By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, May 20 2003 (IPS)

The terms of laying a new oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean violate the human rights of people living along the line, Amnesty International warned Tuesday.

Two new pipelines, one for oil and one for gas, have been planned from Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean port Ceyhan in Turkey after passing through Tbilisi in Georgia. A consortium led by British Petroleum (BP) is planning to build the pipelines.

The proposed 1,750-kilometre Baku-Tbilsi-Ceyhan pipeline is likely to be among the world’s longest. It will have a capacity to supply some one million barrels of oil per day.

Construction is due to begin within a few weeks and is expected to last two years. The pipeline project is expected to cost about five billion dollars, and have a lifespan of 40 to 60 years.

In its report ‘Human Rights on the Line’, Amnesty has objected to the legal agreements covering construction of the pipeline within the Turkish section on the ground that the agreements will lead to a denial of human rights to people living along the pipeline.

Amnesty says it has similar concerns for people in Georgia and Azerbaijan. "But we have not had the resources to investigate further," Chris Marsden, chair of the Amnesty International UK Business Group told media representatives Tuesday.

Amnesty has particular concerns over environmental degradation, loss of livelihood to local people and loss of grazing land, Andrea Stemberg from Amnesty told media representatives

"BP says about 30,000 people will be affected in Turkey," she said. "The local population will be at the mercy of the oil consortium. Many of the local people do not even speak Turkish as the first language, and they have no way of going to a court or anywhere else to seek redress."

BP is making offers to local people that look good on paper, she said. "But basically BP is replacing legal rights with corporate voluntary principles."

Amnesty also expressed concern about inadequate enforcement of health and safety legislation to protect workers and local people, serious risk to human rights of any individuals who protest against the pipeline, and of reduced access to water to local people, in an area of water shortage.

The pipeline marks an unusual human rights issue for Amnesty to take up. "It is not classic human rights violation, but violation through a commercial deal," Prof. Sheldon Leader, professor of law at Essex University and legal adviser to Amnesty International said at the press conference.

"Our concern is over the agreements between the governments of each of these three countries and the companies building the pipeline," Leader said. "Those agreements made do not operate within Turkish law, and disputes can only be settled by arbitration in Geneva. But that is a meaningless remedy. Local people are never going to be able to go to Geneva, and so what we need are local remedies."

The agreement provides that local concerns over the international or human rights obligations of those building the pipeline "will not be able to disturb what they call the ‘economic equilibrium’ of the project," Leader said. If the Turkish government itself wants to raise such concerns, it would have to pay huge compensation to the operators of the pipeline if its moves interfere with the profitability of the project, Leader said.

The Turkish government would have the right to intervene only if there is imminent danger to safety of people or the environment, Leader said. But dangers caused to people and to the environment through the pipeline are more likely to build up gradually, and local authorities will be helpless in the face of such dangers, he said.

"We are asking for rights to be given to the Turkish government to be able to act in public interest, and to regulate the project," he said. "We want the creation of a representative supervisory body with teeth, with the right to stop the project if standards are not met."

A BP official told media representatives later that the company is concerned about the kind of issues raised by Amnesty, and that no such project has built in so many provisions for protection of human rights.

"Think of the benefits to Azerbaijan," he said. "They are looking at revenues of 21 billion dollars from the pipeline, employment to 10,000 people during construction of the pipeline, and permanent employment to 800 people afterwards."

Each of 450 communities that would be affected along the site of the pipeline had been consulted, he said. The unprecedented measures for protection of local people have included also third party observers for compensation for land acquisition. "The pipeline will contribute to human rights, it will not be a deterrent," he said.

Marsden said that the agreement signed between the Turkish government and the consortium creates a "rights-free corridor" for the pipeline. Turkey signed the agreement because of its anxiety to secure inward investment, the Amnesty report says.

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