Last week, I noted that none of the main 颅parties 鈥� those likely to form the next government 鈥� have yet recognized and accepted the scale of the global ecological crises we face, to which sa国际传媒 contributes disproportionately. Nor have they 颅recognized the implications for Canadians and the rest of humanity, including the threat these 颅crises pose to our human rights.
David Boyd, a sa国际传媒-based 颅environmental lawyer and currently the UN Special 颅Rapporteur on human rights and the 颅environment, noted in a recent blog posting: 鈥淎mong the human rights being threatened and violated by the global environmental crisis are the rights to life, health, food, a healthy environment, water, an adequate standard of living, and culture.鈥� Which is why he is a leader in the efforts to 颅establish the right to a healthy environment in 颅Canadian and international law.
Regrettably, sa国际传媒 remains one of the few countries in the world that does not 颅recognize that people have the right to a healthy environment 鈥� and that we also thus have a duty to protect nature and ensure the environment is healthy.
Admittedly, in April 2021, the 颅Liberal 颅government introduced Bill C-28, which would have amended the Canadian 颅Environmental Protection Act to include the recognition of the right to a healthy 颅environment. But the bill, while welcomed as a good start by important health and 颅environmental organizations, was also 颅criticized by them as too weak.
Problematically, the right to a healthy environment would only be in the 颅preamble to the act, with no clear legal powers to ensure it is fully implemented. Even worse, the bill stated that this right 鈥渕ay be 颅balanced with relevant factors, 颅including social, economic, health and scientific 颅factors.鈥� In other words 鈥� well, you sort of have that right, but not if economic or other factors are considered more important. Thus making money could triumph over your need for a healthy environment 鈥� as it has done for many years.
Anyway, Bill C-28 failed to proceed beyond first reading and was not even debated, indicating how little importance Parliament gives to this vitally important issue.
So one question to ask your candidates is: Do you and your party recognize that 颅Canadians have a right to a healthy 颅environment, that this right is not subject to modification for economic or other reasons, and that you will commit to introducing and/or supporting legislation to enshrine the right to a healthy environment and, 颅ultimately, to include it in the Canadian 颅Constitution?
Another way in which sa国际传媒鈥檚 lack of interest in and support for the right to a healthy environment manifests is that 颅sa国际传媒 did not support a March 2021 颅statement put forward at the UN Human Rights 颅Council calling for 鈥渋nternational 颅recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.鈥�
The statement was proposed by the governments of Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland and 颅supported by almost 70 countries. sa国际传媒 was not alone in failing to support it; other unsupportive major planet-harming 颅countries were the U.S., the U.K., Australia, China, Russia and India.
The statement was, however, supported by 15 major UN organizations, from the International Labour Organization to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, all of whom recognized that the 鈥渞ights of present and future generations depend on a healthy environment.鈥� It was also supported by more than 1,000 civil-society, child, youth and Indigenous Peoples鈥� organizations.
Happily, there is a growing global 颅movement not only to recognize the right to a healthy environment, but to create a Global Pact for the 颅Environment. The pact, which the UN has been 颅considering, would be a legally binding global 颅instrument 颅establishing 鈥渢he right to a sound 颅environment and the duty to care for the environment.鈥� But ultimately, Boyd 颅suggests, 鈥渢he right should be added to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.鈥�
So a second important 鈥� indeed vital 鈥� question you should ask your federal candidates is whether they will support the adoption, globally, of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment and its addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If they and their party are seriously concerned about the wellbeing of this and future generations, they must answer 鈥測es.鈥�
Dr. Trevor Hancock is a retired professor and senior scholar at the University of 颅Victoria鈥檚 School of Public Health and Social Policy.
