Announcements

Rights to Water on World Water Day

United Nations-sponsored World Water Day annually recognizes the importance of fresh water and sustainable use of the world’s waterways. Water represents life to people, ecosystems and species. “Healthy waterways” translates directly to “healthy people and planet.” Yet our governance systems fail to recognize this link, and allow – even encourage – initiatives that drain rivers, suck up aquifers, and pollute the water that remains.

A recently-released report by the University of California, Davis found that polluting agricultural practices in California regularly contaminate groundwater with nitrates. In some areas, one-third or more of tested wells exceed drinking water standards. This translates to no clean drinking water for many of the state’s poorest, who must choose between spending limited resources on bottled water or risk grave illness. Nitrate pollution in surface waters, moreover, damages aquatic species at far lower concentrations than the standards examined in the report.

The links between harm to the environment and harm to people are inextricable. Rights to clean water for human and environmental needs must be a priority.

We can and should re-envision our governance systems to achieve this goal. Earth Law Center advocates for rivers’ right to flow with clean water as a necessary complement to the "human right to water" adopted in a July 2010 United Nations Resolution. These rights were reinforced in a joint Declaration of hundreds of organizations world-wide, including Earth Law Center, attending the recent Alternative World Water Forum in Marseille, France. In the Declaration, participants specifically "call[ed] for the creation and recognition of the rights of nature” to protect the well-being of the biosphere and all Earth's inhabitants.

The NGO-led Alternate World Water Forum, as well as the parallel, corporate-supported World Water Forum, are particularly important because they will impact the discussions around water at the June 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (“Rio +20”). Earth Law Center spoke at both Marseille events, addressing “waterway rights to flow” and the growing focus on the “green economy” as a false "solution" to water stresses. As Earth Law Center presented in its remarks, the “green economy” fails as a solution because it settles for “reducing,” rather than reversing, the trend of ecological degradation. This trend will continue unless we adopt an economy that serves people and planet, rather than the current model that bends people and planet to the incessant driver of growth that concentrates wealth in the hands of the few.

Earth Law Center is a “think, share and do” organization dedicated to advancing laws that incorporate the inherent rights of all Earth’s inhabitants and ecosystems to co-exist, thrive and evolve. Watch a video of Executive Director Linda Sheehan addressing the need for this movement in a presentation at Southern Cross University, Australia.

The Road to Rio

In late June, tens of thousands of delegates and stakeholders from around the globe will descend on Rio de Janeiro for a once-in-a-generation “Earth Summit,” referred to as "Rio +20" due to its anniversary with the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The United Nation’s priority for this event is to advance both “sustainable development” and the “green economy.” The U.N. has also identified seven key issues to highlight at Rio +20, including water and the oceans.

Earth Law Center is working with delegates and other stakeholders as part of the Rio +20 preparations to advance the rights of ecosystems and species to be healthy, thrive and evolve. The Center submitted detailed written comments to the U.N. in November that called for adoption of a platform of Earth rights and exposed the inherent flaws of the U.N.’s proposed market-based “solutions” to current environmental crises.

Earth Law Center has continued this advocacy at all U.N. General Assembly planning meetings for Rio +20. The Center successfully worked with Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) colleagues at these meetings to include, in both the December and the January formal NGO Statements to the U.N. General Assembly, a call for legal rights for ecosystems and species to exist, thrive and evolve. The Center also prepared and advocated specific edits to the initial working document, or "Zero Draft," for Rio +20, calling for the recognition of rights for ecosystems – a call echoed by a growing number of Member States.