Women's
Congress for Future Generations
Toward
a Declaration of the Rights of Future Generations
Glossary
·
anthropocentric or anthropologic
·
commons
·
earth community
·
earth jurisprudence
·
ecocide
·
free, prior, and informed consent
·
guardian
·
interdependence
·
intragenerational
·
intergenerational
·
MotherBaby
·
precautionary principle
·
regeneration
·
regenerative limits (see regeneration)
·
restorative justice
·
rights
·
Rights of Future Generations
·
Rights of Nature
·
Rights of Mother Earth
·
self-representation
·
self-determination
·
sentinel species
Anthropocentric
or Anthropologic
Anthropocentrism is the position that human beings are
the central or most significant species on the planet, or the assessment of
reality through an exclusively human perspective. The term can be used
interchangeably with humanocentrism,
while the first concept can also be referred to as human supremacy. Anthropocentrism is a major concept in the field
of environmental ethics and environmental philosophy, where it is often
considered to be the root cause of problems created by human interaction with
the environment; however, it is profoundly embedded in many modern human
cultures and conscious acts.
Commons
Commons refers to the cultural
and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural
materials such as air, water, and a habitable earth. These resources are held
in common, not owned privately. The
resources held in common can include everything from natural resources and
common land to software. The commons contains public property and private
property, over which people have certain traditional rights. When commonly held
property is transformed into private property this process alternatively is
termed "enclosure" or more commonly, "privatization." A
person who has a right in, or over, common land jointly with another or others
is called a commoner.
The commons were traditionally
defined as the elements of the environment - forests, atmosphere, rivers,
fisheries or grazing land - that are shared, used and enjoyed by all.
Today, the commons are also
understood within a cultural sphere. These commons include literature, music,
arts, design, film, video, television, radio, information, software and sites
of heritage. The commons can also include public goods such as public space, public
education, health and the infrastructure that allows our society to function
(such as electricity or water delivery systems). There also exists the ‘life
commons’, e.g. the human genome.
Community (ecology) see also Earth Community
In ecology, a community is an
assemblage or associations of populations of two or more different species
occupying the same geographical area. The term community has a variety of uses.
In its simplest form it refers to groups of organisms in a specific place or
time, for example, "the fish community of Lake Ontario before
industrialization".
Community ecologists study the
interactions between species in communities on many spatial and temporal
scales, including the distribution, structure, abundance, demography, and
interactions between coexisting populations.[1] The primary focus of community
ecology is on the interactions between populations as determined by specific
genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. Community ecology has its origin in
European plant sociology. Modern community ecology examines patterns such as
variation in species richness, equitability, productivity and food web
structure (see community structure); it also examines processes such as
predator-prey population dynamics, succession, and community assembly.
On a deeper level the meaning and
value of the community concept in ecology is up for debate. Communities have
traditionally been understood on a fine scale in terms of local processes
constructing (or destructing) an assemblage of species, such as the way climate
change is likely to affect the make-up of grass communities.[2] Recently this
local community focus has been criticized. Robert Ricklefs has argued that it
is more useful to think of communities on a regional scale, drawing on
evolutionary taxonomy and biogeography,[1] where some species or clades evolve
and others go extinct.[3]
Earth Community
The term Earth Community comes
from the Earth Charter, a
declaration of universal responsibility to and for one another and Earth. The
process of its drafting began with the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and carried
forward through a multiyear collaborative process involving hundreds of
organizations and thousands of individuals of diverse religious faiths,
cultures, races, languages, and nationalities.
The Earth Charter elaborates four
overarching principles of Earth Community: (1) respect and care for the
community of life; (2) ecological integrity; (3) social and economic justice;
and (4) democracy, nonviolence, and peace. It calls for a reintegration of
humans into the planetary system of life and requires the birthing of human
cultures and institutions that embrace and nurture material sufficiently for
everyone, honor the generative power of life and love, seek a balance of
feminine and masculine principles, and nurture a realization of the mature
potential of our human nature.
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David Korten
Http://yesmagazine.org/issues/5000-years-of-empire/the-great-turning-from-empire-to-earth-community
Earth Community ... organizes by partnership, unleashes the human
potential for creative co-operation, and shares resources and surpluses for the
good of all. Supporting evidence for the possibilities of Earth Community comes
from the findings of quantum physics, evolutionary biology, developmental psychology,
anthropology, archaeology, and religious mysticism. It was the human way before
Empire; we must make a choice to re-learn how to live by its principles.
