17 July 2020, Vienna/ Geneva
On the occasion of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council 44th session on 13th July 2020, the Permanent Mission of Austria to the UN and KOO organized, in cooperation with Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), a webinar on “Putting an End to Greed: The interaction between respect for human rights and the protection of nature”. The webinar featured the participation of experts in the field of international law, sustainable development, advocacy and human rights.
Moderated by the Convenor of PGA’s International Law and Human Rights Program, Ms. Petra Bayr, MP (Austria), the webinar provided an insightful exchange on how extractive and overexploitation systems of natural resources have, on one hand, been causing great damage to the environment, and on the other, violating fundamental rights of indigenous people enshrined in domestic legislation, international treaties and customary international norms. The discussion highlighted the areas of cooperation between civil society groups and parliamentary structures conducive towards creating a more sustainable economic system that respects people, nature and the planet, while focusing on the specific situation of indigenous and local communities in the Amazon and the African Kolwezi copper-cobalt belt.
The combination of exploitative economic model in Brazil with irresponsible policy on COVID10 by its Government is what some people would call ethnic cleansing against indigenous people. Ms. Petra Bayr, MP and PGA member (Austria), Convenor of PGA’s International Law and Human Rights Program
Ms. Chantelle Teixeira, a Brazilian lawyer at Conselho Indigenista Missionárioin the states of Amazonas and Roraima, alerted to over three decades-long discrimination and systematic attacks against indigenous peoples in the Amazon - considered the best defenders of Earth’s biodiversity-, caused by irresponsible actions of states and private entities. Local communities had turned to various human rights mechanisms, inter alia, the United Nations bodies and the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights, requesting the international community to take measures to effectively guarantee their rights.
Mrs. Anna Cavazzini, a German Member of the European Parliament (EP), called attention to the 2018 EP Resolution on violations of the rights of indigenous peoples in the world, including land grabbing, The resolution highlights five main challenges faced by indigenous communities: human rights, land grabbing, business and human rights, sustainable and economic development for indigenous peoples and EU cooperation policy with third countries. It calls on the EU members states to respect the indigenous land and territories’ rights; encourage States to ratify the International Labour Organisation Convention 169; and demands that EU trade and investment activities respect indigenous peoples and include them in decision-making processes. Nonetheless, the resolution has yet to be implemented effectively in practice. As a recommendation, she outlined the necessity of introducing measures to prohibit the import to the EU of products of exploitative activities.
Focusing on the African region, Ms. Cristina Duranti, the Director of the Good Shepherd International Foundation (GSIF), discussed the situation of children and women in Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Civil society, advocacy groups and think-tank institutions have reported that the exploitation of limited and scarce minerals, such as cobalt, has often implied severe violations of children’s rights and sexual and gender-based violence.
In this line, PGA’s Secretary-General, Dr. David Donat Cattin, drew attention to the applicable legal framework to the most serious violations of human rights, which includes international criminal law, drawing attention to the commonly employed practice of forced labour of children, which may amount to the crime of enslavement: if such acts are considered to satisfy the threshold of ‘widespread or systematic’, they can be prosecuted as crimes against humanity. Regretably, national and international authorities have failed to apply the existing legislation to protect individuals from these crimes. In the case of Brazil, no decisive action has been taken by Parliament on the draft law to implement the Rome Statute of the ICC, tabled by PGA Members in two separate Legislatures, which would make crimes against humanity a prosecutable offence under Brazilian Law.
PGA’s Secretary-General, also highlighted the importance of the principle of precaution under International Environmental Law, which imposes an obligation on all States to combat the overexploitation of natural resources and any pro-climate change conduct such as deforestation and destruction of eco-systems that belong to the indigenous populations. As highlighted by a recent report of the WWF entitled “The Loss of Nature and the Rise of Pandemics – Protecting human and planetary health”, the environmnetal system in which we all live represets a common heritage of human-kind under International Law and, as such, all components of our societies are under the legal and moral imperative to protect it and preserve it.
The panellists alluded that boycotting products might be a useful tool to halt the exploitation, but it is not a one size fits all model. The international community and States have to tailor it to specific situations in order not to further aggravate the situation of indigenous people.
As the exchange of views concluded, the increase of illegal human activities has had far- reaching consequences: it has posed serious threats to the environment with detrimental effects on the enjoyment of rights by indigenous and local communities, exposing them to serious health problems, selective physical violence and egregious human rights violations. If the international community and States do not act urgently, the extractive activities will cause irreversible consequences on human rights not of only local and indigenous communities, but ultimately to the humankind as a whole.
International Legal Framework:
As of 2020, there is no single binding overarching normative framework that provides rules and principles of general application in international environmental law. International environmental law overall remains piecemeal and fragmented, a patchwork arrangement of more than 500 multilateral treaties.
Two non-binding declarations have served as important guidance for national and international action, and subsequent development of legally binding instruments:
At the regional level, the right to healthy environment is enshrined under International Human rights law through regional human rights treaties:
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San Salvador Protocol (Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of economic, social and cultural rights) (Art. 11)
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Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (Art. 37)
International Humanitarian and Criminal law prohibits the destruction of environment in the context of the armed conflict through:
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AP I to Geneva Conventions: Article 35(3) prohibits the use of “methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected to cause, widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment”. This prohibition is also contained in Article 55(1) of Additional Protocol I.
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Rome Statute: War crimes (IAC); Art. 8(2)(b)(4): “Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated.”