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Business and Human Rights: a resource website

 

  Why environmental issues are human rights issues  

See also the following sections of this website:

NEW (recent additions to this section; top item is most recent addition)
Environment and the poor: Focused action, greater attention needed -...There are inextricable, multidimensional and complex linkages between increasing poverty and environmental degradation. (Dr. A. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and Coordinator of Global Forum on Environment and Poverty (GFEP), in Independent [Bangladesh], 30 Jan. 2003)

International standards and guidelines:

Draft Covenant on Environment and Development (IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, 1995) 

Draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment (drafted by an international group of experts on human rights and environmental protection, May 1994)  [NOTE: The U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment included this Draft Declaration as an annex to her final report...see Human rights and the environment: Final report by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment]

Human rights and the environment: Final report by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment (Fatma Zohra Ksentini, U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, 6 July 1994)

Supercourse: Health and Environment in Sustainable Development (Dr Hiko Tamashiro, Office of Global and Integrated Environmental Health, World Health Organization)

World Medical Association Statement on Pollution

Websites:

Action Resource Center: In Defense of Earth, Human Rights & Social Justice

CEDHA (Centro de Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente / Center for Human Rights and the Environment)  {···english···español}

Derechos Humanos y Ecología en Uruguay y América Latina website (CIPFE, Centro Franciscano del Uruguay) {español}

Envirodev: Environnement et Développement Durable {···français}

Environment and Health (Centre for Science and Environment [CSE], India)

Environment and Health (Physicians for Social Responsibility)

Environment and Human Rights Project (Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science)

Environment and Human Rights Resources (Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science)

Environmental Justice Foundation

Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University

Five Examples of Economic and Social Rights (Center for Economic and Social Rights)

Human Rights and the Environment (Earth Day Network, Amnesty International, Sierra Club)

Human Rights and the Environment (U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights)

Human Rights and the Environment: Defending Environmental Defenders: A Sierra Club and Amnesty International [USA] Joint Campaign

International Institute for Environment & Development 

International Rivers Network (IRN): Linking Human Rights and Environmental Protection

Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development

A Rights-Based Approach to Environment (A Programme Note: Implementing a Rights-Based Approach to Development in the Asia Region, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific)

Sierra Club: "Human Rights and the Environment" website

Women's Environment and Development Organization 

Other materials:

2003:

Environment and the poor: Focused action, greater attention needed -...There are inextricable, multidimensional and complex linkages between increasing poverty and environmental degradation. (Dr. A. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and Coordinator of Global Forum on Environment and Poverty (GFEP), in Independent [Bangladesh], 30 Jan. 2003)

2002:

Hearing on Human Rights and Environment - Inter-American Commission on Human Rights - Organization of American States (CEDHA - Center for Human Rights and Environment, 16 Oct. 2002)

Speech by Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights - Civil Society Workshop on Human Rights, Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection - World Summit on Sustainable Development -...The interdependence of human rights, environment protection and sustainable development has been described using the metaphor of a triangle. (Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1 Sep. 2002)

Address by Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - World Summit on Sustainable Development Plenary Session -...Let me ask and try to answer the question-- how does a human rights approach help in achieving sustainable development? (Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, 29 Aug. 2002)

Bali Principles of Climate Justice - An international coalition of groups gathered in Johannesburg for the Earth Summit has released a set of principles aimed at "putting a human face" on climate change. The Bali Principles of Climate Justice redefine climate change from a human rights and environmental justice perspective. (International Climate Justice Network, 28 Aug. 2002)

The Enforcement of Environmental Law from a Human Rights Perspective (Romina Picolotti & Sofia Bordenave, CEDHA - Center for Human Rights and Environment, July 2002)

Clinton, Nevada's Reid seek link between disease, environment [USA]: Concerned about the unexplained growth in the rate of some chronic diseases, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Harry Reid on Thursday proposed creating a national tracking system to study the link between a person's health and their environment. (AP, in Las Vegas Sun, 21 Mar. 2002)

Governments must restore forests for the world's poor:...WWF believes that sound environmental practices which protect and restore forests go hand-in-hand with human well-being and the alleviation of poverty. (WWF, 4 Mar. 2002)

A Rights Based Approach to Development: Presentation to the World Social Forum Seminar on Globalization and Human Dignity - Porto Allegre (Jorge Daniel Taillant, Executive Director of CEDHA - Centro de Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente/Center for Human Rights and Environment, 2 Mar. 2002)

Whose Business? A Handbook on Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights and the Environment -...Produced primarily for use by North American educators, students, and activists...The central theme of this handbook is that the institutions and regulatory frameworks now governing the global economy have not adequately protected human rights, the environment, and labor rights. (California Global Corporate Accountability Project, Mar. 2002)

The Human Cost of Global Warming: Global warming is not just facts, figures and future forecasts. Meet the people whose lives are already being affected by it. [refers to countries including Honduras, Venezuela, India, Mozambique, Indonesia, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, France, Nigeria, Canada, Tuvalu, Peru, Somalia] (The Ecologist, Mar. 2002)

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: Annan Pushes For "Coherent Vision" - It is "clear that sustainable development cannot be achieved without strong links between environmental issues and the U.N.' s overarching agenda for poverty eradication, human rights and peacebuilding" (UN Wire, 14 Feb. 2002)

Green campaign to link UK poverty with environment: Green activist group Friends of the Earth launched a campaign last week to pressure the British government to tackle poverty by linking environmental and social problems (Neil Chatterjee, Reuters, 21 Jan. 2002)

