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When the Complexity of the Large-Scale Development Project Becomes a Roadblock to Access to Justice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 October 2021
Extract
On 23 July 2018, when the villagers gathered around the porch to wrap up the day with a good chat, one of the five auxiliary dams of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower dam in Attapeu province, the southeastern state of Laos, collapsed. Four days before the collapse, reports of cracks and subsidence started to come through. It should have been enough to prompt evacuation warning issuance by the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Co. Ltd (PNPC), a consortium of South Korean companies SK Engineering and Construction (SK E&C) and Korea Western Power Company (KOWEPO), Thailand-based RATCH Group, and Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE). PNPC has a Concession Agreement with the Laos government ‘to plan, design, finance, construct, own, operate and maintain’ the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower dam. The warning was issued, but it came too late.
Keywords
- Type
- Developments in the Field
- Information
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- © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Footnotes
¶
Conflicts of interest: Pillkyu Hwang and Yae-Ahn Park have been members of the Korean Civil Society Task Force team from the beginning of the advocacy activities in support of the victims and survivors of the Laos dam disaster.
*
Pillkyu Hwang is a Korea-licensed lawyer at GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation, Republic of Korea. GongGam joined the Korean Civil Society Task Force Team responding to the Laos dam disaster from its start and has been actively involved in advocacy work on behalf of the victims of the Laos dam disaster.
**
Yae-Ahn Park, a US-licensed lawyer, works for GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation and has participated in the advocacy work on the Laos dam disaster since January 2019. She has been advocating on behalf of the victims of the Laos dam disaster.
Funding statement: This manuscript has not been funded or commissioned by third parties, including, but not limited to business enterprises, civil society organizations, or foundations.
References
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13 Ibid.
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22 Ibid (accessed 8 July 2021).
23 Ibid (accessed 8 July 2021).
24 The Korean Civil Society TF, ‘Summary of the Complaint for the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Dam Collapse’ (17 June 2019), http://www.peoplepower21.org/index.php?mid=English&document_srl=1654038 (accessed 5 April 2021).
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26 National Human Rights Commission Act 2016 (KOR), art 30, sec 1, https://www.law.go.kr/engLsSc.do?menuId=1&subMenuId=21&tabMenuId=117&query=%EA%B5%AD%EA%B0%80%EC%9D%B8%EA%B6%8C%EC%9C%84%EC%9B%90%ED%9A%8C%EB%B2%95# (accessed 8 July 2021).
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