Earth Jurisprudence
Earth jurisprudence is a
philosophy of law and human governance that is based on the idea that humans
are only one part of a wider community of beings and that the welfare of each
member of that community is dependent on the welfare of the Earth as a whole.
It states that human societies will only be viable and flourish if they
regulate themselves as part of this wider Earth community and do so in a way
that is consistent with the fundamental laws or principles that govern how the
universe functions.
Earth jurisprudence is concerned
with the maintenance and regulation of relations between all members of the
Earth community, not just between human beings.
The need for a new jurisprudence
was first identified by Thomas Berry who identified the destructive
anthropocentrism on which existing legal and political structures are based as
a major impediment to the necessary transition to an ecological age in which
humans would seek a new intimacy with the integral functioning of the natural
world.
The first detailed exploration of
Earth jurisprudence in print occurred with the first publication of Wild Law by
Cormac Cullinan.
Ecocide
Ecocide the extensive damage to,
destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human
agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the
inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished.
Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)
UNITED NATIONS, Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on
the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Working Group on Indigenous
Populations, Twenty-second session, 19 -13 July 2004, p.5.
“Free, prior and informed
consent recognizes indigenous peoples’ inherent and prior rights to their lands
and resources and respects their legitimate authority to require that third
parties enter into an equal and respectful relationship with them, based on the
principle of informed consent”
‘Free prior and informed consent’
(FPIC), is the principle that a community has the right to give or withhold its
consent to proposed projects that may affect the lands they customarily own,
occupy or otherwise use. Free prior and informed consent is now a key principle
in international law and jurisprudence related to indigenous peoples.
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes)
in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like
air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic
components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles and energy
flows. As ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among
organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can come in any
size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces (although some scientists
say that the entire planet is an ecosystem).
Energy, water, nitrogen and soil
minerals are other essential abiotic components of an ecosystem. The energy
that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun. It generally
enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon
from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an
important role in the movement of matter and energy through the system. They
also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking
down dead organic matter, decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and
facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back
to a form that can be readily used by plants and other microbes.
Guardian
A legal guardian is a
person who has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to care for the
personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. [With respect
to recognizing earth rights and standing, the natural communities are regarded
in much the same way as a child.] Usually, a person has the status of guardian
because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to
infancy, incapacity, or disability. Most countries and states have laws that
provide that the parents of a minor child are the legal guardians of that
child, and that the parents can designate who shall become the child's legal
guardian in the event of death.
Courts generally have the power
to appoint a guardian for an individual in need of special protection. A
guardian with responsibility for both the personal well-being and the financial
interests of the ward is a general guardian. A person may also be appointed as
a special guardian, having limited powers over the interests of the ward. A
special guardian may, for example, be given the legal right to determine the
disposition of the ward's property without being given any authority over the
ward's person. A guardian appointed to represent the interests of a person with
respect to a single action in litigation is a guardian ad litem.
Some jurisdictions allow a parent
of a child to exercise the authority of a legal guardian without a formal court
appointment. In such circumstances the parent acting in that capacity is called
the natural guardian of that parent's child.
Interdependence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterdependenceInterdependence is a relationship in which each member is mutually dependent on the others. This concept differs from a dependence relationship, where some members are dependent and some are not. In an interdependent relationship, participants may be emotionally, economically, ecologically and/or morally reliant on and responsible to each other. An interdependent relationship can arise between two or more cooperative autonomous participants.
Intragenerational
Merriam-Webster Online: Intragenerational occurring or existing between members of one generation <intragenerational spite>; also : occurring during the span of one
generation
MotherBaby
http://www.imbci.org/ (See Basic Principles under The Initiative) or http://imbco.weebly.com/basic-principles-of-the-imbci.html
The mother
and baby constitute an integral unit during pregnancy, birth, and infancy
(referred to herein as the “MotherBaby”) and should be treated as such, as the
care of one significantly impacts on the care of the other.
Precautionary principle
The precautionary principle or precautionary approach states if an
action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific
consensus that the
action or policy is harmful, the burden of
proof that it is not
harmful falls on those taking an act.
