The Union and Madhya Pradesh governments have been ruled culpable by a Rome-based tribunal of violating the rights of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. The Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) based its ruling on hearings conducted 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 despite some notable exceptions", it failed to help ameliorate victims' distress land had even on some occasions aided and abetted their "revictimisation".

The PPT ruling is accompanied by a comprehensive plan of action for both governments for the economic and medical rehabilitation of the victims, for development of biomedical criteria for compensation, for creation of an independent international medical commission to review available data on the 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 can be prosecuted for culpable homicide.