Pesticide Industry on Trial

On December 3, 1984, more than 8,000 people died in Bhopal, India in one of the worst industrial accidents in history, when a pesticide manufacturing plant owned and operated by Union Carbide Corporation (now Dow Chemical) exploded in the middle of the night. In the 27 years since, 20,000 more have died as a result of this one event and the area surrounding the plant remains a toxic waste site.

Worldwide, an estimated 355,000 people die from pesticide exposure every year. This means that nearly 1,000 men, women, and children die on an average day.Source: World Bank

The night after the explosion, the company's CEO hopped on a private jet and fled the country and Dow Chemical has yet to be held accountable for the tens of thousands of human lives that have been destroyed in the wake of Bhopal. This kind of failure of justice is not unusual: Monsanto, Dow, Bayer and other pesticide corporations have long acted with impunity because there is no court of law equipped to hold them to account.

A People's Court for Human Rights

The pesticide industry has a long history of getting away with human rights abuses in part because there is no single set of laws to which they are accountable as global corporations. But basic human rights to life, livelihood and health are agreed upon by all peoples — these are the conditions or our humanity and of a fair society.

This is why “we the people” must hold corporations like Monsanto to account. Until we do, none of us will be safe from the next Bhopal, or from the epidemics of cancer or the pesticides that travel on wind, water, and on food; farmers’ and beekeepers’ livelihoods will be under threat; and children will be born with birth defects, neuro-developmental harms, or not at all, as more struggle with chemically-induced infertility.

Guilty as Charged

Last December, on the 27th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, PAN International launched a landmark initiative to hold the pesticide industry accountable for human rights abuses: The Permanent People's Tribunal, held December 3 - 6, 2011, in Bangalore, India, brought the six corporations who dominate the global pesticide industry — Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, DuPont, Bayer, and BASF — to trial in the first ever global tribunal seeking justice for victims of the pesticide industry — more than 25 specific cases, representing countless communities around the world. 

At the end of an intensive public trial spanning four days, five languages, and over a dozen participating states, the jury issued a scathing verdict that called for a roll-back of corporate control over the food system.

People Holding Corporations Accountable

The Permanent People's Tribunal held the Big 6 accountable for human rights abuses.

Following the rigors of a conventional court format, this trial was convened on the basis of the following principles:

Three decades ago, the global pesticide problem that faced humanity was the Circle of Poison — the dumping of toxic and often banned pesticides onto markets in the Global South, and their re-entry into Northern countries as residues on food and water. Then, scientists, activists, farmers, and concerned global citizens came together, took a bold step forward, and founded the PAN International network, whose first major victory — the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent — addressed this issue.

Thirty years later, the pesticide problem may look different, but its key ingredients remain the same — unchecked corporate control that has left ordinary people at the mercy of reckless corporations. This is why we the people must hold corporations to account and compel our governments to take action to protect human rights from corporate abuse.

Join us in carrying this work forward in 2012 and beyond.