When Eleanor Roosevelt helped draft and gain acceptance for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR]<\/em>, she started something big. Adopted by the fledgling United Nations in 1948, the UDHR\u2019s 30 original \u201carticles\u201d still ring so true and are so clearly fundamental that they still form the moral foundation of U.N. resolutions and actions, and of constitutions and laws in many countries.<\/p>\n

But although her work on the UDHR was progressive and forward-thinking, Mrs. Roosevelt probably could not have envisioned some of the ways in which international human rights have broadened recently.<\/p>\n

The first big change came in July 2010, when the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution stating that access to clean water and sanitation are basic human rights. The resolution called on countries and international organizations to \u201cprovide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although activists have long quoted UDHR Articles 3, 22 and 25<\/a> as implying the right to water, until the July 2010 vote, the right had never been officially ratified by the full General Assembly. The vote was 122 in favor, zero against, and 41 abstentions [the US was one, along with, primarily, other industrialized nations, except for Germany, but that\u2019s another story.] \u00a0It took 62 years to get water as a human right on the books. But even though the most recent UN resolution is non-binding and has not been officially added, as some activists propose, as Article 31 of the UDHR, it\u2019s probably safe to say that Mrs. Roosevelt would approve.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Roosevelt would most likely also be pleased by discussions\u2014on another expansion of human rights\u2014that took place in Cancun at the recently convened [November 29-December 10, 2010] UN summit meeting on climate change. Inside and outside the meeting hall, diplomats and activists pushed hard to establish an even broader category of human rights: the right to a healthy environment<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On December 3, 2010, a Yes! Magazine<\/em> report on the Cancun summit<\/a> described the effort:<\/p>\n

Activists in Canc\u00fan and Mexico City are rallying behind the idea of environmental rights. Many support a document called the \u201cPeople\u2019s Agreement on Climate Change,\u201d which includes a \u201cUniversal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth.\u201d It\u2019s an idealistic name for a proposal that would sound either visionary or improbable, or both\u2014if not for the fact that the declaration represents the work of representatives from 56 countries and of tens of thousands of people who attended a climate conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia<\/a> last April. The document declares that everybody has rights to basics like clean water and clean air, but it also says something even more extraordinary: that the planet\u2019s ecosystems themselves have rights.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes! reports that the conference in Cochabamba brought to the table \u201chumanity\u2019s relationship with Pachamama, or Mother Earth.\u201d The issue, promoted primarily by indigenous communities focuses on some big questions:<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we really reach a sustainable relationship with the Earth unless we stop looking at it as something to be conquered or fixed that is outside of us? How would it change our lives and our struggles if we believed, as Leonardo Boff of Brazil said,\u00a0 [translated here] \u201cEverything that exists deserves to exist, and everything that lives deserves to live?\u201d\u00a0 Or if we understood the Earth as a living thing of which we are a part, or that\u00a0 life is a moment of the Earth, and the human life is a moment of life\u201d? The clear message coming through in Cochabamba is that we have to get right with nature.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A look at the proposed Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth<\/a> reveals a document that, in tone and structure, echoes that of the Eleanor Roosevelt model. Its preamble offers a letter of appreciation and gratitude to Earth, as well as taking a direct swipe at the evils of capitalistic exploitation of the planet\u2019s resources. The preamble also makes a thought-provoking statement about the interdependence of people and Earth, noting that the declaration\u2019s framers are\u2026\u201cconvinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

While to the cynical, the declaration may sound uncomfortably \u201ckumbaya,\u201d it\u2019s so earnest that one cannot help but pause and reflect on its unique point of view. The proposed declaration defines \u201cMother Earth\u201d as \u201ca living being, and…a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings\u201d<\/p>\n

The declaration goes on to list the \u201cinherent rights of Mother Earth, among which some of the most intriguing are:<\/p>\n

\n

\n
• the right to be respected<\/li>\n
• the right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue its vital cycles and processes free from human disruptions<\/li>\n
• the right to clean air<\/li>\n
• the right to be free from contamination, pollution and toxic or radioactive waste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n

  Finally, the declaration spells out the obligations of humans to respect Mother Earth by:<\/p>\n

  \n

  \n
  • ensuring that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Mother Earth\u2026<\/li>\n
  • respecing, protecting, conserving and, where necessary, restoring the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Mother Earth;<\/li>\n
  • guaranteeing that the damages caused by human violations of the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration are rectified and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and health of Mother Earth<\/li>\n
  • guaranteeing peace and eliminating nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Far-fetched? Radical? It may appear that way now, but at least someone has said it, and raising awareness is always the first step. Of course, it\u2019s unlikely that the Cochabamba proposals will end up in any formal agreements to emerge from Canc\u00fan. But the idea of environmental rights is already taking hold. In September 2008, Ecuador formally recognized the rights of nature in its new constitution<\/a>. In the United States, a handful of local governments have passed resolutions recognizing that nature has rights, including, recently, the city of Pittsburgh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Somewhere, Eleanor Roosevelt is smiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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