Editorial»
Corporate crimes
JAN 19 - Across the globe, one of the biggest (and largely invisible) violators of human rights are corporate companies. Rapid globalisation has witnessed a surge in corporate crimes and violence in the recent years. There have been number of instances where operations, especially by multinational companies (MNCs), have maimed and killed people and taken away their livelihoods and resources.
The story of Royal Dutch/Shell’s operations in Nigeria is an example. Since 1958, Royal Dutch/Shell has been exploring oil in Nigeria’s Ogoni lands. In the process, it has damaged the area environmentally and deprived the local people of their right to self-determination. Several Ogoni leaders and activists have been killed for opposing the operations in Nigeria. While the company today claims to be more sensitive to the rights of indigenous people, the damage done to the Ogoni community is irreversible.
Back home, the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984 is a classic example of how MNCs get away with anything. Both Union Carbide (the original owner) and Dow Chemicals (the current owner) have failed to provide justice, economic and medical rehabilitation, and adequate compensation to the many survivors of the disaster.
Union Carbide, accused of being responsible for the death of over 20,000 people till date, pulled out of India after offering inadequate compensation to some of the survivors. Dow Chemicals now says it has only inherited Carbide’s assets, not its liabilities. Almost 20 years after the tragedy, survivors still hold demonstrations and organise protests seeking justice. In 2003, they declared December 3, the anniversary of the disaster, as the Global Day of Action Against Corporate Crime.
By and large, human rights have been discussed mostly in the context of the State and societal violence. Corporate crimes appear to be a neglected area even by human rights activists. Even if a very narrow and limited definition of ‘crimes’ were applied to the way many large companies operate, there would be several violators.
A September 2003 report by international NGO Greenpeace, on the Eloor area in Kerala, says that the relentless release of toxins into the Periyar river by chemical industries has led to an increase in cancer, bronchitis, asthma, congenital disorders, stomach ulcers and poisoning among residents.
The report says that residents of Eloor have three times greater chances of suffering from mental and behavioural problems, and almost an equally high chance of getting cancer or being killed in an industrial accident. The area is infested with public and private companies, each contributing to the pollution and contamination.
Similarly, mining activities, mostly by Uranium Corporation of India Limited, continue in Jadugoda, Jharkhand, despite extensive and heartrending visuals and other document ~ ~ tion illustrating the health problems of the local communities.
Mining companies have committed some of the worst crimes against indigenous people. Operations have forced people to quit traditional livelihoods and work in the unprotected, unorganised sector as migrant labour.
In tribal areas, where most of the mining industries are located, women have become more vulnerable to sexual abuse and violence. They have also been deprived of their role as gatherers of forest produce for domestic consumption and medicinal purposes.
According to the CorporateWatch India website, most of the mining global giants - Anglo De Beers, Alcan, Rio Tinto (RTZ-CRA), BHP, Raytheon, Glencore and Norsk Hydro - that operate joint ventures with Indian companies, possess controversial track records. Alcan has been the subject of a prolonged environmental and land rights lawsuit in Canada. Norsk Hydro has been criticised for environmental and indigenous rights violations.
Glencore is considered one of the most publicly unaccountable mining companies. And Anglo De Beers was recently charged of marketing diamonds mined in the war-torn African countries.
Besides mining, the use of dangerous and obsolete technologies in several industries (the chlorine, tanning and construction industry) by corporates has exposed poor communities to health problems.
Many global companies also indulge in double standards in dealing with developed and developing countries. Royal Dutch/Shell got away with several violations in the past because Nigeria is a poor country.
Companies like Bayer unabashedly practise discrimination: Bayer sells extremely dangerous pesticides (classified by the World Health Organisation as Class Ia and Ib for their high toxicity levels) in India. Most countries in the West have banned these pesticides. Yet, poor Indian agricultural workers, unaware of the high toxic content, spray pesticides up to 35 times a season. According to a 2002 report, over 500 farmers died in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh, due to pesticide exposure in a single cotton crop season. Today, several corporates use the shield of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to escape scrutiny and accountability. CSR is usually misused by doing simple things like employing a few disabled people or by performing tasks expected by the government, like constructing roads and schools. Although, these tasks are both desirable and useful, they cannot absolve the companies of their dark and deliberate larger crimes.
The issue requires serious scrutiny in the era of globalisation. While no concrete data is available, corporate crimes are linked with the rising global tide that is demolishing anything small and indigenous. Freer trans-boundary movement is possible for corporations now more than ever. Laws that make companies accountable are circumvented easily in operations spread over different countries.
Realising this danger, representatives of several developing countries called for a special international framework for corporate accountability during the Rio+10 Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. The Johannesburg Summit called for the development and effective implementation of an inter-governmental framework to regulate trans-boundary corporate operations.
In Britain, the Corporate Homicide Act is already in force. The very term Homicide, when applied to corporate operations, says it all. India however, has yet to take the first steps towards combating corporate crime.Posted on: 2004-01-20 04:03
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