The Union and Madhya Pradesh governments have been ruled culpable by aRome-based tribunal of violating the rights of the victims of the Bhopal gastragedy. The Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) based its ruling on hearingsconducted in October 1992 in Bhopal.
The PPT ruling noted the failure of industry self-regulation and of govern-ment policies in dealing with threats to human safety and to the environment.It also criticised the medical and the legal professions, saying that despitesome notable exceptions", it failed to help ameliorate victims' distress landhad even on some occasions aided and abetted their "revictimisation".
The PPT ruling is accompanied by a comprehensive plan of action forboth governments for the economic and medical rehabilitation of the victims,for development of biomedical criteria for compensation, for creation of anindependent international medical commission to review available data onthe health conditions of the victims, for independent investigation of allegations of harassment of women, and for issuance of an extradition order for former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson so he and the company canbe prosecuted for culpable homicide.