Changing perspectives on natural resource heritage, human rights, and intergenerational justice

ABSTRACT

This paper observes how the social, political and legal life of rights continues to evolve in response to growing natural resource scarcity and deteriorating climate conditions worldwide. In particular, it assesses the type of interpretive repertoires actors bring to bear on issues of justice between generations and human rights eligibility, documenting arguments put forward in defense, as well as against assigning a rights status to those not yet born. It notes how scientific research documenting the ‘forcing effects’ of escalating atmospheric pollution on long-term planetary wellbeing triggers a new conversation on the limits of traditional approaches to environmental justice and highlights the need to consider once again how a more long-term perspectivism on duties, rights and responsibilities can be institutionally applied.

KEYWORDS:

• Generations
• human rights
• natural resource heritage
• climate change
• legal court challenges
• presentism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Tracey Skillington is a lecturer in Sociology, University College Cork. Recent publications include Climate Justice & Human Rights (Palgrave), Climate Change and Intergenerational Justice (Routledge) and Guest Editor of Special Edition of the European Journal of Social Theory, ‘New Perspectives on Climate Change’ (2015).

Notes

1. See J.C. Tronto, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care (New York: Routledge, 1993), 154–5.

2. See Article 1, Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generations Towards Future Generations (1997).

3. Article 3, ibid.

4. Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Food Program, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015. Strengthening the Enabling Environment for Food Security and Nutrition (Rome: FAO, 2016), http://www.fao.org/3/a4ef2d16-70a7-460a-a9ac-2a65a533269a/i4646e.pdf (accessed September 19, 2016).

5. See United Nations (2017) Water, http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/water/ (accessed March 13, 2017).

6. I am using M. Wetherell and J. Potter’s, ‘Discourse Analysis and the Identification of Interpretive Repertoires’, in Analysing Everyday Explanation, ed. C. Antaki (London: Sage, 1988) understanding of interpretive repertoire as a set of culturally familiar arguments (comprising of recognisable themes and tropes) which actors draw upon to develop a credible stance on some issue. Repertoires are understood as a social resource in that they are available to all who share a cultural language.

7. See, also, Charles Antaki, ‘Analysing Discourse’, in Handbook of Social Research Methods, ed. Pertti Alasuutari, Len Bickman, and Julia Brannen (London: Sage, 2009).

8. See Wilfred W. Beckerman, ‘Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice’, in Fairness and Futurity, ed. Andrew Dobson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 71.

9. See H. Steiner, ‘The Rights of Future Generations’, in Energy and the Future, ed. D. MacLean and P.G. Brown (New Jersey: Rowman & Allenheld, 1983), 154, 259.

10. See also A. Gosseries, ‘Future Generations’ Future Rights’, The Journal of Political Philosophy 16, no. 4 (2008): 446–74.

11. See H. Steiner, ‘The Rights of Future Generations’, in Energy and the Future, ed. Douglas D. MacLean and P.G. Brown (1983), 154.

12. See also O. O’Neill, ‘A Kantian Approach to Transnational Justice’, in The Cosmopolitan Reader, ed. Garrett W. Brown and David Held (Cambridge: Polity, 2010), 67.

13. See The Lancet, ‘Estimates and 25-year Trends of the Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Ambient Air Pollution: An Analysis of Data from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2015’, 389, no. 10082 (May 2017): 1907–18, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)30505-6/fulltext (accessed November 20, 2017).

14. See National Geographic, ‘Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions Are Rising Again- Latest Stories’ (November 13, 2017), https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/climate-change-carbon-emissions-rising-environment/ (accessed March 2, 2018).

15. See C. Le Quéré, et al., ‘Global Carbon Budget 2014’, Earth System Science Data 7 (2015): 47–85, https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/7/47/2015/essd-7-47-2015.pdf (accessed August 31, 2018).

