Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Corporate violations
It took the work of activists like Binayak Sen to focus attention on the
difficulties gripping central India and in particular Chhattisgarh state.
Activists have long pointed out that the conflict across central India was
fuelled by government policies that aggravated the region’s poverty,
government inaction in the face of corporate wrongdoing after the
1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, and more recent attempts
to pursue economic development without adequately consulting the
region’s residents.
In a positive move, the Indian government put the brakes on the
afghanistan still suffered development of a large-scale aluminium mining project by UK-based
from one of the worst Vedanta Resources and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation
maternal mortality rates after an administrative panel found that the companies had proceeded
in the world: one in eight without securing the free, prior, informed consent of the region’s
afghan women died of Indigenous Adivasi population, for whom the area of the mine was of
pregnancy-related supreme religious importance. The decision was the first of its kind in
complications. India and raised hopes that the Indian government would provide
greater attention to the Adivasi population, as well as other groups
facing institutionalized poverty and marginalization.
The reversal of the Vedanta decision was the result of intense
campaigning by Adivasis in close association with international
groups – including Amnesty International – which marshalled global
economic and public relations pressure. In London, where Vedanta
shareholders were meeting in July 2010, activists used international
law, economics, celebrity advocates, and even painted themselves
blue to invoke the recent science fiction blockbuster film Avatar, whose
plot of a native population battling corporate interlopers superficially
resembled the situation in Orissa.
International justice
Media attention and public pressure are only one of the components
necessary to ensure that our leaders are responsive and accountable
for respecting international human rights. The restrictions
governments placed on monitoring suggested how important it has