This principle allows policy
makers to make discretionary decisions in situations where there is the
possibility of harm from taking a particular course or making a certain
decision when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking. The
principle implies that there is a social responsibility to protect the public
from exposure to harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible
risk. These protections can be relaxed only if further scientific findings
emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.
Precautionary principle - Rio
Earth Summit 1992
One of the primary foundations of
the precautionary principle, and globally accepted definitions, results from
the work of the Rio
Conference, or "Earth Summit" in 1992. Principle #15 of
the Rio
Declaration notes:
"In order to protect the environment, the precautionary
approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities.
Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full
scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing
cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation."
An important element of the
precautionary principle is that its most meaningful applications pertain to
those that are potentially irreversible, for example where biodiversity may be reduced. With respect to
bans on substances like mercury in thermometers, freon in refrigeration, or
even carbon dioxide exhaust from automobile engines and power plants, it
implies:
... a willingness to take action in advance of scientific proof
[or] evidence of the need for the proposed action on the grounds that further delay
will prove ultimately most costly to society and nature, and, in the longer
term, selfish and unfair to future generations.
Regeneration
In biology, regeneration is the
process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every
species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans. Regeneration can either be
complete where
the new tissue is the same as the lost tissue, or incomplete where after the necrotic tissue comes
fibrosis. At its most elementary
level, regeneration is mediated by the molecular processes of DNA synthesis. Regeneration is different
from reproduction. For example, hydraperform regeneration but reproduce by the method of budding.
Regenerative limits - limits to regeneration; regenerative capacity = ability to regenerate
Restorative justice
Restorative
justice (also
sometimes called reparative justice)
is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the
victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of
satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing the offender. Victims take an
active role in the process, while offenders are encouraged to take
responsibility for their actions, "to repair the harm they've done—by
apologizing, returning stolen money, or community service". Restorative justice
involves both victim and offender and focuses on their personal needs. In
addition, it provides help for the offender in order to avoid future offences.
It is based on a theory of
justice that
considers crime and wrongdoing to be an offence against an individual or
community, rather than the state. Restorative justice that fosters dialogue
between victim and offender shows the highest rates of victim satisfaction and
offender accountability.
According to Braithwaite (2004), restorative justice is:
...a process where all stakeholders affected by an injustice have
an opportunity to discuss how they have been affected by the injustice and to
decide what should be done to repair the harm. With crime, restorative justice
is about the idea that because crime hurts, justice should heal. It follows
that conversations with those who have been hurt and with those who have
afflicted the harm must be central to the process.
Restorative justice is defined as a growing
social movement to institutionalize peaceful approaches to harm,
problem-solving and violations of legal and human rights.
Rights
Rights are legal, social, or
ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the
fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people,
according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory.[1] Rights
are of essential importance in such disciplines as law and ethics, especially
theories of justice and deontology.
Rights are often considered
fundamental to civilization, being regarded as established pillars of society
and culture,[2] and the history of social conflicts can be found in the history
of each right and its development. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, "rights structure the form of governments, the content of
laws, and the shape of morality as it is currently perceived."[1] The connection
between rights and struggle cannot be overstated — rights are not as much
granted or endowed as they are fought for and claimed, and the essence of
struggles past and ancient are encoded in the spirit of current concepts of
rights and their modern formulations.
Comments on Rights from Thomas Berry
Rights come from existence. Rights is simply the giving to every
being its due. That’s a brief definition of rights. And every being – to exist
– has rights, has three rights: the right to be, the right to habitat and the
right to fulfill its role in the great community of existence.
To a large extent our difficulties are a difficulty of language.
People fail to realize that language is multivalent and also, particularly,
that when a person uses a word like ‘rights’, for the non-human world, they
think ‘rights’ is a single continuum…
‘Rights’ is an analogous term. It is an analogous term. It is
alike and different. Like a person says – “A tree has rights” – the tree
doesn’t have human rights because human rights would be no good for a tree. A
tree needs tree rights. Birds need bird rights. Plants need plant rights.
This whole question of law and rights needs to recognize what we
call the diversity within the continuity.
So, it is not that the humans have more or less. Humans don’t have
more rights than birds do. They have different rights.