16. See, for example, V.R. Barros et al., Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects, Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Also, Cropwatch, ‘Impacts of Extreme Heat Stress and Increased Soil Temperature on Plant Growth and Development’ (2016), http://cropwatch.unl.edu/2016/impacts-extreme-heat-stress-and-increased-soil-temperature-plant- (accessed August 8, 2016).

17. Declaration on the Responsibilities of Present Generations Towards Future Generations, Article 4 (1997), http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Compilation/Pages/15.DeclarationontheRespons (accessed March 2, 2018).

18. See W. Beckerman and J. Pasek, Justice, Posterity and the Environment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 14.

19. See W. Beckerman, ‘Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice’, in Fairness and Futurity, ed. Andrew Dobson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 86–7.

20. Ibid., 9.

21. World Bank, ‘Human Rights and Climate Change: A Review of the International Legal Dimensions’ (2011), 47, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLAWJUSTICE/Resources/HumanRightsAndClimateChange.pdf (accessed July 25, 2016).

22. Ibid., 10. The argument presented by the World Bank in this 2011 report ‘Human Rights and Climate Change’ on developing countries’ concerns over infringements upon their right to development is an extremely important one and is, indeed, a source of ongoing contention in international climate change negotiations, especially the question of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ (e.g., UNFCCC, 1992, Article 3.1) for climate change mitigation, as well as prospects for greater equity in the sharing of the increasing burdens of climate change. India’s refusal to participate in the Paris climate talks from November 30 to December 12th, 2015 until the last minute was indicative of many developing states growing frustration with the lack of progress to date in international negotiations. The contribution of emissions per capita on the part of peoples from India, together with those from other vulnerable climate regions, including Pakistan, southern Africa, the Middle East, or South America continues to be low relative to those of peoples from more developed regions (e.g., the US, Europe Canada, etc.). In terms of exposure to severe drought, flooding, stronger cyclones, crop failure, inequalities between the world’s regions are growing rapidly, with the poorest most adversely affected (IPCC, Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, 2001, 917). Apart from expanding inequalities across regions, the right to development is also subject to more intense processes of interpretation across actor types, with competing actors claiming a right to development from different angles of interpretation, including states claiming a sovereign right to develop remaining oil and gas reserves, citizens claiming a right to preserve essential resources to secure their communities’ development into the future, over and beyond that asserted by states. The focus of this paper is on how the right the development is interpreted in relation to the needs, interests and rights of future generations. It acknowledges the ongoing importance of inadequate realizations of the right of billions living in the developing world to sustainable development (including 90% of the current global youth population (15–29 years) who live there).

23. See UNICEF UK, Climate Change: Children’s Challenge (2013), https://downloads.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/unicef-climate-change-report-2013.pdf?_ga=2.260913805.1852878664.1517505729-1521747984.1517505729 (accessed September 1, 2018).

24. World Bank, ‘Human Rights and Climate Change’, 10.

25. United States, ‘Observations by the United States of America on the Relationship between Climate Change and Human Rights’ (2009), www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/Submissions/USA.pdf (accessed March 14, 2017).

26. Ibid., 4.

27. See, for example, World Bank Group, ‘Energy and Environment’ (2017), 1, http://www.worldbank.org/en/research/dime/brief/energy-environment; See also World Bank Group, ‘Thirsty Energy’ (2013), 1–2, http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/sustainabledevelopment/brief/water-energy-nexus.

28. See also W. Beckerman, ‘Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice’, 71.

29. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966, Article 12; Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 (Article 24), http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx (accessed March 2, 2018).

30. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Common Article 1, http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx (accessed March 2, 2018).

31. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (accessed March 2, 2018).

