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Background Information on the Global Themes
> Environment |
Environment
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"If the desert is growing, forests
disappearing, malnutrition increasing, and people in urban areas
living in very bad conditions, it is not because we are lacking
in resources but because of the kind of policy implemented by
our rulers, by the elite group. Denying people's rights and people's
interests is pushing us to a situation where it is only poverty
that has a prosperous future in Africa ... It is only free people,
people who have rights, who are mature and responsible citizens,
who can then participate in the development and in the protection
of the environment."
Speaker from the floor, WECD Public
hearing, Nairobi, 23 September 1986 |
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It is not possible to separate
the environment - the deserts, forests or urban sprawl - from
people and human rights issues, especially those of social justice
and development. This is not only true in Africa, but also everywhere,
including Europe. The environment and people have a two-way relationship:
all human activity impacts on the environment and the environment
impacts on human life. One example is the "greenhouse effect".
300 years of using oil, coal and gas to fuel industrial development
worldwide has contributed significantly to global warming. The
consequent catastrophic climatic events we have witnessed in the
last four years affect people all over the globe. However, people
in the rich countries of the North, which are largely to blame
for the carbon dioxide emissions, are better able to protect themselves
against "natural disasters" than those living in developing
countries of the South. These are questions of justice and therefore
also questions of human rights.
Some other examples of links between the environment and human
rights are:
- agricultural land that has been poisoned with landmines during
wars and which becomes a threat to human security;
- people being forced by poverty to grow crops on marginal
land, which leads to desertification and more poverty;
- the Baia Mare accident, which caused cyanide pollution first
in the Szamos river, then in the Tisza and ultimately in the
Danube.
Our environmental base
We use the environment to provide us with the raw materials
for development and we also use it as a dustbin for our waste.
Yet at the same time, to sustain life, it must provide us with
stable temperatures, oxygen in the air and clean water. We live
on a finite globe where everything is connected to everything
else, for example through food chains and the water and rock cycles.
There is some natural resilience, but serious disruption of these
cycles, for example by pollution, unsuitable farming practices,
irrigation projects or over-fishing, destabilises the natural
balance. The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, the death of the trees
in the Black Forest in Germany, desertification in southern Spain,
mad cow disease in Britain, the drying up of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan
and the Ilisu dam project in Turkey are all examples of how humans
in the process of development are damaging the environmental base
for all economic activity and life itself. |
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World
disasters22
Catastrophic events |
1996 |
2000
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Hurricane |
62 |
99 |
Floods |
69 |
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Droughts |
9 |
46 |
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Can you identify local examples? For example, what impact are
road building projects or industrial mining or other developments
having on the environment near where you live?
The idea of sustainable development
In 1989, the United Nations World Commission on Environment
and Development (WCED), also called the Brundtland Report, promoted
the principle of "sustainable development", which it
defined as "development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs". This was followed in 1992 by the Rio Declaration,
which stated: "Human beings are at the centre of concerns
for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and
productive life in harmony with nature".
The real and urgent problem is how to address the human rights
issues of poverty, globalisation and the right to development
within a framework that does not destroy the environment that
supports us.
One approach is through international agreements about specific
issues. For example, at the 1997 United Nations Climate Change
conference in Kyoto, industrialised countries made specific commitments
to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses. There was much
bargaining about exemptions for developing countries and many
criticisms about both the ultimate effectiveness and fairness
of the final agreement. |
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The
environmental movement can only survive if it becomes a justice
movement. As a pure environmental movement, it will either die
or it will survive as a corporate "greenwash". Anyone
who's a sincere environmentalist can't stand that role. But it
has limitless possibilities as both an ecological and justice-based
movement."
Vandana Shiva |
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An alternative approach is to
take a human rights approach, which would ensure that principles
of justice and equality are central to all agreements. Some people
argue that environmental questions are already sufficiently covered
through existing human rights legislation, for example through
rights to property, health and life. Others talk in different
ways about new or "emerging" environmental rights.
One idea is that there should be an environmental human right
added to the list of existing human rights. For example, the 1994
draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment
declares: "All persons have the right to a secure, healthy
and ecologically sound environment. This right and other human
rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social
rights, are universal, interdependent and indivisible".
Some people, especially ecologists, criticise such a demand
for an environmental human right. They fear that if human life
and health are the aims of environmental protection, then the
environment will only be protected as a consequence of, and to
the extent needed to protect, human well-being. Instead, they
argue for a more holistic human rights approach. They say that
people are part of the biosphere (the web of life on earth) and
therefore their duty to humanity is inseparable from their duty
to environmental protection. Within a broader framework, human
rights claims should take into account intrinsic values and the
needs of future generations as well as the competing interests
of states and peoples.
Some people argue that other species should have "animal
rights" in the same way that people have human rights. In
law, animals do not have rights as such. However, they are often
protected by legislation. For example, there are laws in most
European countries to safeguard the welfare and conditions of
farm animals. |
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Ecological human rights
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Ecological human rights can
be seen as a response to the global environmental situation.
They are a product of our time, in the same way that political
and civil rights were a product of historical events in
earlier times. |
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Another way forward being discussed by some people is the concept of ecological
human rights. This approach attempts to reconcile the philosophy
of human rights with ecological principles. Human rights (such
as human dignity, liberty, property and development) need to respond
to the fact that individuals operate not only in a political and
social environment, but also in a natural environment. Just as
each individual has to respect the intrinsic value of fellow human
beings, the individual also has to respect the intrinsic value
of other fellow beings (animal, plants and ecosystems).
One of the biggest challenges facing teachers and youth workers
today is educating people to understand the dual concepts of respect
for human dignity and for the intrinsic value of life and how
to live accordingly. In other words, to "think globally and
act locally" and to find new lifestyles which can be sustained
into the future.
Participation by young people and youth organisations
Schools, environmental non-governmental organisations and other
institutions in every country provide opportunities for young
people to become actively involved in environmental issues. At
the local level, they can make their homes, schools and youth
clubs more environmentally friendly and they can participate in
local decision-making processes. At the regional and national
level, they can influence public discussion and political debate
by, for example, writing letters, presenting plays and (peacefully)
demonstrating about issues that concern them. At the international
and global level, they can have influence through declarations
such as the Earth Charter and through international campaigning
organisations such as Greenpeace.
At all levels, young people can participate through Internet
correspondence, campaigns and global celebrations such as World
Environment Day and Earth Day. World Environment Day, June 5,
was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972.
It can be celebrated in many ways, including street rallies, bicycle
parades, green concerts, essay and poster competitions in schools,
tree planting, recycling efforts and clean-up campaigns. Each
year there is a theme for people to focus on. Examples of previous
themes include "For Life on Earth - Save Our Seas",
"Poverty and the Environment - Breaking the Vicious Circle"
and "Children and the Environment" (www.unep.org).
Earth Day, April 22, is co-ordinated by the Earth Day Network,
which works together with other environmental and human rights
organisations, for example, the Sierra Club and Amnesty International,
to generate public action through celebrations and activities
inprotest against human rights and environmental abuses. www.earthday.net/events/events-europe.stm
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The Goldman Environmental
Prize |
The Goldman Environmental
Prize is the world's largest prize programme honouring grassroots
environmentalists work
In 2000, Oral Ataniyazova won
the prize for her work with Uzbekistani communities affected
by the Aral Sea crisis. She focused on education, medical
and family welfare issues and human rights of women and
children.
The 2001 award was won by Myrsini
Malakou and Giorgios Catsadorakis who worked to save the
endangered wetland ecology of Préspa in north-western
Greece. One of their achievements was the signing of an
agreement between Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia and Greece to establish the first transboundary
protected area in the Balkans, a model of peaceful collaboration
between these countries.
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Council of Europe's work |
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"The
salvation of the world lies in the human heart, in the human power
to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility. We
are still under the sway of the destructive and vain belief that
man is the pinnacle of creation and not just a part of it, and
therefore, everything is permitted. We still don't know how to
put morality ahead of politics, science and economics. We are
still incapable of understanding that the only genuine backbone
of all our actions - if they are to be moral - is responsibility.
Responsibility is something higher than my family, my country,
my firm, my success. Responsibility to the order of Being, where,
and only where, they will be properly judged."
Vaclav Havel |
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The Council of Europe launched
its environment programme in 1961. Its activities in this field
focus on the conservation of nature and landscapes. The programme
is now integrated within the Culture and Cultural and Natural
Heritage Department of the Council of Europe. It has three main
directions: the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity
Strategy, the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife
and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention, 1979) and the Promotion
of Awareness on Biological and Landscape Diversity.
Information and awareness on environmental protection is carried
out through the Council of Europe's publications. Its network
of national agencies also contributes to the promotion of the
conservation of biological and landscape diversity.
International instruments and declarations
A few of the many treaties and other instruments that address
both environment and human rights and that may be useful are:
- The 1989 European Charter on Environment and Health
- The 1992 United Nations Declaration on Environment and Development
- The 1994 draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights
and the Environment
- The 1999 Declaration of Bizkaia on the Right to Environment
- The 2000 Earth Charter
References
Endnotes
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