for imposing social responsibility on corporations?. Retrieved from: https://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/article/the-bhopal-gas-tragedy-on-whether-and-how-the-indian-companies-act-1956-can-be-used-to-make-a-case-for-imposing-social-responsibility-on-corporations-769-1.html
Saraf, S., & Karanjikar, M. (2005). Literary and economic impact of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 18(4-6), 274-282.
Times of India. (2013). ‘Bhopal gas victims used as guinea pigs for drug trials’. Retrieved from: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bhopal-gas-victims-used-as-guinea-pigs-for-drug-trials/articleshow/27495772.cms
Tulchinsky, T.H., & Varavikova, E.A. (2014). The New Public Health (3rd ed.). London: Academic Press.
Varuggheese, G. (2013). The Idea of Being Indians and the Making of India: According to the Mission Statements of the Republic of India, as enlisted in the Preamble to the Constitution of India. New Delhi: Partridge Publishing.
Walters, R. (2009). Bhopal, Corporate Crime and Harms of the Powerful. Global Social Policy, 9(3).
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