Preamble
THE ENVIRONMENTAL FRAMEWORK OF HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ETHIC
Every
one of us surely has deep feelings about the contribution of the quality
of the environment in which he is living to his personal development,
that of his locality, that of his State and that of the world at large.
The world citizens earlier accepted that the world is God’s creation for
all and that its resources must be used with integrity for our welfare
and for that of the generations to come. Aspects of environmental
conservation are found in most African cultures which are the oldest of
the world testifying that human was earlier conscious that his survival
is inextricably linked to that of his environment. These efforts are
being pursued and much more important at global level given that it is
now obvious that many environmental issues could be tackled successfully
only in an international framework. The global environmental ethic is
now a fact although more is still to be done. In this vein, one of the biggest
meetings of world experts took place on the 3rd-14th
June 1992 at Rio, within the framework of United Nation’s conference on
sustainable development. The countries and organizations present took
the engagement to promote sustainable development at national and
international levels. One of the salient facts of the Rio Summit was the
high representation of the African continent. The Earth Summit resolved
that the environment is a global matter that needs consensual actions
from every nations and experts of the world. The global environmental
ethic was highly expressed. Experts from allover the world no matter
their differences in culture, race, country of origin and political
point of view were now called upon to work together to save the planet
from the tide of uncontrolled economic growth, as well as solving the
already existing problems. The Rio Summit was the continuation of a long
effort for the creation of an effective international framework for
tackling environmental problems. It is necessary to
recall that efforts toward an effective framework for international
regulations in the field of the environment took a bold step several
decades ago. In the United Nations, in pursuance of Governing Council’s
Decision 24 (III) of April 1975 and General Assembly’s Resolution 3436
(XXX) of 9 December 1975, both the Council and the Assembly are to be
kept informed of any new international convention concluded in the field
of the environment and of the status of existing conventions. In the
same line, the Governing Council’s Decision 66 (IV) of 13 April 1976
requests the Executive Director to continue the systematic presentation
of data and information relating to such conventions. The cost-effectiveness of these international treaties
and agreements in the field of the environment is that they help solving
two major problems related to the international dimension of
environmental problems: firstly, pollution generated from within a
particular State often has serious impact upon other countries and
secondly, it is now obvious that most environmental problems cannot be
effectively resolved by States acting individually. Today,
there exist more than 260 international treaties and other agreements in
the field of the environment. This shows that a global environmental
ethic characterized by the need to jointly conserve the environment and
its resources is a reality, but can counties of the world really sink
their differences and render it effective? Although we often act locally,
let us think globally.
Much more important, specific safeguards to the rights of human to a clean environment have been developed. The preamble to the seminal Stockholm Declaration of the UN conference on the Human Environment 1972 emphasizes that the environment is ‘essential to the enjoyment of basic human rights—even the right to life itself’, while Principle 1 states that ‘Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being’. Article 24 of the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights 1981 provides that ‘all people shall have the right to a general satisfactory environment favorable to their development’, while Article 11 of the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights 1988 declares that ‘the States parties shall promote the protection, preservation and improvement of the environment’. Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 explicitly refers to the need for the education of the child to be directed inter alia to ‘the development of respect for the natural environment’.
The final text of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) meeting on the environment in Sofia in 1989 reaffirms the respect for the rights of individuals, groups and organizations concerned with the environment to express freely their views, to associate with others and assemble peacefully, to obtain and distribute relevant information and to participate in public debates on environmental issues. It should also be noted that the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context 1991 calls for the ‘establishment of an environmental impact assessment procedure that permits public participation’. In 1994, the final report on Human Rights and the Environment was delivered to the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. The report contains a set of Draft Principles on Human Rights and noted that ‘an ecologically sound environment, sustainable development and peace are interdependent and indivisible’ and that ‘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’.
The Marrakech Process is an initiative that promotes Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) worldwide.
