Initial idea: Crimes against Future Generations 1 • Identify and highlight avoidable actions today that are damaging the lives of future generations • Examples: extraction of fossil fuels, blocking of protective standards and laws, profit before people • Actions would be: contact “guilty” individuals and corporations and make cases known if no response => Project expanded to match WFC focus on solutions and the change of rules of governance: Develop central and legally sound Future The WFC Future Justice Project: Achievements and Outlook
Transcript
Initial idea: Crimes against Future Generations
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• Identify and highlight avoidable actions today that are damaging the lives of future generations
• Examples: extraction of fossil fuels, blocking of protective standards and laws, profit before people
• Actions would be: contact “guilty” individuals and corporations and make cases known if no response
=> Project expanded to match WFC focus on solutions and the change of rules of governance:
Develop central and legally sound Future Justice Criteria to denounce Crimes and to select Best Policies that provide guidelines for sustainable change
The WFC Future Justice Project: Achievements and
Outlook
Initial Idea: Crimes against Future Generations
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• Identify and highlight avoidable actions today that are damaging the lives of future generations
• Examples: extraction of fossil fuels, blocking of protective standards and laws, profit before people
• Actions would be: contact “guilty” individuals and corporations and make cases known if no response
=> Project expanded to match WFC focus on solutions and the change of rules of governance:
Develop central and legally sound Future Justice Criteria to denounce Crimes and to select Best Policies that provide guidelines for sustainable change
Research and develop two sets of Criteria for consistent and recognizable work towards ethical, long-term orientated governance.
Use in campaigns to challenge AND support:
* Denounce future-foreclosing behavior as Crimes against Future Generations
* Identify Worst Policies
* Select and promote Best Policies for systemic change
Objectives of the Future Justice Criteria
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1. Deliver common ground from which to launch challenges against regulations and actions that foreclose on the future
2. Legally tighten this common ground to increase the normative power of such appeals, demands and also of the proposition of solutions
3. Provide a “gold standard” by which we select WFC recommendations for credibility and consistency between single policies
4. Develop Criteria into concise stand-alone tools that deliver a “WFC approved” stamp for allied action on positive solutions and worst behavior
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Potentials of the Future Justice Criteria
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Activities until May 2008
• Legal research paper on the notion of a “crime against future generations” in existing law (CISDL)
• Research and compilation of sample cases
• Research of existing criteria for policies and laws protecting future generations (and legal analysis, CISDL)
• First tentative application to WFC best policies
• Strategy workshop at The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, April 11-13 2008
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New Expert Commission Future Justice and Human Security
• The Executive Committee proposes to join the working groups on Future Justice and Human Security Workshop in Santa Barbara with members from both groups Agreement to collaborate until 2009 to test the synergies before making a final decision
Overall Goal as agreed by the Commission:
Protect the Rights of Future Generations through a powerful double-wing strategy of best policy promotion and worst behavior denunciation guided by complementary WFC Future Justice Criteria and the promotion of the realization of Human Security.
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3-Year Perspective: Expected Results
• WFC established as player for systemic change that strategically promotes solutions for future just societies in which all live in freedom from needs and freedom from fear• Future Justice best and worst policy criteria are accepted and used by WFC members, parliamentarians, advocacy groups as a benchmarking tool for policy monitoring and improvement• WFC has established the notion of Crimes against Future Generations so that it is accepted and used to condemn worst behavior by leading groups in the field
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Objectives for 2008/2009 - I
Political:
• Human Security and Future Justice as reference points of impact assessment for national policy-making
• Illustrative case of a Crime against Future Generations
• Include Crimes against Future Generations into the Statutes of the International Criminal Court in 2009
Communication:
• Campaign strategy to promote policy principles and selected policies
• Future Justice Policy Award and a Worst Policy Ranking
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Objectives for 2008/2009 - II
Financial stability:
• Secure significant funding for campaigns through collaboration with the Commission members and through secretariat-coordinated fundraising after their adoption
Internal:
• Discussion and approval of criteria for Best Policies and Crimes against Future Generations at AGM 2008 and criteria for Worst Policies in 2009
• Growing use of the Future Justice Criteria by Councillors in their own work
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Core Topics for Work Development
a) Crimes against Future Generations
b) Prevention and Human Security
c) Militarism and Nuclearism
d) Best/Worst Policies and Award(s)
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Deliverables for Approval at the AGM 2008
1. Definition of a “Crime against Future Generations”
Proposal to campaign on
ICC Statute revision
2. Definition of 7 Best Policy Principles
Proposal to create a WFC
Best Policy Award
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Crimes against Future Generations
• Individuals who have committed international crimes should be held accountable. One type of conduct which should be prohibited and prosecuted as an international crime is conduct which places the very survival of life at risk – a crime against future generations. • Crimes against future generations apply to acts or conduct undertaken in the present which have repercussions for the natural environment, human populations, species or ecosystems in the present and which have consequences, as assessed in the present, for future generations of life.
Crimes Against Future Generations -Proposal to the Council by the Commission on Future Justice and Human Security
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Crimes against Future Generations
• Individuals who have committed international crimes should be held accountable. One type of conduct which should be prohibited and prosecuted is conduct which places the very survival of life at risk – a crime against future generations.
