When Human Rights, the Environment and Young People Intersect: the Case of the Colombian Amazon
Source: https://images.app.goo.gl/VWy5dM2DsB17MDby6
By: Valeria Sinisi García
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the KCL Latin American Society or El Cortao.
People often underestimate young people and by consequence, the latter can feel disenfranchised and powerless to be the change they want to see in the world. However, some decide to reject and contradict this notion and despite the, occasionally, overly bureaucratic systems in place around them, they manage to inspire, make and demand change. The young Swedish climate-activist Greta Thunberg is a very obvious example, while William Kamkwamba, a Malawian boy that at 13 saved his town from famine by building windmills that provided water and electricity, is another equally as impressive one. An instance which is not as well-known is the lawsuit filed by a group of 25 young people in 2018 against several Colombian governmental bodies and agencies for violating their constitutional rights to a healthy environment. A lawsuit which went on to rule in their favour.
The group consisted of children, teenagers and young adults, from ages 7 to 26. They were motivated to act because of their critical view of the agenda that the Colombian government had adopted towards climate change and deforestation. Their dissent was directed especially towards the lack of regulation protecting the Colombian Amazon, which extended on a territory roughly the size of Germany and England combined. This continued disregard of the Amazon’s ecosystem was also cited in the lawsuit as already threatening the food and water security of the young plaintiffs as well as many other Colombians. Hence, they constructed their argument around their constitutional right to a healthy environment, claiming that the Presidency of the Republic - among other entities - was violating this right by not protecting the Amazon rainforest. Furthermore, they cited Colombia’s numerous international commitments, such as their obligation to “reduce the net rate of deforestation to zero in the Colombian Amazon by 2020,” present in the Paris Agreement and which they weren’t on track to achieve. Deforestation rates actually increased by 44% from 2015 to 2016, showing that the government of Colombia had not been dormant towards their environmental pledges: it had been actively going against them.
The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favour of the Amazon, making it the first time that a lawsuit of this kind had ruled favourably for the environment in Latin America. The court even succeeded in recognising the Amazon as an entity subject to the same rights as a human being. One of the plaintiffs, Camilla Bustos, said that “the ruling states the importance of protecting the rights of future generations,” a concept which has already emerged as a new and possibly more effective approach to environmental law. While this case and its verdict signalled a historic precedent in terms of climate change litigation, it isn’t the only time that individuals have tried to fight for climate justice through legal means. Reports clearly show that this branch of legal action has been growing both in importance and as a means to counter climate change in recent decades. Furthermore, the human rights argument is also being increasingly used. In 2015, the Dutch supreme court was presented with a similar case, in which the right to life proclaimed in the European convention on human rights was recognised to rule that the government of the Netherlands had a responsibility to fight climate change with greater efforts. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes an article which also states “the right to life,” which suggests that the ruling that the environment must be protected and that climate justice must be achieved could be adopted globally.
While the right to life is recognised by international law, the right to a healthy environment still isn’t. Indeed, the intersection and interdependence between human rights and environmental protection has often been underlined by scholars, politicians and lawyers, but a clear link still hasn’t been presented in the form of a proclamation of a human right by the UN, which is arguably the most important international governing body in the world. The relationship between the two has, besides, been recognised at every level of the world’s legal systems, in both domestic cases and multilateral treaties. Furthermore, over 100 constitutions over the world, such as the Colombian one, recognise their citizens’ right to a healthy environment. In fact, the UN Environmental Programme states that human rights and a healthy environment go hand in hand, and that one does not exist without the other. Even the Paris Agreement states the undeniable interconnectivity between the two. Therefore, this poses the question as to why the UN still hesitates to globally recognise the human right to a healthy and liveable environment.
The case brought forth by the group of 25 young people in Colombia not only succeeded in determining this crucial link, but it also served to show that age doesn’t matter when one wishes to bring about change, especially in the context of climate change. This is due to the fact that it’s the youngest generations which will start to experience some of its direst effects. The lawsuit further demanded public participation in the creation of an intergenerational plan to halt deforestation and ensure a liveable planet for Colombian citizens of the future. To fulfil this, the Supreme Court ordered the government to participate with the plaintiffs, as well as other affected communities and scientific experts, to come up with said plan together and within four months of the ruling.