We now hope that more concrete actions will be taken in the framework of these agreements, treaties and laws on the environment. To achieve this goal, environmental education has to play a major role. That is the reason why I have endeavored writing books characterized by a broad and practical explanation of specific environmental issues.
News/Announcements
International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.
Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater.
Join in the celebration of this day wherever you are in the world.
Did You Know This?
Europe, America and some parts of Asia may be regarded as developed countries, which means they have undergone changes which can be described as development. Development in this context means that the changes have occurred through the effort and control of these countries based on set objectives. This is as opposed to evolution which occurs without human having control of the changes, let alone having any set objectives to guide and monitor the changes.
Now there is this question: how can we characterise the changes occurring in the so-called developed countries, evolution or development? For example was the generally high production of waste and pollution, degradation of environmental compartments, perturbation of bio-geo-chemical cycles, destruction of biodiversity and rapid resource depletion inherent in the development process part of the objective? This is an important question in the development debate.
Evolution is also significantly gaining ground in Africa due to borrowed definitions of development. It is closely linked to the development ethic whereby development is measured by the ability to produce and generate material wealth coupled with a high consumption dynamism. An ethic guided by such an economic growth (what we term evolution ethic as opposed to its general definition as development ethic) is far from enhancing sustainable development.
With the constantly changing emphasis of the definition of development, with technology increasingly universally employed as its denominator, pursing development has remained, for many African nations, like chasing the mirage. Imaging a situation where a nation commits a huge amount of human and financial resources to copying a particular model of development in a realization that she is far behind in the objectives and even in the technological race and sustainability. Such nation, therefore, is, at best, consumed by the Western technology. And the result? A fake and false sense and direction of development, the type that is capable mainly of producing individuals who soon grow up to become seventy-six-years-old babies.
Definitely, the mistake that we often make is to assume that development indicators can be used to measure the level of development of every society in much the same way as the measures of length, weight, and capacity are assigned the same measurement scale wherever they are used. These quantitative indicators shall not take the lead on socio-psychological indicators which are more contextual and very significant in any developmental process.
By borrowing the definition of development, in order to meet Western assessment criteria, Africa has continued to pursue development somewhat blindly.
Events
21st Day of March: World Racial Discrimination Day;
22nd Day of March: World Water Day;
23rd Day of March: World Climate Day;
22nd Day of May: World Biodiversity Day;
5th Day of June: World Environment Day;
17th Day of June: World Day for the Fight against Desertification and Drought;
11th Day of July: World Population Day;
16th Day of September: World Ozone Layer Day;
16th Day of October: World Food Day;
24th Day of October: World Day for the Prevention of Natural Catastrophes;
10th Day of December: Human Rights Day.
Our main mission is surveillance, sensitization and Education. On the Photo, join action from NGOs got local authorities to Tiko road to witness a dumping site established by a water course. The authorities therefore banned the use of this dumping spot some days later.
For more photos, browse the Photo
Gallery.
What is a Pollutant
It is any substance that can become harmful (by perturbation or forcing) for the environment. More specifically, atmospheric or water pollution is defined as the presence of harmful substances in the atmosphere or in water, deriving from anthropogenic activities or from natural processes. We distinguish four main categories of pollutants: non-organic pollutants as trace metals, organic pollutants as organo-pesticides, aerosols and biological pollutants (e.g., gene as a new gene from a GMO can contaminate other species with ecological adverse consequences, alien species as they can disturb the receiver-ecosystem, germs such as bacteria, virus, fungi, and pollens). A pollutant can act in three different ways in the environment: (1) the pollutant can undergo chemical reactions with other components of an organism or of an environmental compartment disturbing the normal chemical processes; (2) the pollutant can substitute itself (because its structure is similar to that of the real compound) to the real molecule in a chemical process disturbing its functioning, and (3) a pollutant can merely disturb the kinetic (the speed, the direction and the duration) of some natural processes because of its simple presence somewhere it was not supposed to be at a given concentration.
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