32. Especially the failure to curb soaring global rates of GHG emissions. In the years since the Earth Summit in Rio and the signing of the first UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) when parties pledged to stabilise ‘greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’ (UNFCCC, Article 2), levels of CO₂ emissions have soared (2013) Global Carbon Project Report (September 19, 2014), http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/GCP/carbonbudget/2013/ (accessed March 2, 2018). In March 2015, scientists reported that monthly global average atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time in three million years (in the mid-Pliocene era), a figure subsequently surpassed in September 2016 when concentrations increased to 403.3 parts per million, thereby leading the way for further significant increases in global warming and projected sea level rises, UN World Meteorological Organization, ‘WMO Confirms 2016 as Hottest Year on Record, about 1.1°C above Pre-industrial Level’ (January 18, 2017), https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/wmo-confirms-2016-hottest-year-record-about-11%C2% (accessed March 2, 2018).

33. See UN Report of the Secretary-General to General Assembly, ‘Intergenerational Solidarity and the Needs of Future Generations’ (August 15, 2013), https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/2006future.pdf (accessed March 3, 2018), 5.

34. P. Alston, ‘Extreme Poverty and Human Rights’, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights to the UN General Assembly (August 4, 2015), http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/274 – See more at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16517&LangID=E#sthash.tkxTQ8C3.dpuf (accessed March 14, 2017).

35. Human Rights Watch, ‘World Bank: Dangerous Rollback in Environmental and Social Protections’, August 4, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/04/world-bank-dangerous-rollback-environmental-social-protections (accessed August 1, 2016).

36. See World Bank, ‘Environmental and Social Framework: Setting Environmental and Social Standards for Investment Project Financing’ (July 2015), http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/environmental-and-social-policies-for-projects/brief/the-environment-and-social-framework-esf (accessed March 2, 2018).

37. See Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), ‘NGO Response: Proposed World Bank Standards Represent Dangerous Setback to Key Environmental and Social Protections’ (July 22, 2016), http://www.ciel.org/news/safeguard-policy-endangers-rights/ (accessed March 1, 2018).

38. See, for example, Centre for International Environmental Law, ‘Smoke and Fumes: The Legal and Evidentiary Basis for Holding Big Oil Accountable for the Climate Crisis’ (November 2017), www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Smoke-Fumes-Final.pdf (accessed February 28, 2018).

39. See IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (2013); Patrick Taylor and John P. Clouds Holdren and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), ‘What Happens in the Arctic Doesn’t Stay on the Arctic’ (2015), https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/ (accessed March 2, 2018).

40. See M.R. Raupach and J.G. Canadell, ‘Carbon and the Anthropocene’, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2 (2010): 210–18.

41. See, for example, P. Goodwin, A. Katavouta, Y. Roussenov, M, Foster, L. Gavin, E.J. Rohling, and R. Williams, ‘Pathways to 1.5 and 2°C Warming Based on Observational and Geological Constraints’, Nature Geoscience 11 (2018): 102–7.

42. D. Chakrabarty, ‘The Future of the Human Sciences in the Age of Humans: A Note’, European Journal of Social Theory 20, no. 1 (2017): 42.

43. The discovery that the planetary system has entered the era of the Anthropocene was first announced in 2000 by P.J. Crutzen and F. Stoermer, ‘The Anthropocene’, Global Change Newsletter 41 (2000): 17. The Anthropocene defines a previously undetected interval in geological history, one thought by scientists to constitute the third division of the Quaternary period (2.6 million years ago to the present). For the first time in the history of the planet, Homo Sapiens have become the primary agent of geological change, altering the Earth’s carbon cycles, climate and energy flows exponentially and increasing exposure to finite-planet vulnerabilities. The origins of the Anthropocene are thought to be located in the eighteenth century when the invention of steam technology allowed for the rapid expansion of agriculture and industrialisation. However, it was only when certain human initiated activities became a force of global eco destruction from the mid-twentieth century (including the expansion of nuclear energy, fossil fuel combustion, nitrogen and phosphorous in agricultural fertilisers, and subsequently, the spread of micro-plastic particles into waterways and food chains) that the Anthropocene begun to gain real momentum.

44. See IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, Mitigation of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014), http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg3/ (accessed July 24, 2017).

