EJ and ENVIROMENTAL RACISM on an INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
IEN participated within the Third World Conference against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in
South Africa in 2001. IEN, in consultation with the International
Indian Treaty Council developed language on environmental justice
and racism to be inserted within the Draft Declaration and Programme
of Action Documents of the WCAR Conference. The language for religious
intolerance relates to the environmental racism and Indigenous Peoples
issues, however, it was felt it needed to stand alone to adequately
address spiritual practices, sacred site and ceremonial issues.
Language on environmental racism was included from the Indigenous
Peoples caucus from Santiago de Chile Regional Conference of the
Americas, December 2000, and the Quito NGO Forum Planning Meeting
for the Americas, March 2001, and from IEN and the Environmental
Justice U.S. delegation working drafts. The goal was to inform the
global community on the aspects of environmental racism - on a global
level. Further down on this page is the final adopted language of
the WCAR NGO Forum Declaration. In the final Declaration, the language
on Indigenous Peoples was compiled together with other ethnic, class
and caste populations.
Proposed Language:
DECLARATION; ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION:
Recognizing a new form of racial discrimination against
Indigenous Peoples, environmental racism, the implementation of
environmental, natural resource and development schemes that nullify
or impair the enjoyment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms
of Indigenous Peoples. This new form of environmental discrimination
is an assault on Indigenous Peoples' human rights and public health
including their right to their unique and special social, cultural,
spiritual and historical life ways and worldviews. Environmental
racism results in the devastation, contamination, dispossession,
loss, or denial of access, to Indigenous Peoples' biodiversity,
their waters and traditional lands and territories. Environmental
racism is now the primary cause of impaired human health affects
of Indigenous Peoples and the forced separation and removal of Indigenous
Peoples from their lands and territories, their major means of subsistence,
their language, culture, and spirituality, all of which are derived
from their cultural, physical and spiritual relationship to their
land.
PROGRAM OF ACTION. ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM:
Urges States to take immediate and effective measures to end the
devastation and contamination of Indigenous waters, lands and territories,
and the dispossession and denial of access to these waters, lands
and territories by Indigenous Peoples. States are urged to take
immediate and effective measures to end the devastation, contamination
and loss of the natural resources, including, inter alia, ecosystems,
biological diversity, flora and fauna of Indigenous lands and territories.
States are urged to take special measures and make reparations for
the damage suffered by Indigenous Peoples on account of environmental
racism and racial discrimination, including, inter alia, the loss
of biodiversity and the pollution of the natural environment affecting
their traditional means of subsistence, their traditional cultural
and spiritual practices and sacred and historical sites, addressing
particularly the harm suffered by Indigenous women and children
and future generations. States are urged to take immediate measures
and precautionary approaches to end public health disparities in
toxic and radioactive exposures on Indigenous Peoples.
DECLARATION; RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE: RECOGNIZING
that religious intolerance as a related xenophobia of racial discrimination
toward Indigenous Peoples and traditional Indigenous spiritual belief
and practice by dominant religions and States has been historical
and profound, resulting in the prohibition, denial of access to,
and denigration of ceremonial plants and ceremonial articles used
in spiritual practice, the denigration, prohibition and persecution
of Indigenous spiritual beliefs and ceremony, the denigration and
persecution of Indigenous spiritual practice, Indigenous spiritual
leaders and Indigenous practitioners, denial and harassment of Indigenous
spiritual leaders and practitioners crossing political transboundaries
and the denial of access to, and the profaning and destruction of
Indigenous sacred sites;
PROGRAMME OF ACTION, RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE:
The Conference calls upon the States to remove all legal impediments
to Indigenous beliefs and the practice of Indigenous spirituality.
The Conference urges States to take special measures to educate
their dominant religions and populations on the dignity and worth
of Indigenous spirituality, beliefs and ceremony, and accord Indigenous
spirituality the same respect in their observance as all other religions
and spiritual practices. The States are urged in particular to take
special and effective measures to allow all Indigenous Peoples free
access to medicines and articles of ceremony and ceremony itself,
particularly to Indigenous inmates in prisons and jails, and the
practice of ceremony in such places, including access to Indigenous
spiritual leaders and Indigenous ceremony by Indigenous inmates,
particularly as last rites in the case of the imposition of capital
punishment The Conference urges all States to take immediate and
effective measures to freely allow Indigenous access to and to preserve
Indigenous historical and sacred sites and not subject these sacred
areas to tourism or development schemes that destroy, nullify or
impair their spiritual and sacred nature including measures that
would permit without harassment or denial, the crossing of political
State transboundaries by Indigenous spiritual leaders and practitioners
to practice ceremony and gather medicines.
FINAL EJ Language in NGO and WCAR Documents (As Officially Adopted)
WCAR NGO FORUM DECLARATION
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
117. Environmental racism is a human rights violation and is a
form of discrimination caused by government and private sector policy,
practice, action or inaction which intentionally or unintentionally,
disproportionately targets and harms the environment, health, biodiversity,
local economy, quality of life and security of communities, workers,
groups, and individuals based on race, class, color, gender, caste,
ethnicity and/or national origin.
118. We condemn the abuse of all forms of power, greed, and exclusion
of victims of environmental racism from decision-making, unequal
enforcement, non-existent or ineffective environmental laws and
regulations, manipulation of media and language barriers to perpetuate
and conceal the environmental harms to human health, displacement
of people, depletion of natural resources, and the degradation of
biodiversity all of which are manifestations of environmental racism
targeting Indigenous Peoples, Africans and African descendants,
Asians and Asian descendants, Middle Eastern Peoples, Pacific Islanders,
Latinos, Caribbean Peoples, ethnic and national minorities and groups,
and other social groups most vulnerable to practices of unsustainable
development and militarization, especially children, women, the
elderly, displaced, immuno-suppressed, as well as low and no income
people.
146. Environmental racism -- an historical form of racial discrimination
-- has led to and continues to lead to the ruination of indigenous
lands, waters and environments by the implementation of unsustainable
schemes, such as mining, biopiracy, deforestation, the dumping of
contaminated waste, oil and gas drilling and other land use practices
that do not respect indigenous ceremonies, spiritual beliefs, traditional
medicines and life ways, the biodiversity of indigenous lands, indigenous
economies and means of subsistence, and the right to health.
NGO FORUM PROGRAMME OF ACTION
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM
10. To promote sustainable development, governments must develop,
improve, and apply economic, health, and social indicators to assess
the quality of life for people impacted by environmental racism,
implement a just transition to clean, affordable and sustainable
modes of production, and pollution prevention, develop, apply, and
transfer to all States information and technologies that can reduce
and eliminate environmental health hazards and enable the thorough
remediation of contaminated sites, ensure medical services to persons
suffering from toxic exposure, develop laws which prohibit transboundary,
especially from industrialized to non-industrialized countries,
and intra-border deposition of toxics and polluting technologies,
which degrade the environment and harm human health, urge UN agencies,
international and regional financial mechanisms, and donor countries
to reform their loan and grant-making practices and provide the
resources that enable all States to develop, improve, and implement
the laws, policies, and practices as called for by this program
of action.
11. Governments must establish, comply with, and enforce international
conventions, treaties, declarations, national laws, and policies
that ensure the fundamental rights of all people to clean air, land,
water, food and safe and decent housing. Such legal instruments
and policies must provide protection for urban and rural communities,
workers, especially agricultural laborers, from environmental hazards
that disproportionately impact people who have historically been
subjected to discrimination based on race, class, color, gender,
caste, ethnicity and/or national origin, ensure the right of all
people to meaningful participation in decision-making on environmental
and health issues, including culturally and linguistically appropriate
outreach and education as well as guarantee fair access to judicial
and administrative proceedings and remedies for environmental racism,
and establish legally binding instruments and mechanisms to hold
states and corporations accountable to international and domestica
laws protecting human rights.
12. Governments must ensure that all governmental policies and
practices adhere to the principles of precautionary approach and
polluter-pays as provided in the Rio Declaration on Environment
and Development. Develop and implement programs of sustainable development
with the involvement of those affected by environmental racism and
other non-state actors in order to redress and improve health, environmental,
and economic conditions. Establish programs to protect people from
environmental racism caused by military, governmental, and industrial
activities. Such programs must include protection from dangerous
health threats, remediation of environmental degradation caused
by the military, governments, and industry, as well as the disposal
of toxic stockpiles that meets 100% efficiency. Reform economic
development policies with mechanisms for prioritizing health, social,
cultural, and religious/spiritual values.
13. As full partners in the eradication of environmental racism
and quest for sustainable development, the NGO Forum calls upon
NGOs to: foster meaningful national and international participation
in public and private decision-making affecting local communities
and their environments; study the effects of environmental racism
on our communities; identify and publicize the effects of environmental
racism on workers and communities; educate civil society on the
impacts of environmental racism; advocate for public and private
sector policies and laws that protect natural resources, eliminate
contamination affecting communities, and restore contaminated environments;
provide victims of environmental racism with legal advisory assistance
to access justice and attain fair compensation; and develop regional
environmental justice networks to share information, strategies,
lessons learned, engage in mutual solidarity actions, and monitor
the compliance and enforcement of the obligations of industry, governments,
and intergovernmental agencies to make possible equitable and sustainable
development. The NGO Forum calls on governments, intergovernmental
agencies, UN agencies and other financial mechanisms, and philanthropic
organizations to provide the financing and technical assistance
necessary to enable NGOs to carry out this action plan.
WCAR Governmental PROGRAMME OF ACTION
112. Invites States to consider non-discriminatory measures to
provide a safe and healthy environment for individuals and members
of groups victims of or subject to racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance, in particular:
- to improve access to public information on health and environment
issues;
- to ensure that relevant concerns are taken into account in
the public process of decision-making on the environment;
- to share technology and successful practices to improve human
health and environment in all areas;
- to take appropriate remedial measures, as possible to clean,
re-use and redevelop contaminated sites and where appropriate,
relocate those affected on a voluntary basis after consultations;
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