...THE NEED OF SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE ABSTRACT Environmental protection is a recent concept, developed in the international or regional human right protection systems or mechanisms. In those early days, especially when modern human rights protection mechanisms such as UDHR, ICCPR, IESCR and other human rights instruments adopted, the concern given to environmental protection was not that much significant . The only few provisions in these instruments recognizes some rights like the right to healthy and favorable condition of work, the right to get adequate food, clothing and shelter and the like. It was during in 1992, earth summit, that the relationship between human rights and sustainable environment is addressed. The need for the protection of environment becomes a necessity. In fact environment is a totality of human life; it means that it is sources of food, clothing, and shelter. The denial of environmental protection could bring about the denial of some fundamental rights such as the right to health, life, food and so on. It is true that, environment should be properly managed in order to make it favorable to human life. However; the effort to protect the environment faces different challenges like the issue of locus-standi, justifiability, conflict between developmental efforts and environmental protection, burden of proof, lack of cooperation among states...
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...Introduction: Environment plays an complex medium of biotic and abiotic factor that are surrounded by all living being on the earth , among all the living being human being is in leading position that majorly associated with environment. Human life supportive system’s health is maintained by the biosphere with support of all other living creatures. The survival of all the species are highly inter connected and dependent on each other, like plants act as food for other living beings and supportive for to other species by releasing oxygen and many other benefits. Insects and all other tiny living...
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...Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, having met at Stockholm from 5 to 16 June 1972,having considered the need for a common outlook and for common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment, Proclaims that: 1. Man is both creature and moulder of his environment, which gives him physical sustenance and affords him the opportunity for intellectual, moral, social and spiritual growth. In the long and tortuous evolution of the human race on this planet a stage has been reached when, through the rapid acceleration of science and technology, man has acquired the power to transform his environment in countless ways and on an unprecedented scale. Both aspects of man's environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights the right to life itself. 2. The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world; it is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments. 3. Man has constantly to sum up experience and go on discovering, inventing, creating and advancing. In our time, man's capability to transform his surroundings, if used wisely, can bring to all peoples the benefits of development and the opportunity to...
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...they have rights?) Freeman (1984, P. 46) popularized the definition of a stakeholder as ‘. . . ANY group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives’. This is a very broad definition meaning that in today’s global business environment any individuals and groups may be business’s stakeholders (Davey, 2015). This sparks the debate about whether or not the natural environment can be identifiable as a stakeholder. In the ethics in practice case ‘Are Plants and Flowers Stakeholders? Do they have rights?’ this topic is highlighted. The following discussion will review the idea of the environment as a primary stakeholder taking into account the stakeholder identification framework of Mitchell et al. (1997), suggesting that stakeholders have a mixture of legitimacy, power and urgency(Davey, 2015). In keeping up with the growing concern for sustainability many argue that the natural environment should be considered among important stakeholders (Davey, 2015). Historically the natural environment has often been neglected because it has never had a spokesperson(Davey, 2015). However as a concern for the environment (particularly global warming) grows so does the number of environmental groups. Groups such as Greenpeace are regarded as indirect stakeholders and as a result many organisations fail to fully incorporate their concerns into their business(Davey, 2015). As an attempt to make the wellbeing of the natural environment a priority...
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...Will Duty to Save Environment Ever End? Law as Integrity Mohammad Mamunur Rashid* Abstract Human rights are not the new concept but due to its serious importance, these have become status of religion in today’s world. People do not respect, sometimes, such rights only because they are protecting themselves. So-called political, commercial or professional interest is first priority of the most people. Land-grabbing illegally, destruction of the trees and greenery environment catastrophically, using pump machine for drawing drinking water from the underground with no hesitation, wastage of natural resources cruelly, enemy behavior with the animals, beasts and other dependant pieces are glaring examples of greedy and selfish tendency of the prudent lives of the universe. These inhuman activities are obliging morally some conscious people to think about its protection. As a result, if any pre-emptive measure for maintaining peace and tranquility is taken all over the world, respecting human rights and humanity is considered as prime concern in such exceptional circumstances. Constitution, national laws and international conventions have accommodated few rights emphatically. ‘Right to life’ is that types of rights. In addition, non-complying with many other rights originated from nature is essential; otherwise, enjoyment of ‘right to life’ would be impossible. Safe environment is one of those significant rights which facilitate us to ensure ‘right to life’. Judiciary, legal...
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...extent is it true to claim that people have an individual sense of moral responsibility for environment? (35 marks) When looking at environmental ethics, we are focusing on our attitudes towards the impact on the biological and geological aspects of our planet and whether human actions maintains or disturbs the balance between the planet's different life forms and geological systems. This essay will include exploring theories and deciding whether we have an individual moral responsibility towards the environment. Many people believe that as humans, we do have a moral responsibility towards the environment and we must preserve and protect it for the future generations. However, others take an anthropocentric view and they believe that humanity is the centre of creation and therefore has greater importance over the environment so we should do to the environment what we wish, if it serves a purpose for us. Christian views have often be accused of placing an emphasis on human domination of the world and therefore not taking an individual moral responsibility for the environment. This belief perhaps comes from the Bible itself where, in Genesis it says that humans are given "dominion over the fish…the birds…over all the earth" dominion, being defined as having sovereignty or control over everything means that if humans have dominion then God's creation is anthropocentric and therefore a human must do what he needs to do if it betters his quality of life, despite what future repercussions...
