At the World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil
January 26, 2003
Organized by the Center for International Environmental Law
Speakers:
- Jorge Daniel Taillant, Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA), Argentina
- Daria Calguire, International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, (ESCR-Net), USA
- Marcos Orellana, Center for International Environmental Law, Chile
- Ryan Zinn, Global Exchange, Mexico
- Shivani Chaudhry, Center for International Environmental Law, India
Background:
Environmental and human rights issues are closely linked and often exist simultaneously. Although these links are being increasingly recognized, there is still much work to be done in this field, in order to foster solidarity and help build a movement to address environmental and social justice struggles together. The first step is to develop better understanding and build stronger networks between mainstream environmental and human rights movements.
This workshop aimed at providing an overview of the human rights and environmental movement, discussing the issues it encompasses, and exploring strategies and spaces in which to promote the recognition of human rights and environmental issues in different forums.
Summaries of Presentations:
Daniel Taillant from CEDHA gave a very succinct overview of the human rights and environment movements and how they have been perceived historically and today.
It is only recently that efforts are underway to unite civil and political rights with economic, social and cultural rights, and that human rights and environmental activists have started working together. In 1994, the UN established a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment who prepared a report that brought attention to the connection between human rights and environmental issues. In 2001, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights held a joint meeting on human rights and the environment, and stressed the need for integration in approaches.
In 2001-2002, the Organization of American States (OAS) passed two resolutions related to human rights and the environment. An important forum in the Americas for the promotion of human rights and the environment is the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2001, for the first time, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights recognized explicitly the link between human rights and the environment in the Awas Tingni case. (see: www.indianlaw.org)
In summary, Daniel explained the web of human rights and environment issues. He stressed how everything was connected to these two issues. Water, cultural identity, education, property, women’s rights, children, migration, indigenous peoples, health – are some of the issues that have both environmental and human rights implications. It is thus impossible not to look at them together.
Daria Calguire from ESCR-Net discussed various efforts aimed at integrating economic, social and cultural rights with human rights and environmental issues.
The Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 marked the first time that official recognition was made of the link between environment and development. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in August 2002, rather than moving forward, focused on ensuring commitment to old goals. A positive “unofficial” outcome of the WSSD was the human rights
and environment caucus consisting of various NGOs and individuals working in different capacities on the integration of these two issues. The caucus became an important organizing space for activists to work together and helped build a community of human rights practioners.
The positive momentum created in South Africa, has been taken forward, especially in terms of building bridges and strengthening networks. For instance, caucus members were involved with the drafting/commenting of the UN ECOSOC General Draft Comment on the Right to Water that recognized water as a right and not a commodity. This growing movement including the International Network on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has also resulted in a re-energizing of the human rights movement, especially in the North. Public perception on both human rights and environmental issues needs to be changed, especially in the US, while the center of the process needs to be moved to the local communities who can be a powerful force in effecting change.
Marcos Orellana from CIEL provided a chronological overview of international developments related to human rights and the environment. Initially the environment and human rights occupied two different spheres in international law. Then, the right to health and the right to life were the first rights identified as core rights linking human rights and the environment. Major human rights landmarks were the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 1966 Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, while the major environmental landmarks were the 1972 Stockholm conference and the 1992 Rio conference. The international community later recognized that all human experience takes place within the biosphere.
He also noted that historically there has been a division between procedural and substantive rights. A procedural approach to environmental rights focuses on the rights to participation, information and remedy. International instruments that have guaranteed these rights of participation include the environmental side agreement to NAFTA, the Aarhus Convention, the 1997 Charter of Civil Society for the Caribbean Community, and the 2000 Inter-American Strategy.
On the issue of substantive rights, he explored the particular situation of indigenous peoples, highlighting their special spiritual and physical links to their environments. He concluded that any assault on the environment affects their cultural and physical integrity and violates their right to life, land, and culture, and offered specific jurisprudence in the Americas.
Ryan Zinn of Global Exchange spoke about specific human rights and environmental impacts being faced by the Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico.
There are three trends at the global level that need to be discussed in this aspect:
1) the shift from strategic resources such as steel and oil to biodiversity and genetic resources.
2) the vast privatization of these resources, for instance through efforts such as patenting of seeds, DNA, and genetic diversity.
3) the militarization of strategic resources.
Chiapas represents a microcosm of what’s happening in the world with these three trends gaining rapid momentum. The growing privatization of food resources by a handful of multinational corporations threatens the rights of local communities to their food and other livelihood resources. Other problems include the proposed creation of a Mesoamerican biological corridor that would displace indigenous communities, the genetic contamination of domestic corn supply that affected 600 million people, and the growing biopiracy of traditional genetic resources. All these factors are leading to the erosion of the environment and human rights of local communities.
Shivani Chaudhry from CIEL, explained the concept of environmental justice and discussed ways in which to promote it at different levels.
A response to social and environmental issues at local, national, and international levels is the environmental justice (EJ) movement. Environmental justice requires that five conditions be met:
1. A disproportionate burden of protecting the environment should not be borne by any particular group, especially not by vulnerable or disadvantaged populations.
2. The benefits of the environment, such as clean drinking water and clean air should be equally available to all.
3. There must be transparency and the opportunity for meaningful public participation in decision-making.
4. There must be equal and effective access to judicial and administrative remedies.
5. There must be a level of environmental protection sufficient to sustain human health and well being, and to restore and maintain a healthy ecosystem.
Among the areas that highlight the nexus between human rights and the environment, three are key. These are: the right to life, including the right to a healthy environment; the traditional and customary property rights of indigenous and other local communities, especially those in the Global South; and participatory and procedural rights.
Achieving environmental justice requires action at all levels – international, national, local. Concrete strategies to promote environmental justice could include: developing international corporate accountability mechanisms/processes; supporting rights to information and effective and meaningful participation by local communities in environmental decision-making processes; strengthening inter-regional linkages between civil society through skill-sharing among environmental justice campaigners; and promoting the legal recognition of the rights of indigenous and other local communities to their natural resources.
Discussion:
After the presentation, participants engaged in a lively and interesting discussion. The main issues and questions that evolved from the discussion were:
1) How does one address the tendency of some conservation groups that compromise the interests of indigenous peoples? How do we resolve the inherent tensions between the two movements on the ground, and help educate environmentalists about human rights impacts of their actions?
2) How do we ensure that the guarantee of property rights to local communities ensures equality and environmental protection?
3) How can bioprospecting agreements be regulated and other measures taken to ensure that communities are informed, participate in decision-making, and benefit from activities conducted in their territories?
4) What are the implications of efforts like the International Right to Know campaign, and what are other ways in which citizens can promote these procedural rights?
5) What are some of the areas where there may be conflicts between humanrights and the environment?
There was some optimism among workshop participants that grassroots and other activist struggles were helping in addressing the synergies between human rights and environmental movements and that some positive results were being obtained.