The Enron Corporation: Recommendations To the Government of India (January 1999)



"Many energy companies have invested in closed or repressive countries -- arguing that their investment would help develop the local economy and thereby improve the human rights situation. But in this case, Enron has invested in a democratic country -- and human rights abuses there have increased. Enron hasn't made things better for human rights; it has made things worse."	Summary and Recommendations To the Government of India To the Enron Corporation To the Government of the United States To Private and Public Financial Institutions that Financed the Dabhol Power Project
Table of Contents Key Individuals Named in this Report I. Summary and Recommendations II. Background: New Delhi and Bombay III. Background to the Protests: Ratnagiri District IV. Legal Restrictions Used to Suppress Opposition to the Dabhol Power Project V. Ratnagiri: Violations of Human Rights 1997 VI. The Applicable Laws VII. Complicity: The Dabhol Power Corporation VIII. Responsibility: Financing Institutions and the Government of the United States IX. Conclusion Appendix A: Correspondence Between Human Rights Watch and the Export-Import Bank of the United States Appendix B: Report of the Cabinet Sub-Committee to Review the Dabhol Power Project Appendix C: Selected Recommendations and Conclusions from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy, May 29, 1995 Appendix D: Correspondence Between the Government of India and the World Bank	Recommendations *To the Government of India* · Respect the rights of all individuals, including those in communities near the Dabhol Power project, to exercise freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and cease harassment of activists opposed to the Dabhol Power project in its current form. · Allow members of nongovernmental organizations formed to challenge the operations of the transnational corporations to meet and campaign. · Ensure that the police response to demonstrations and opposition to the Dabhol Power project is in full compliance with international standards. · Appoint an independent judicial inquiry to determine how the Bombay Police Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Penal Code have been abused in order to suppress freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and to formulate recommendations to ensure that such abuse is prevented. · Appoint an independent judicial inquiry into the actions of the security forces in Ratnagiri district, make public the findings of the inquiry, bring to trial those found to be responsible for human rights abuses, and ensure that the rights of individuals opposed to the Dabhol Power project are respected. In the context of the human rights crisis that occurred during the construction of Phase I of the Dabhol Power project, appoint an independent oversight body to review the situation of human rights related to Phase I of the Dabhol Power project in order to ensure that past human rights violations are remedied and to formulate guidelines so that further abuses do not take place during the construction of Phase II of the project.