Rights of Future Generations
Rights of
future generations is the recognition that generations
to come have the right, to a healthy, holistic environment with which to exist,
thrive and flourish. Future generations include all species, life forms
and elements.
In the early 1990's, Captain Cousteau launched a campaign
for the Rights of Future Generations.
The campaign's objective is that a formal resolution inscribe the first
Article of this Bill of Rights in international law: “Future generations have a
right to an uncontaminated and undamaged Earth and to its enjoyment as the
ground of human history, of culture, and of the social bonds that make each
generation and individual a member of one human family. "http://www.cousteau.org/about-us/futuregen
The Women's Congress for Future Generations aims to transcend
the anthropologic assumption and extend the recognition of Rights of Future
Generations to all life and elements as one interrelated, interdependent Earth
Community.
Rights of Nature
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature http://therightsofnature.org/
Rights of Nature is the
recognition and honoring that Nature and natural ecosystems have rights. Legal
systems built on the premise of Rights of Nature change the status of natural
communities and ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to
being recognized as rights-bearing entities. These laws recognize that natural
communities and ecosystems possess an inalienable, fundamental right to exist
and flourish. Residents of communities where Rights of Nature have been adopted
possess the legal authority to enforce those rights on behalf of those
ecosystems. In addition, these laws require the governmental apparatus to
remedy violations of those ecosystem rights.
These laws represent changes to the status of property law,
eliminating the authority of a property owner to interfere with the functioning
of ecosystems and natural communities that exist and depend upon that property
for their existence and flourishing. They do not stop development; rather they
stop development and use of property that interferes with the existence and
vitality of those ecosystems.
Rights of Mother Earth
Robin's explanation: "Rights of
Nature" and "Rights of Mother Earth" are used interchangeably by
many people in the Rights of Nature movement. Given the sacred relationship
many Peoples have with "Mother Earth", Indigenous Peoples and others
prefer the reference to Rights of Mother Earth.
In the United States where earth
rights was first included in legal systems, the reference has been to Rights of
Nature. Ecuador's Constitution uses the
reference "Rights of Nature Articles". The opening Rights of Nature Article 71
begins with "Nature or Pachamama, where
life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and
regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in
evolution." "Pachamama" is a South American Indigenous word
that translates to "Mother
Earth".
Self-determination
The right of nations to self-determination, or in short form,
the right to self-determination is the
cardinal principle in modern international law principles of international law (jus cogens), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation
of the Charter’s norms. It states that nations based on
respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity have
the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status...
"National aspirations must be respected; people may now be
dominated and governed only by their own consent. Self determination is
not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action. . . . "
—Woodrow
Wilson with his
famous self-determination speech on 11 February 1918 after he announced
his Fourteen
Points on 8
January 1918.
By extension the term
self-determination has come to mean the free choice of one's own acts without external compulsion.
Self-representation
http://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-06/16-self-representation.html
The right of a defendant to represent himself It is a right the defendant must adopt knowingly and intelligently; under some circumstances the trial judge may deny the authority to exercise it, as when the defendant simply lacks the competence to make a knowing or intelligent waiver of counsel or when his self-representation is so disruptive of orderly procedures that the judge may curtail it. The right applies only at trial; there is no constitutional right to self-representation on direct appeal from a criminal conviction.
The Court has held that the Sixth Amendment, in addition to guaranteeing the right to retained or appointed counsel, also guarantees a defendant the right to represent himself.262 It is a right the defendant must adopt knowingly and intelligently; under some circumstances the trial judge may deny the authority to exercise it, as when the defendant simply lacks the competence to make a knowing or intelligent waiver of counsel or when his self-representation is so disruptive of orderly procedures that the judge may curtail it. The right applies only at trial; there is no constitutional right to self-representation on direct appeal from a criminal conviction.
Sentinel species
A species whose presence, absence, or relative well-being in a
given environment is indicative of the health of its ecosystem as a whole.
Animal sentinels, or sentinel species, are animals used to detect risks to humans by
providing advanced warning of a danger. The terms primarily apply in the
context of ecological hazards rather than those from other sources. Some
animals can act as sentinels because they may be more susceptible or have
greater exposure to a particular hazard than humans in the same environment.[1] People have long observed animals
for signs of impending hazards or evidence of environmental threats. Plants and
other living organisms have also been used for these purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment