I decided to write about this topic because I thought it was really interesting when we discussed it in class and I personally didn't know many details about the issue. As of today, 14 Greenpeace activists have been charged with piracy, an offense that is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. In order to protest the negative environmental impacts caused by drilling in Arctic waters, two Greenpeace activists tried to scale an offshore oil platform owned by Gazprom.. The organization said it had no intention of taking control of the platform, only of protesting oil development in the Arctic. The Greenpeace protesters were formally charged with “piracy of an organized group” despite the remark made by Vladimir Putin: “I don’t know the details of what happened there, but obviously they are not pirates. However, formally, they tried to seize our platform.”But Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev urged energy companies to adopt more stringent security measures, and said the government should consider tougher penalties for those who attack or trespass on the grounds of Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure."Concern for the environment must not cover up unlawful actions, whatever lofty goals the people who were taking part in them espoused," Medvedev said. It is unknown how many of the 28 members of the crew and the two journalists who were aboard the will ultimately be charged. All of them have been detained for investigation.
More activists are likely to be charged on Thursday, with Greenpeace calling these charges "irrational, absurd and an outrage".The State Department said that two American citizens were aboard the Arctic Sunrise, the ship carrying Greenpeace to the oil platform — Mr. Willcox, the captain, who has not yet been charged, and Dmitri Litvinov, who was among those charged on Wednesday. A department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said that both had met with American consular officials from St. Petersburg, but she refused to comment on the criminal charges against them.The scale of these charges illustrates how far apart the Russian government remains from Western governments and nongovernmental organizations on issues like freedom of speech and civil disobedience. The group's international executive director, Kumi Naidoo, said the charges were "extreme and disproportionate".
"A charge of piracy is being laid against men and women whose only crime is to be possessed of a conscience. This is an outrage and represents nothing less than an assault on the very principle of peaceful protest" – Kumi Naidoo
This event is definitely something to keep an eye on. The questions we asked in class are still ones I think could be discussed more: Is this violation considered piracy if it wasn't a ship? Did the Greenpeace protesters violate some international law? Do you agree with Putin or Medvedev - that the protesters aren't pirates, or that they deserve the charge of piracy?
Sources:
The Division for Ocean and Affairs and the Law of the Sea is a branch of the UN that is responsible for maritime international conflict and disputes. They assert that piracy is an act to, "threaten maritime security by endangering, in particular, the welfare of seafarers and the security of navigation and commerce." Based off of this international law, the Greenpeace perpetrators can be charged with piracy as they probably disrupted the commerce for that period of time. However, I feel that they should not receive the most harsh punishment such as 15 years imprisonment. As we have discussed in lecture, the anarchic world system with no international police force leads these situations to be precarious and situationally dependent. One thing is certain, Greenpeace made quite the statement and should have to accept the consequences, as well as potential benefits of their actions.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I think what they did was a horrible way to try and protest offshore drilling. What did they think they were going to accomplish? There's no publicity out there on the platform in the middle of the ocean and the workers don't care what they have to say. Unless they actually attempted to TAKE OVER the platform, I think them getting charged with 'piracy of an organized group' is a little much. But if they did try and commandeer the platform then it is considered 'piracy'. Like Rebecca said in the comment above, they threatened the welfare of seafarers and unfortunately that's punishable by 15 years in prison. I absolutely agree with Medvedev and his statement, "Concern for the environment must not cover up unlawful actions, whatever lofty goals the people who were taking part in them espoused." They had no right to board the platform even if they were trying to make a point. It would've been a smarter and more effective decision to protest on land by the company's headquarters or something.
ReplyDeleteI think the most interesting thing about this event is how an NGO can send ripples through the international community. Greenpeace's actions have sparked much discussion into how international law should be carried out. The mere discussion of this issue brings some critique to the international system and will probably provide some progress in how international law is enforced in the future. It is also important to look at both liberal and institutionalist standpoints and how these schools of theory view organizations like Greenpeace. Will Greenpeace achieve their goals in their trying to prevent Gazprom from drilling in the arctic? If they were to achieve some substantial change in the decisions of states and MNC's I believe this would support both liberal and institutionalist theories. The mere fact that Greenpeace's action of "piracy" is sparking so much controversy gives some support to the idea that NGO's and IGO's have an effect in the affairs of the international community.
ReplyDeleteThe Greenpeace prisoners situation is extremely unique and extremely interesting, especially when examining the international community and the Russian government. Although Greenpeace probably did not violate any international laws, it is doubtful that Putin or the Russian government sees this as a violation of international law, or more likely, they simply don't care. Greenpeace's protest could potentially be seen as an attack on Russia's power politically and economically, and this is not a desirable situation for the Russian government. This is because Russia has established specific regions within the Arctic that are used to expand their major natural resource oil and gas, and any invasion of these areas could be seen as invasions of highly important Russian assets. In this sense, staging a protest directly affects the economic markets within Russia. More importantly, it is possible the Putin and the Russian government could see this as an attack on Putin’s authority, and does not desire to look weak in front of the general Russian population. This is potentially because Putin is slowly moving the country to authoritarianism, but is also attempting to maintain a high level of public support by appearing as a strong and powerful leader. This is possibly due to the fact that Russian audiences have often put the perceived strength of their leader as a key factor when calculating audience costs. Therefore, these Greenpeace members may not have overtaken a ship or violated any international, but they still infringed on Russia’s power, wherein releasing the prisoners would appear as weakness, which would make any political protest an unacceptable attempt of deterring Russia’s perceived power.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this was a poor effort on the part of the protestors. Why would they trying to accomplish by boarding the oil platform? The only logical intent seems to be to attract media attention, which they did, but putting themselves in a position where they could be charged with piracy makes it hard to weigh the costs and benefits of their actions. Putin could definitely use this situation as a way of showing political strength, but I don't expect to see charges of 15 years.
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