45. NASA, ‘Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet’ (2017), http://climate.nasa.gov/causes (accessed December 20, 2017).

46. Chakrabarty, ‘The Future of the Human Sciences in the Age of Humans: A Note’, European Journal of Social Theory 20, no. 1 (2017).

47. Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (2007), https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_synthesis (accessed August 3, 2017).

48. Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Relationship between Climate Change and Human Rights (2009); Also, ‘Understanding Human Rights and Climate Change’ (2015); Report of the UN Secretary General, ‘Intergenerational Solidarity and the Needs of Future Generations’ (2013), http://www.futurejustice.org/bolg/guest-contribution/un-report-on-intergenerational-solidarity-and-the-needs-of-future-generations (accessed December 15, 2017). Since 2008, the Human Rights Council (HRC) has adopted various resolutions on climate change (e.g., UNHRC 10/4, 2009; UNHRC 18/22; UNHRC 35/20) drawing attention to its human rights implications.

49. See D. Beyleveld, M. Duwell, and A. Spahn, ‘Why and How Should We Represent Future Generations in Policymaking?’ Jurisprudence 6, no. 3 (2015): 549–66.

50. See D.F. Thompson, ‘Representing Future Generations: Political Presentism and Democratic Trusteeship’, Critical Review of International and Political Philosophy 13, no. 1 (2010): 17–37, 18, for example, examines how presentism manifests itself in laws that neglect the long-term environmental implications of current decision-making and disproportionately restricts the question of representation to those present in the here and now. Those most adversely affected by such decision-making are ‘not yet citizens’ and those who currently lack a political voice. ‘Critical resources may have been depleted and environmental treasures spoiled’ by the time these actors are in a position to act.

51. See Federica Mogherini, Speech by High Representative at high-level event ‘Climate, Peace and Security: The Time for Action’, Brussels (June 22, 2018), https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/47168/mogherini-high-level-event-climate-peace-and-security-time-action_en (accessed August 15, 2018).

52. In its final statement on the case of Urgenda V. the Netherlands, the Hague District Court referenced, amongst other legal instruments, Article 3 of the UN Climate Change Convention, noting states obligations to protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations and acknowledged: ‘In defending the right of not just the current but, also, future generations to availability of natural resources and a safe and healthy living environment’, the legal standards invoked by Urgenda are legitimate and its claims ‘are allowable to the full extent’ (point 4.9). Le Hague District Court Final Decision in the case of the Urgenda Foundation v. Kingdom of the Netherlands, Case Documents (Final Decision, 2015), http://climatecasechart.com/non-us-case/urgenda-foundation-v-kingdom-of-the-netherlands (accessed February 13, 2018).

53. See para 2.38, proceedings of case, C/09/456689/HA ZA 13–1396, English translation, https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2015:7196 (accessed August 17, 2018).

54. See Leghari v. Federation of Pakistan (2015) W.P. No. 25501 (Lahore High Court Green Bench Pakistan), https://elaw.org/PK_AsgharLeghari_v_Pakistan_2015 (accessed August 17, 2018).

55. Republic of the Philippines Supreme Court, Manila, G.R. No. 101083 July 30, 1993, Minors Oposa, supra note 65, 180. Minors Oposa v. Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/Philippines/Oposa%20v%20Factoran,%20GR%20No.% (accessed March 20, 2017).

56. Zoe and Stella Foster et al. v. Washington Department of Ecology (December 16, 2015). https://www.crin.org/en/library/legal-database/zoe-and-stella-foster-et-al-v-washington-department-ecology (accessed March 3, 2018).

57. See, for example, Constitution of Norway, Article 112; Republic of the Philippines Supreme Court, Manila, G.R. No. 101083 July 30, 1993, Minors Oposa, supra note 65, 180.

58. See, for instance, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights (1996), https://rm.coe.int/168007cdaf (accessed August 3, 2017). European Convention on Human Rights (1950), http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf (accessed March 3, 2018). Also, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Article 6(a) which asserts rights to participation, survival, and development.

59. See, for example, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief at 85, Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana, Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh M. et al. v. United States, Barack Obama et al., No. 6:15-cv-01517-TC, August 12, 2015.

60. Colombian Constitution, Article 1 & 11, https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Colombia_2005.pdf (accessed March 2, 2018).

61. I. Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. and ed. A.W. Wood (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, [1785] 2002), 164.

62. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (accessed March 2, 2018).

63. UN, Intergenerational Solidarity and the Needs of Future Generations’, 2013:6; See, also V. Muniz-Fraticelli, (Book Review: A Gosseries ‘Penser la justice entre les generations: De l’affaire Perruche a la reforme de retraites’, Ethics 15, no. 2 (2005): 412–15, 413).

64. See J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1999), 15–19.

65. See, for example, the closing argument presented in the case of Urgenda v. the Kingdom of the Netherlands (2015). For a theoretical account, see J. Reiman, ‘Being Fair to Future People: The Non-Identity Problem in the Original Position’, Philosophy & Public Affairs 35, no. 1 (2007): 69–92, 79.

66. J. Feinberg, ‘The Rights of Animals and Unborn Generations’, in Philosophy & Environmental Crisis, ed. W. T. Blackstone (Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1974), 65.

67. See J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1999), 252.

68. A. Heller, ‘Marx and Modernity’, Thesis Eleven 8, no. 1 (1984), 44–59.

69. See UNESCO Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generations Towards Future Generations (1997), Article 4, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Compilation/Pages/15.DeclarationontheResponsibilitiesofthePresentGenerationsTowardsFutureGenerations(1997).aspx. (accessed March 2, 2018).

70. Rio Declaration (1997) Principle 3 http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm (accessed March 2, 2018).

71. Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) Article 2, https://www.cbd.int/doc/legal/cbd-en.pdf (accessed March 2, 2018).

72. M. Freeman, ‘Are There Collective Human Rights?’, Political Studies XLIII (1995): 25–40, 30.

73. J. Raz’s, The Morality of Freedom (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986), 166.

74. Self-determination, as a fundamental principle of human rights law, is considered a norm of jus cogens (a primary rule of international law) and in terms of how it has been defended by the International Court of Justice, as having the status of erga omnes, that is, a human right ‘flowing to all’ (Parker, 2000).

75. Article 7 of the Constitution of the Pluri-national State of Bolivia (2009), https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Bolivia_2009.pdf (August 4, 2017).

76. See, for example, Constitution of Norway, Article 112, https://www.stortinget.no/en/In-English/About-the-Storting/The-Constitution/ (accessed March 2, 2018).

77. Deutscher Bundestag, Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (2014), https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf (accessed August 4, 2017).

78. See UN Secretary General, ‘Report of the UN Secretary General’, Intergenerational Solidarity and the Needs of Future Generations (2013): 6, http://www.futurejustice.org/bolg/guest-contribution/un-report-on-intergenerational-solidarity-and-the-needs-of-future-generations (accessed December 15, 2017).

79. Ibid., 6.

80. For example, Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, The Climate Legacy Initiative, and the World Future Council.

81. J. Brown-Weiss, In Fairness to Future Generations (Tokyo/New York: United Nations University and Transnational Publishers, 1989), 2.

82. WildEarth Guardians, ‘We Love Our Public Lands’ (Summer 2017), www.wildearthguardians.org/site/DocServer/WGnews28-lo.pdf?docID=17574 (March 2, 2018), 3.

83. Greenpeace, ‘This Far, No Further: Protecting the Arctic from Destructive Trawling’ (March 2016), http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2016/This-Far-No-Further.pdf (March12, 2017).

84. World Future Council, ‘Crimes against Future Generations’ (2013), https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/crimes-against-future-generations/ (accessed July 31, 2016).

