[Reader-list] Rights Group Calls on India, South Korea to Suspend POSCO-India Steel Project in Odisha

[Asit Das]

Rights Group Calls on India, South Korea to Suspend POSCO-India Steel
Project in Odisha
 Thursday, January 16, 2014

    [image: Rights Group Calls on India, South Korea to Suspend POSCO-India
Steel Project in Odisha]
*Report by Odisha Diary bureau, New York:* Human rights violations
connected to the POSCO-India project must be addressed as a matter of
priority by India and South Korea during South Korean President Park
Geun-Hye’s state visit to India, said ESCR-Net today. India and South Korea
should discuss and make public concrete measures to address serious
allegations of human rights abuse tied to POSCO’s steel project in Odisha
state.

In the lead up to President Park’s visit to India, Indian officials took
several measures aimed at accelerating POSCO’s Odisha project. India’s new
Environment Minister revalidated environmental clearance for the project’s
steel plant, while Odisha’s Chief Minister approved POSCO’s compliance
report, a prerequisite for the granting of a prospecting license for mining
rights.

The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ESCR-Net) urged India and South Korea to suspend the POSCO-India steel
project until and unless it complies with international human rights
standards.

“In light of serious allegations of human rights abuse, India and South
Korea should suspend any further activities on the POSCO project and take
meaningful and immediate action to address human rights concerns,” said
Chris Grove, Director of ESCR-Net, adding that “development projects should
not come at the expense of the human rights of people”.

ESCR-Net’s June 2013 report The Price of Steel: Human Rights and Forced
Evictions in the POSCO-India Project —which was co-produced with the
International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at NYU School of law— found that
Indian authorities have actively targeted those who speak out against the
POSCO-India project with violence and arbitrary arrests and detentions.
 Local police have barricaded villages, occupied schools, leveled thousands
of fabricated criminal charges against individuals opposing the project,
and have failed to protect individuals from consistent and sometimes fatal
attacks by private actors who are allegedly motivated by the interests of
the company and of the State.

The report further concluded that India’s attempts to forcibly evict people
from their lands to make way for the project violated both international
legal standards and Indian law.

In October 2013, eight independent U.N. human rights experts called for a
halt to the mega-steel project, citing serious human rights concerns
including the impact of forced evictions on affected communities’
livelihoods and means of subsistence.  The experts urged India, POSCO and
the Republic of Korea to fulfill their respective human rights
responsibilities.

More than six months after being published, India has yet to respond to the
human rights concerns raised by ESCR-Net and IHRC in the Price of Steel
report, or publicly address the Press Statement released on October 1 by
the group of U.N. experts.

- See more at: http://www.orissadiary.com