Integrating Human Rights and the Environment Within the United Nations: Submission of the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to the Joint OHCHR-UNEP Seminar on Human Rights and the Environment (Audrey R. Chapman and Sage Russell, Science and Human Rights Program Directorate for Science and Policy Program, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 16 Jan. 2002)

Seminar to review environment and human rights links held a decade after Earth Summit (United Nations, 15 Jan. 2002)

{···español} Responsabilidad Empresarial, Derechos Humanos, Y Ambiente: Jurisprudencia Internacional De Derechos Humanos En Casos De Degradación Ambiental Empresarial [Presentado en Porto Alegre, Foro Social Mundial] (Romina Picolotti, fundadora y directora del Programa Acceso a la Justicia del Centro de Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente [CEDHA], enero 2002)

Draft International Legislation on Human Rights and Environment:...The draft legislation is inspired from a wide variety of international legal doctrines that include human rights and environment. It is grounded in the belief that the full enjoyment of our human rights are profoundly linked to the state of the environment. (CEDHA-Center for Human Rights and Environment & CIEL-Center for International Environmental Law, Jan. 2002)

Progress and possibilities: David Anderson assesses what has been achieved in controlling chemicals that endanger human health and the environment and sets out priorities for further action [includes section: "The hazards of poverty": We know that people living in poverty can also be disproportionately affected by exposure to chemical hazards.] (David Anderson, Canada’s Minister of the Environment & President of UNEP Governing Council, in Our Planet, published by U.N. Environment Programme, 2002)

2001:

Environmental damage hits poor hardest, Administrator tells Latin American conference: Environmental damage, from disappearing tropical forests to diminishing supplies of clean water, has a "disproportionately brutal impact on the poor", said UNDP [U.N. Development Programme] Administrator Mark Malloch Brown in statement delivered at a regional conference yesterday in Rio de Janeiro preparing for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Unless these problems are reversed, the world will not meet the development targets set at last year's UN Millennium Summit, particularly the goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015, he pointed out. UNDP has made the summit on sustainable development, to be held in Johannesburg next September, "our highest corporate priority for next year", said the Administrator. (Newsfront, U.N. Development Programme, 24 October 2001)

Sustainability matters: Connecting long-range social issues with saving the planet - principles, tolerance and respect for our fellow humans and respect for our natural resources, are in fact interdependent [including connection between sustainable development issues and racial discrimination issues] (Theodore W. Kheel, Earth Times News Service, 29 Aug. 2001)

ASIA: Warming-Induced Drought Linked To Starvation: From Afghanistan to North Korea, a record lack of rainfall caused by global warming is destroying crops and forcing tens of millions deeper into poverty, Associated Press reports. Five million face starvation in Afghanistan and Tajikistan alone, according to the United Nations.  (UN Wire, 16 July 2001)

Human rights and the environment (resolution adopted by General Assembly of Organization of American States, resolution 1819, 5 June 2001)

Environment and Human Rights: A New Approach to Sustainable Development (produced for IIED [International Institute for Environment & Development] by ANPED, the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, May 2001)

Living In A Pollution-free World A Basic Human Right: UNEP applauds decision by Commission on Human Rights (United Nations Environmental Programme, 27 Apr. 2001)

Groups Highlight Global Human Costs of U.S. Fossil Fuel Dependence: Current Bush Administration Energy Policy Endangers Rights and Environment (Earth Day Network, Sierra Club and Amnesty International USA, 18 Apr. 2001)

Groups Urge Unocal's New CEO to Call for End to Human Rights and Environmental Abuses in Burma: Earth Day Network, Sierra Club and Amnesty International Hold Unocal Accountable for Yadana Natural Gas Pipeline Project (Earth Day Network, 24 Jan. 2001)

It’s not just, pollution - Robert D. Bullard describes the struggle for environmental justice in the United States and worldwide over the last two decades...The environmental justice movement emerged in response to environmental and social inequities, threats to public health, unequal protection, differential enforcement and disparate treatment received by the poor and people of colour. It redefined environmental protection as a basic right. (Robert D. Bullard, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, in Our Planet, published by U.N. Environment Programme, 2001)

Answering poor health: Gro Harlem Brundtland outlines the links between poverty, health and the environment and recommends practical action (Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in Our Planet, published by U.N. Environment Programme, 2001)

2000:

Observations on the right to water as a human right (statement submitted to the UN by International Council of Environmental Law, 4 Aug. 2000) 

Environmentalists Under Fire: 10 Urgent Cases of Human Rights Abuses (joint publication by Amnesty International USA and The Sierra Club, Jan. 2000)

1999:

Defending Environmental Defenders: Major New campaign to Challenge Human Rights Abuses Against Environmental Activists Around the World - Historic Collaboration Between Sierra Club and Amnesty International USA To Organize Tens of Thousands of Grassroots Activists (Sierra Club, 9 Dec. 1999)

1998:

Human Rights and the Environment: 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Sierra Club, 1998)

Consultation Works to Evolve Integrated Human Rights-Environmental Action Strategy (Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, Apr. 1998) 

1997:

Environmental harm as a human rights violation: Forging new links (Laura Ziemer, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, 1997)

What do human rights have to do with environmental protection? EVERYTHING (Aaron Sachs, Nov/Dec 1997)

1995:

Human rights and environmental protection: who should build the bridge? (Jonathan Easton, Newsletter of the Working Group on Environmental Studies at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy, Issue 13, spring 1995)