“This we know, the Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the Earth. This we know, all things are connected, like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the thread of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.“”
—Letter from Chief Seattle to President Franklin Pierce (1855)
The environment, development, democracy and human rights are the fundamental values of this century. The establishment of a world order in which, to use the words of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, “the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realised,” poses a continuing challenge.
The relationship between human rights and the environment is widely recognized. As governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations work towards strengthening the legal expression of a new generation of “ecological rights” and to progressively
integrate environmental concerns into the national, regional and international procedures aiming at the protection of human rights, new practices have evolved which portend new developments in the field of law. Human rights are regarded as “indivisible and interdependent,” and perceived in all their dimensions including those related to environment and development.
—Letter from Chief Seattle to President Franklin Pierce (1855)
The environment, development, democracy and human rights are the fundamental values of this century. The establishment of a world order in which, to use the words of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, “the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realised,” poses a continuing challenge.
The relationship between human rights and the environment is widely recognized. As governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations work towards strengthening the legal expression of a new generation of “ecological rights” and to progressively
integrate environmental concerns into the national, regional and international procedures aiming at the protection of human rights, new practices have evolved which portend new developments in the field of law. Human rights are regarded as “indivisible and interdependent,” and perceived in all their dimensions including those related to environment and development.