FRACKING & International Human Rights Law

FRACKING & International Human Rights Law

Postby Oscar » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:48 am

A Guide To Rights-Based Advocacy: International Human Rights Law and Fracking

[ http://www.mercyworld.org/mercy_global_ ... cfm?id=826 ]

Special Reports: June 12, 2015

We are pleased to share our new report A Guide to Rights-based Advocacy: International Human Rights Law and Fracking that is now available for download in English.

The report is a formative document demonstrating how the international human rights framework can be used to initiate rights-based advocacy against human rights violations that result from the harm caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The guide makes an important contribution to the nascent topic of fracking´s impact on human rights, by summarizing:

o Examples of harm caused by fracking, which demonstrate the enormous negative impact on human and animal life and the environment;

o How these effects of fracking can breach multiple human rights, including violations to the right to health, water, food, housing, freedom of information and expression, the rights of children, and the cultural and collective rights of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and peasant communities;

o The ways in which international human rights law offers various accountability mechanisms, venues for information and action, and tools to empower and reposition people and communities as rights-holders;

o How governments have a duty to respect, protect and fulfill human rights, and to prevent violations of human rights by non-state actors.

This report, A Guide to Rights-based Advocacy: International Human Rights Law and Fracking, is offered as a work in progress, inviting further contributions from around the world. It encourages more collaborative efforts on this vital subject, with the ultimate goal of empowering rights-holders, shaping policy, and ensuring accountability

Download the Guide here (38 pps; PDF):
[ http://www.mercyworld.org/_uploads/_ckb ... 202015.pdf ]

For further information, contact::
Aine O'Connor rsm - MGA
Co-ordinator at the United Nations, Sisters of Mercy (NGO),
Mercy International Association: Global Action

A Spanish copy of the Guide will be available in mid-July 2015.

----------------------------

(2) Abstract

The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) industry is booming. So are industry cash settlements and property buyouts for people who say fracking has ruined their water, lowered their house prices and destroyed their quality of life.

From farm animals dropping dead overnight to low birth weights in human infants, fracking is becoming synonymous with harm, and the process is seen to harm ecosystems, as well as animal and human health.

Often overlooked in the fracking debate is the fact that fracking can breach international human rights law in multiple ways. What can also be overlooked is the fact that existing international human rights mechanisms are available to people on the ground in asserting their rights.

This Guide aims to contribute to the debate on fracking by outlining how International Human Rights Law can empower and reposition people and communities as rights-holders, providing an extensive overview of accountability mechanisms to address threats or harms from fracking. These can be many and include violations to the right to health, water, food, housing, freedom of information and expression, the rights of children, and the cultural and collective rights of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and peasant communities.

As with all new and emerging technologies, the risks and negative impacts of fracking are also new and emerging, and the legal framework must keep pace with these consequences. This challenges civil society actors to contribute to the dialogue and debate about what is appropriate in the name of economic progress and the thirst for fuel and, conversely, what must be halted or changed.

We hope that this Guide will contribute to the improvement of environmental, social and economic policy with regard to fracking and, indeed, as policy applies to any other extractive technology or activity seeking to affect or exploit the natural environment.

As such, this Guide is also a tool for governments as a reminder of their responsibilities both toward their citizens and in preventing rights violations by non-state actors such as extractive industries.

Primarily, however, this is a guide for action by individuals in claiming their rights. Whether you as a reader are an individual affected by fracking in your community, or belong to a campaigning group wishing to highlight global concerns, you can use this Guide to take action.

The Guide focuses on how the existing international human rights framework can be applied to the issue of hydraulic fracturing with a view to understanding the impact of fracking on human rights and how action can prevent human rights violations.

The business sector can also benefit from using this Guide to become better informed about its responsibilities in upholding people´s rights and respecting the Earth.

This Guide is produced by the Sisters of Mercy (NGO), Mercy International Association: Global Action, enjoying special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. We wish to thank Franciscans International for their consultation in its development.
Oscar
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