Although the court ruled in the plaintiffs’ favour, and although some efforts to uphold its ruling were initiated shortly after the ruling, the government has overall failed to deliver. After requesting a ten-month extension to deliver the plan, the proposed plan did not include any details regarding dates, persons nor agencies in charge of implementing these. Moreover, the deforestation proposal, which the Ministry of the Environment was responsible for, clearly showed its disinterest in curbing it as the only action defined was directed towards ensuring the rates did not increase. This means that according to this plan, which was also ineffective as deforestation actually rose since the ruling, it would be within regulations to cut 219,973 hectares of forests per year. The Ministry also did not allow participation from other actors, contrary to what was mandated by the Supreme Court.
Despite the ultimate failure in its execution, this lawsuit is extremely significant in the history of environmental law and in the fight for climate justice. It recognises both the Amazon forest, one of the most important parts in the fight against climate change, as an entity with rights, as well as future Colombian generations, in what was described as “one of the most robust environmental court rulings in the world.” One of the most impressive parts of this case is the fact that it was brought forward by a group of young people, with members as young as 7 years old. They actively defied their assumed powerlessness towards the system which they believed was failing them, showing youths across the world that their voices are not always unheard. This lawsuit has undoubtedly also aided to inspire more arguments and cases of a similar nature to emerge, in what has been, and will be, a very long fight towards complete climate justice
Valeria Sinisi García is a Spanish and Italian student, in her last year of a BA in International Relations. She is a regular contributor for El Cortao' and the Regional Editor for Latin America in the student-led magazine ‘Dialogue.’ Her main research interests include climate change and its intersection with human rights, as well as issues regarding Latin America, international law, feminism, and current affairs.
Bibliography
Bryner, Nicholas. “Colombian Supreme Court Recognizes Rights of the Amazon River Ecosystem.” IUCN, May 15, 2018. https://www.iucn.org/news/world-commission-environmental-law/201804/colombian-supreme-court-r ecognizes-rights-amazon-river-ecosystem.
DeJusticia. “Climate Change and Future Generations Lawsuit in Colombia: Key Excerpts from the Supreme Court's Decision.” Dejusticia, April 17, 2018. https://www.dejusticia.org/en/climate-change-and-future-generations-lawsuit-in-colombia-key-excerp ts-from-the-supreme-courts-decision/.
DeJusticia.“The Colombian Government Has Failed to Fulfill the Supreme Court's Landmark Order to Protect the Amazon.” Dejusticia, April 5, 2019. https://www.dejusticia.org/en/the-colombian-government-has-failed-to-fulfill-the-supreme-courts-lan dmark-order-to-protect-the-amazon/.
Kaminski, Isabella. “Dutch Supreme Court Upholds Landmark Ruling Demanding Climate Action.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, December 20, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/dutch-supreme-court-upholds-landmark-ruling-dem anding-climate-action.
Knox, John H., and Ramin Pejan. “Introduction.” Chapter. In The Human Right to a Healthy Environment, edited by John H. Knox and Ramin Pejan, 1–16. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. doi:10.1017/9781108367530.001.
Moloney, Anastasia. “Colombia's Top Court Orders Government to Protect Amazon Forest in Landmark Case.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, April 6, 2018.https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-deforestation-amazon-idUSKCN1HD21Y.
Parker, Larissa. “Make a Healthy Climate a Legal Right That Extends to Future Generations.” The Economist, 2019. https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/09/17/make-a-healthy-climate-a-legal-right-that-extend s-to-future-generations.
Setzer, Joana, and Rebecca Byrnes. Rep. Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation: 2020 Snapshot. Grantham Research Institute, July 2020.https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Global-trends-in-climate-change -litigation_2020-snapshot.pdf.
Tenreyro, Tatiana. “What's William Kamkwamba Doing In 2019? 'The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind' Inventor Is Making A Difference Globally.” Bustle. Bustle, March 1, 2019. https://www.bustle.com/p/whats-william-kamkwamba-doing-in-2019-the-boy-who-harnessed-the-win d-inventor-is-making-a-difference-globally-16103209.
UNEP. “What Are Environmental Rights?” UNEP - UN Environment Programme. Accessed November 13, 2020.https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/environmental-rights-and-governance/what-we-do/adv ancing-environmental-rights/what.
UN. “#YouthStats: Environment and Climate Change - Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth.” United Nations. United Nations. Accessed November 15, 2020. https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/environment-climate-change/.
UN. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations. United Nations. Accessed November 13, 2020. https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/.