85. Friends of the Earth Europe, ‘Norway Bars Arctic Oil Drilling in Pristine Lofoten Islands’ (January 16, 2018), http://www.foeeurope.org/arctic-oil-drilling-pristine-Lofoten-Islands-barred-Norway-160118 (accessed March 2, 2018).

86. For an account of ‘political presentism’ see D.F. Thompson, ‘Representing Future Generations: Political Presentism and Democratic Trusteeship’, Critical Review of International and Political Philosophy 13, no. 1 (2010): 18. Similarly, in the case of legal and economic varieties of presentism, emphasis is placed on the needs and interests of the present. The long-term ramifications of short-term thinking (e.g., speed profit) are ignored.

87. A number of constructive proposals along these lines have been presented in more recent years, including the introduction of The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act which obliges public bodies to carry out sustainable development and well-being assessments on their operations, the results of which are published in annual future trends reports to the Welsh Assembly. Another proposal is that made by former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, in the 2013 report ‘Intergenerational solidarity and the needs of future generations’ on the possibility of a new High Commissioner Office for Future Generations being established and short-term thinking in all policy sectors re-oriented towards more long-term goals. The explicit aim in this instance is to ensure that the core principles of the UN Charter and those of the UN’s sustainable development goals are merged. The legal rationale for the establishment of such an office would stem from existing international legal commitments to the protection of all generations across time (see, for example, the Preamble of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) which refers to ‘the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family’).

88. Article 4 of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 1972.

89. See ‘Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raises concerns for Germany & Argentina’, Centre for International Environmental Law (2 November 2017), available at https://www.ciel.org/news/committee-economic-social-cultural-rights-raises-concerns-germany-argentina/ (accessed August 15, 2018).

90. For example, Nature and Youth and Greenpeace Vs. the Government of Norway, 2016; Minors Oposa v. Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Philippines Supreme Court, 1993.

91. See R. Forst, ‘A Critical Theory of Human Rights- Some Groundwork’, in Critical Theory in Critical Times: Transforming the Global Political and Economic Order, ed. P. Deutscher and C. Lafont (New York: Columbia, 2017), 74.

92. In The Logic of Practice, ed. Pierre Bourdieu (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997), 110, explains how doxa is the ‘unanimity effect’ or shared commitment to the presuppositions, values and aspirations of a given order of power (ibid., 66). Doxa is ‘an act of misrecognition’ of the true nature of one’s stratified world (Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (Routledge, 1984), 471). Occasionally, however, doxa is reversed by overwhelming experiential evidence contradicting the notion that all is well.

93. See, for example, UN, Back to Our Common Future: Sustainable Development in the 21st Century (2012), https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/UN-DESA_Back_Common_Future_En.pdf (accessed March 2, 2018).

94. For example, see Superior Court of the State of Washington, Judge Hollis R. Hill, December 19, 2016.

95. See United Nations, ‘Report of the UN Secretary General’, Intergenerational Solidarity and the Needs of Future Generations (2013), http://www.futurejustice.org/bolg/guest-contribution/un-report-on-intergenerational-solidarity-and-the-needs-of-future-generations (accessed December 15, 2017). See, also, Skillington, Climate Change and Intergenerational Justice (Oxon: Routledge, 2018) for a more detailed discussion.

96. See, for example, Dejusticia, ‘Environmental Justice’ (2018), https://www.dejusticia.org/en/ (accessed March 2, 2018); Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations, Input Paper for the Second Substantive Session of the Preparatory Committee of the General Assembly Special Session on Children (January 30, 2001). See: www.intergenerationaljustice.org/images/stories/publications/united_nations_special_on_children.pdf (accessed March 5, 2017).

97. For instance, Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union provides that the EU will act ‘as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen’ (2007). Also, see European Union, Consolidated Versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (2012) Official Journal C326, 26/10/2012, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A12012M%2FTXT (February 19, 2018). See, also, T. Skillington, Climate Justice & Human Rights (New York: Palgrave, 2017), 247.