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...Assess the claim that secular approaches to environment issues are of more help than religious ones. (35 marks) Secular approaches are ethical approaches that are not religious, for example Kantian ethics. Religious approaches would include Natural Law and biblical references. In both of these approaches to environment issues, a good approach to environment issues would be one that weighed up the pros and cons of both sides of the argument and come to a rational conclusion that is backed up with reason. Utilitarian’s weigh up the long term effects against the short term effects. I think this is a good way of looking at the environment, as the long-term effects are very different to the short-term effects. If we focus on only the short-term effects, then no environmental problems will be solved. Jeremy Bentham follows the quantitative approach, which is where the cause of the action outweighs the maximisation of higher pleasures for the present and future generations. Bentham would weigh up the pleasures and pain for all those involved. For example, a quiet lake with loads of wildlife being used for water skiing and other recreational activities. Bentham would weigh up the pleasure of the people and the amount of income against the pain that the wildlife would take and then make a decision whether it should be allowed or not. This is not a very helpful way of solving environmental problems because each situation will have a different outcome depending on the pleasure and pain...
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...Bill McKibben highlights the fact that we are destroying the natural environment at an increasing rate, for our own short-term gain. Since the day that man created agriculture, and industrialisation to follow, the imbalance between man and nature has been growing[1/2]. This has been accompanied by a massive population increase, tripling in the twentieth century alone[3]. Human pressure on nature has never been so great. Such pressure has resulted in 'environmental issues', ranging from global warming and eutrophication, to the depletion of natural resources and an increase in the number of landfill sites. A distinction must be drawn between 'anthropogenically created’ environmental issues, and 'natural' ones. The extinction of most of the dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago was not caused by man, but rather an entirely natural disaster, perhaps a meteor or extreme tectonic activity. It is difficult to apply any man-made ethic to situations that are not man-made, so for the purpose of this essay, 'environmental issues' will be taken to be current issues actively cause by human beings. During the last few decades, many thinkers from different disciplines have been searching for a new ethic to confront environmental issues with - an 'environmental ethic'. Whether religious or secular in nature, this must be able to define the environment and the proper relationship that should exist between human beings and the natural world. The stance that one takes concerning...
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...| Challenges | 6 | A Success Story | 7 | Reference | 8 | Mission “We are committed to developing a winning portfolio of sustainable businesses, subscribe to good corporate governance and high ethical values, continuously strive to deliver superior financial returns through operational excellence and high performance standards and provide an environment for our people to realize their full potential”. (Sime Darby 2013) This statement shows that Sime Darby has a very high target to be the top one in the business market and to shows their responsibility to maintain and improve their commitment towards their consumer. It is their difference that makes Sime Darby to be successful today. This report will basically talk about the recommendation for Sime Darby to improve in this global community and for the other companies to follow the good things and to avoid the mistakes that the company had done in the previous years. Besides, this report will also analyze two out of ten principles of the UN Global Compact: Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and (The Ten Principles/ Principle 1 2013). Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. (The Ten Principles/ Principle 9 2013) Four recommendations will be given in order to build...
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...SUMMARY The purpose of this report is to describe and analyze the detriments and implications of a workplace tainted with harassment issues, as well as to provide recommendations to assist organizations on how to avoid legal liability regarding harassment claims and how to achieve a harassment-free work environment. Drawing on scholarly sources, the report identifies three forms of harassment, which are bullying, sexual and racial harassment. It examines the differences in people’s perception of harassment in general as well as the factors influencing individuals’ experience of it. The report describes the risks for businesses experiencing harassment in the workplace; it examines the negative effects they can have on organizational environment, and its impacts on the organizations’ professional image. The findings of this report suggest that organizations can prevent and resolve harassment in the workplace by improving leadership and communication among employees, and by implementing and enforcing a clear and effective anti-harassment policy. The recommendations made in this report are to: * Provide basic guidelines on how to create and enforce effective human rights policies in organizations * Provide the necessary elements an effective anti-harassment policy should have * Provide adequate training and education programs for everyone at the organization INTRODUCTION Over the last years, there has been a rising concern over the issue of harassment in the...
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...The topics I’ve picked out for this week are: human rights, the environment and third world development. I want to showcase them here because NGOs are heavily involved in these international topics, but that isn’t to say that states and IGOs aren’t also heavily involved. They are! The article from Steinberg on NGOs in the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the reading this week demonstrates this very well. I recommend keeping the form in the week 2 lesson notes on hand when you read that article so you can keep straight the actors, their identities, their purposes (e.g. realist or liberalist) and the levels of analysis they impact the most. If you aren’t familiar with the conflict, I recommend checking out this fabulous interactive by CFR on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which is a subset of the wider Arab-Israeli Conflict. On a side note, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is my favorite example of why constructivism is so important in IR. It is shortsighted to advance a way forward to end the conflict without first understanding the identities of the actors involved and their unique history with each other. The things to remember about NGOs are that they are involved in every major international issue, that there are thousands of them and that some are better than others. Here are some book excerpts on human rights, the environment and development of the third world to help you better understand some the topics NGOs focus on. Human Rights (This excerpt is from Diez, Bode, and Costa...
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...even many legal scholars in favor of abortion rights criticize the ruling. The role of the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution faithfully, not to create arbitrary new rights at the expense of old ones nor to adopt legislation by judicial fiat. The Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments to guarantee specific rights with specific clauses. Lacking a textual or historical basis, this right to privacy depends largely on the Court that created it. Since the Constitution fails to specify the existence or extent of a general right to privacy. Any secondary right that falls under its protection, such as abortion, must necessarily rely on the whim of the current Supreme Court majority. Whether the availability of abortion is a good or bad outcome is closely related to the legal issue but a separate question. Attitudes change. Laws change. Even constitutions change. If the national consensus is that abortion is a fundamental right that ought to be protected, then this view has numerous ways to manifest itself, whether through state legislatures, the federal government or even a constitutional amendment. Roe v. Wade has many defenders, especially among those who support its outcome making fewer restrictions on abortion access. Arguing that women should have the right to do with their own bodies as they see fit. This is a serious consideration, but also serious is the possibility that abortion extinguishes a human life. Preventing the proper legislative resolution...
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...Science defines human life as a characteristic that exhibit a process with organization, growth, adaptation, etc.; however, ancient sages told people human life is extremely valuable and sacred, as a religious doctrine in the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill.” Moreover, when people talk about ethics, they will think about rules to differentiate right and wrong. It might be wise maxims of Confucius or religious beliefs. The most general way to define “ethics” is that “moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior” (American English in Oxford Dictionary). Bioethics is a pretty young interdisciplinary study, which is considered with ethical questions related to the relationships among human beings, animals, and environments in the late twentieth century. Based on this, bioethics derived three main subdisciplines, which are medical ethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. Although each sub-discipline has particular study area in bioethics, there still are overlaps of ethical considerations and approaches. This makes it difficult to easily discuss ethics questions such as stem cell research, xenotransplantation, the ethical status of animals and the ethical status of the environment. Further discussion about the vital issue of moral status solutions is necessary at the same time. In the rapid development of the natural sciences and biotechnology has greatly promoted better living conditions and improve the living standards of people around the world...
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...Assess the relationship between globalisation, human rights, state and green crime Globalisation refers to the increasing interconnectedness of societies in a way that things that happen in one part of the world affect another. It refers to the widening, deepening and speeding up of world wide interconnectedness in all aspects of life. Among the things that globalisation has brought is Transnational companies, deregulation of the financial markets and free flowing capital through international border and the increase of global intergovernmentalism. To a certain degree, globalisation has had implications on human rights, state and green crime. Human rights refers to rights people inherit simply by merit of being a human, this idea encompasses a broad range of things which can be categorized in to civic-political, socio-economic and solidarity rights. Green criminology is a radical approach t crime that looks at the notion of harm. Certain things may not be considered as a crime in certain states, but it has profound harm on the physical environment and/or human and non human animals within the state. The case study of the Ogoni nine is a prime example that links globalisation with human rights and state and green crimes. Royal Dutch Shell, plc (Shell) began oil production in the Niger delta region of Nigeria in 1958. This region was home to the Ogoni people. For them, shell brought with them poverty and destruction of their natural land. The Ogoni is home to several...
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...Background International concerns with human rights, health and environmental protection have expanded considerably in the past several decades. In response, the international community has created a vast array of international legal instruments, specialized organs, and agencies at the global and regional levels to respond to identified problems in each of the three areas. Often these have seemed to develop in isolation from one another. Yet the links between human rights, health and environmental protection were apparent at least from the first international conference on the human environment, held in Stockholm in 1972. “Man is both creature and molder of his environment, which gives him physical sustenance and affords him the opportunity for intellectual, moral, social and spiritual growth. . . . Both aspects of man’s environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights even the right to life itself.” Therefore, it becomes very important to study the impacts of industrial pollution and threats to bio diversity closely while studying about Human Rights. Industrial pollution is one of the main causes of pollution worldwide. Industrial activities are a major source of air, water and land pollution, leading to illness and loss of life all over the world. The World Health Organization estimates that outdoor air pollution alone accounts for around 2% of all heart and lung diseases, about 5% of all lung cancers...
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