CORPORATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

A film and discussion about the World�s Worst Industrial Disaster in Bhopal India and its relevance for our own struggles against corporate control.

Commemorating International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10) and the 21st anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster (Dec. 3).

Wednesday December 14, 7:00 p.m.
Media Education Foundation
60 Masonic Street, Northampton

The film, �Litigating Disaster,� follows the 20-year legal struggle for compensation for the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster that occurred in Bhopal, India Dec. 3, 1984 when a leak from a Union Carbide chemical pesticide plant resulted in the death of 15,000 people or more and the maiming of hundreds of thousands. The film makes it clear the real culprit is the lack of any international law or tribunal to govern the activities of multinational corporations.

Ward Morehouse, co-founder of POCLAD (national Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy) will lead a discussion and speak briefly about the lessons he has learned from his own 21-year involvement in the struggled for justice in Bhopal about international control of corporations. Copies of his new book, "THE BHOPAL READER: Remembering Twenty Years of the World�s Worst Industrial Disaster," will be for sale.

Copies of an Amnesty International report using the Bhopal case calling for a universal human rights framework for business will be available. The Report says such standards are necessary, �to hold companies accountable and guarantee redress for the victims.� The report was a �first� for Amnesty to acknowledge that corporations �as well as governments--can be charged, directly, with human rights crimes. Amnesty�s direct scrutiny of the activities of corporations employing hazardous technology codifies a developing consensus that multinational corporations must be brought within the framework of international human rights standards.

The evening will be sponsored by POCLAD (Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy)