Conscious Choice: Human Rights, the Environment, and You

April 2000 | News of the Earth

Human Rights, the Environment, and You

by Dave Aftandilian

"When you start working with the environment seriously, the whole arena comes: human rights, women’s rights, environmental rights, children’s rights, you know, everybody’s rights. Once you start making these linkages, you can no longer do just tree-planting." — Wangari Maathai, Coordinator of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement

In December of last year, the Sierra Club and Amnesty International usa launched a joint project on human rights and the environment called "Defending Those Who Give the Earth a Voice." With funding from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund (the same organization that awards the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize), the two groups worked together to produce a color-illustrated report and twenty-minute video, both entitled "Environmentalists Under Fire: Ten Urgent Cases of Human Rights Abuses." The second edition of the report came out late this January.

According to the report’s introduction, "the goal of this joint endeavor is to shine a bright light on nations where human rights abuses are being committed against environmental activists and to take action immediately to stop the abuses suffered by environmentalists who are being beaten, harassed, detained, raped, tortured, and murdered."

Why the link between human rights and the environment? As Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA puts it, "Those governments which are most oppressive of their human citizens are also most oppressive of their environments. . .so the link between human rights and the environment is very intimate, very close, very clear." From the environmental point of view, "a healthy environment can only exist if basic human rights are respected," according to Michael Dorsey, director of the Sierra Club’s national board. And for indigenous peoples around the world whose livelihood is directly tied to the health of their environment, ecological destruction is itself a violation of human rights.

The seeds for this partnership were planted by Chico Mendes in the 1960s, when he began organizing Brazilian rubber tappers to protect (against destruction) the forests in which they made their living. Although he did not set out initially to protect the environment, but to protect the rights of the workers and their families, his actions resulted in the preservation of significant tracts of forest as reserves for the rubber-tappers. Unfortunately, his activism also cost him his life; Mendes was assassinated on December 12, 1988.

Environmentalists Under Fire

Reading "Environmentalists Under Fire" is not a pleasant experience. Each of the ten cases presented in the report makes the blood boil, especially if one keeps in mind that this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as human rights violations against environmental activists are concerned. From Burma to Cameroon, Ecuador to India, Mexico to Russia, "[multinational] corporations and governments are colluding to violate the rights of environmental activists in the name of profit and economic development," as this report documents in frightening detail.

A couple of common themes run throughout the report. One of the most immediately obvious is the fact that resource-extractive industries — especially oil, but also mining and lumber — are almost always implicated in some of the worst abuses. Thanks in part to a previous Sierra Club/Amnesty International partnership, the case of Royal Dutch/Shell’s collaboration with the Nigerian military to brutally suppress indigenous Ogoni protests against Shell’s pollution of farms and rivers in a ruthless quest for oil at all costs is well known, as is the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the "Ogoni 9" for the crime of organizing peaceful protests against Shell. But did you know that U.S.-based Chevron is also drilling for oil in the Niger delta? Apparently Chevron didn’t learn much from Shell’s mistakes — in May of 1998, the company called on Nigerian security forces to break up a peaceful protest. In the ensuing crackdown, two unarmed protesters were killed.

The same sad tale of the environmental devastation and violence that oil brings to indigenous communities, especially when aided and abetted by undemocratic and corrupt governments, is repeated again and again in "Environmentalists Under Fire." In Burma, members of ethnic minorities such as the Karen and the Shan are routinely forced by the Burmese military government to labor as porters for troops or construction workers on infrastructure projects, including the Yadana Pipeline, which is being built by U.S.-based Unocal and French-based Total to bring offshore gas through Burma and into neighboring Thailand.

ExxonMobil is planning to develop the Doba fields in southern Chad and build a 1,050-kilometer pipeline from Doba to Cameroon’s Atlantic coast, despite strong evidence that Chadian security forces have killed more than 200 unarmed civilians in the Doba oil region and that the pipeline — which will make seventeen major river crossings in Cameroon alone and will run alongside the Sanaga River — risks polluting one of the most biologically diverse regions in Cameroon. It will no doubt cause massive dislocations of Cameroon’s indigenous Bagueli peoples. And in Ecuador, indigenous groups like the Quichua have watched multinational oil companies cut through the rain forest and their ancestral lands for decades. These companies leave behind a trail of dead rivers, road-scarred forests (now vulnerable to illegal mining and logging), and millions of gallons of toxic waste. An example of this type of dumping can best be illustrated by the 20 billion gallons of toxic waste water and 16 million gallons of oil dumped by Texaco into soil and groundwater between 1971 and 1992.

The other major theme of the report is more hopeful. Again and again, activists willing to risk their lives to speak out against environmental abuses have proven that one person can make a huge difference in the fight for human and environmental rights. Medha Patkar, one of the key organizing figures of the Save the Narmada Movement in India, has been arrested and beaten numerous times. Yet her courageous persistence has helped alert the world to the Indian government’s plan to flood thousands of acres of forest and agricultural land, displacing an estimated 1.5 million people from their homes in the course of a vast and poorly planned hydroelectric development scheme. The plan involved the construction of more than 3,000 dams along the Narmada River.

Aleksandr Nikitin, nuclear engineer and former Soviet submarine captain, has been charged with espionage a total of eight times, but he has continued drawing the world’s attention to Russia’s illegal dumping of nuclear waste from its submarine fleet.

The Plight of the U’wa

One particularly troubling case that the "Environmentalists Under Fire" report does not cover is the plight of the U’wa people of Colombia, who have vowed to commit collective suicide if Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) and the Colombian government proceed with their plans to drill for oil on the U’wa’s traditional homeland in the endangered cloud forest. To the U’wa, this land is sacred. Allowing oil exploration on their lands, they believe, would upset the sacred balance of the world. The U’wa have said, "Oil is the blood of Mother Earth...to take the oil is, for us, worse than killing your own mother. If you kill the Earth, then no one will live."

In addition to their spiritual beliefs, the U’wa have direct evidence of the dangers that oil exploration can bring in the form of Oxy’s Caño Limón pipeline, built just north of U’wa territory. According to the Rainforest Action Network, this pipeline has spilled more than 2.1 million barrels of oil into nearby rivers, lakes, and soil, and its open-air waste pits frequently spill toxic waste into the forest during heavy rains. The Caño Limón pipeline has also attracted severe violence to the region. Oxy itself admits that the pipeline has been attacked more than 600 times in its twelve years of existence, mainly by guerrilla groups seeking to overthrow the government, and a 1997 report in the U.K.’s Guardian Weekly cites an outbreak of violence tied to the pipeline — in 1996 there were 38 assassinations, 18 massacres, 31 incidents of torture, 44 kidnappings, 151 illegal detentions, 2,360 incidents of harassment, and 150 displacements of people in the region.

Given the terrible pollution and violence associated with the nearby Caño Limón pipeline, one can hardly blame the U’wa for wanting to keep oil exploration out of their territory. Unfortunately, the Colombian government has not been very respectful of the U’wa’s wishes — nor their basic human rights. In fact, the government has consistently sided with Oxy, issuing the corporation a permit to drill an exploratory well on the U’wa’s traditional lands without the U’wa’s permission, and sending government security forces to remove U’wa who were peacefully protesting the oil exploration. This February, a detachment of Colombian National Police attacked 450 peaceful U’wa protesters with tear gas and heavy machinery, forcing many of the U’wa into a river, where three children drowned. U’wa leaders such as Roberto Cobaría have also been dragged from their beds by masked assailants in the middle of the night, beaten, and threatened with death if they did not authorize oil concessions to Oxy, which of course they have refused to do.

For their part, Oxy is well aware of the dangers of drilling for oil in Colombia. The company has publicly admitted to paying bribes — "war taxes" — to guerrillas for the privilege of despoiling the Colombian forests in search of oil, and a report on Oxy’s web site notes matter-of-factly that the decline in oil production at Caño Limón from 190,000 barrels per day in 1996 to 160,000 in 1997 is "the result of natural field decline and increased rebel activity." A statement about social responsibility on Oxy’s web site claims that "Occidental is dedicated to responsible management of health, environment, and safety for our workers and the communities in which they operate." Given their record at Caño Limón, this promise will likely ring just as empty in U’wa territory.

The crowning irony of this sad situation is that all the oil that Oxy estimates lies in the Samoré Block beneath the U’wa’s lands — 1.5 billion barrels — would only supply the United States with enough oil for three months, according to the Rainforest Action Network. Is it really worth destroying the culture of the U’wa and bulldozing the endangered cloud forest of Colombia for just three months’ supply of oil?

What Can We Do?

With the current trend toward ever more rapid globalization, when multinational corporations can make or break a country’s economy and dictate not just economic but also environmental policy, governments are lowering environmental standards and trampling human rights in the rush to increase global trade. While some of the worst offenses may occur half a world away from us, it is our demand for oil and other natural resources that is helping drive this headlong destruction, and so it is our responsibility to try to stop it. But what can we do to protect those speaking out in defense of the Earth?

First, and most importantly, we can provide direct support to environmental activists in danger by writing letters to the governments of the countries involved, their U.S. ambassadors, and any U.S. corporations with a stake in projects that have resulted in human rights violations against environmental activists. The "Environmentalists Under Fire" report has contact addresses for each of the cases it covers, and Rainforest Action Network’s web page has addresses to use to add your voice to the defense of the U’wa and their traditional lands.

Second, we can educate our friends, family, and any faith-based, social justice, or environmental groups of which we are members about the crucial link between human rights and environmental issues, and encourage them to write letters too.

Third, we can request that the U.S. Department of State: expand coverage of individual environmental defender cases in their annual Country Reports on Human Rights; create a new section in those reports detailing the impact of foreign investments of private corporations on human rights; and require U.S. embassy staff to monitor human-rights violations against activists and communities seeking to protect the environment.

Finally, we can demand that corporations conduct their business (overseas and domestic) in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Either as consumers or shareholders, each of us has more of an influence than we might believe on the actions of multinational corporations; if we talk, they will listen. Tell corporations to: uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (as each organ of society, including corporations, is required by international law to do); ensure the environmental sustainability of projects by conducting thorough, balanced, and frequent environmental-impact assessments; respect the rights and customs of communities affected by their actions by working closely with legitimate community leaders and respecting their wishes; uphold international standards in their security arrangements with private companies or government forces; and use their considerable influence on foreign governments to weigh in on the side of endangered environmental and human rights advocates.

Resources

Amnesty International USA "Just Earth" Campaign, 202-544-0200, edorsey@aiusa.org,

Rainforest Action Network, 415-398-4404, rainforest@ran.org

Sierra Club "Human Rights and the Environment" Campaign, 202-547-1141, alejandro.queral@sierraclub.org

U.S. Department of State, 2201 C St., NW, Washington, DC 20520; 202-647-4000; secretary@state.gov

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