• Crimes against future generations apply to acts or conduct undertaken in the present which have repercussions for the natural environment, human populations, species or ecosystems in the present and which have consequences, as assessed in the present, for future generations of life.
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The Need for a Campaign
• Although the concept of crimes against future generations build upon significant existing developments in international law and policy, they do not as such constitute customary international law
=> The absence of a crime against future generations needs to be recognized by the international community and acted upon!
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Draft Definition of the Crime
“Crimes against future generations” are any of the following acts or conduct, when committed with knowledge of their severe consequences on the health, safety, or means of survival of future generations of humans, or of their threat to the survival of entire species or ecosystems:a) military, economic, cultural or scientific activities, or the regulatory approval or authorisation of such activities, which cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment;b) military, (...), which gravely or irreparably imperil the health, means of survival or safety of a given human population;c) military, (...), which gravely or irreparably imperil the conditions of survival of a given species population or ecosystem.
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Basic Elements of a Crime
Each case brought before the WFC in plenary must contain the following elements:
1. A perpetrator
2. A discrete criminal act or series of discrete criminal acts that could, if investigated, be proven
3. Evidence of prohibited consequences (damage or a real threat of damage)
4. A clear indication that the act caused the damage or threat
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WFC Standard for Procedure of Accusation
1. Chapeau elements of the Crime:• Evidence of the severe consequences• Evidence that the accused had reasonable
knowledge about these consequences
2. Elements of the prohibited underlying act:• Actus reus of the underlying act: a voluntary act
or omission causing the consequences (a-c)• Mens rea of the underlying act: intent to
undertake the act or omission in question and intent to cause a prohibited consequence or awareness that a prohibited consequence will occur in the ordinary course of events.
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Further Aspect of Consideration
1. The nature of the criminal conduct - any co-perpetrators or accessories?
2. Any circumstances that exclude or limit criminal liability - accident, self-defense, authorized by others?
3. Any relevant immunities - heads of state?
Best Policy Criteria -Proposal to the Council by the Commission on Future Justice and Human Security
The need for Long-Loud-Legal signals for change
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“The technological power to affect future generations so broadly has come upon us suddenly, but our policies do not yet adequately address this new reality.
We need laws and institutions that better reflect our responsibilities to posterity and nature, an economics that fully accounts for the benefits of our environment and the costs of its degradation, and a politics capable of acting for the long-term.”
A Moral Call on Global Warming and Future Generations to US Senate by 90 intellectual leaders
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Best Policy Criteria
• How can we identify the ‘best practices’ among hundreds, indeed millions, of local, national and international policies and laws that are being set in place to promote sustainability, development and human rights?
• What kind of criteria or principles might be used to select leading examples of laws and policies?
• “A “Best Policy” or a “Best Practice Law”, to promote future justice, should embody the highest standard of sustainability, respect for human rights, and respect for the environment.”
Definition for 7 Future Justice Policy Principles
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The Best Policies would, in intention and in effect, reflect the duty of policy-makers to work towards:
1. sustainable use of natural resources, 2. equity and eradication of poverty, 3. precautionary approach to human health, natural
resources and ecosystems,4. public participation, access to information, and
justice,5. good governance in practice, 6. integration and interrelationship, in particular in
relation to human rights, social, economic and environmental objectives,
7. common but differentiated obligations.
Principle 1
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1. The duty of countries to ensure sustainable use of natural resources
1.1 Does the law/policy help to ensure that the Earth’s scarce resources will be used in a more sustainable way?
1.2 Does it help to address a common concern of humankind (such as climate change, global extinction of species, collapse of world fish stocks)?
1.3 Does it respect natural areas and artifacts which are common heritage of humankind?
Principle 2
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2. The principle of equity and the eradication of poverty
2.1 Does the law/policy help to address pressing poverty and human rights challenges?
2.2 Does it demonstrate respect among generations, by including provisions that take into account the needs and aspirations of future generations of life?
2.3 Does it promote respect within the present generation of life, by promoting social justice, equity for all peoples, an end to poverty and discrimination among species?
Principle 3
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3. The principle of the precautionary approach to human health, natural resources and ecosystems
3.1 Does the law/policy promote prevention and precaution in the face of scientific uncertainty about a threat of serious or irreversible harm?
3.2 Does it place the burden of proof for demonstrating that a project or activity is safe, or that risks are reasonable, on the proponent of the venture?
3.3 Where there is insufficient scientific evidence, does it ensure that those most affected by a project can set the acceptable level of risk or threat?
Principle 4
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4. The principle of public participation and access to information and justice
4.1 Does the law/policy provide for public consultation and genuine engagement, in both ist design and implementation?
4.2 Does it specifically provide for transparency and access to information for concerned citizens, local communities, and others who might be affected?
4.3 Does it provide avenues for appeal and redress for citizens, communities and others?
Principle 5
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5. The principle of good governance5.1 Does the law/policy establish adequate
institutions to ensure transparent, prompt, effective and fair implementation of its provisions?
5.2 Does the law/policy include provisions to ensure that its intentions are not thwarted by corruption or unethical conduct?
5.3 Does it provide appropriate penalties for abuse of rights, or for mis-implementation?
Principle 6
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6. The principle of integration and interrelationship, in particular in relation to human rights and social, economic and environmental objectives
6.1 Does the law/policy integrate social justice and environmental protection into economic development plans and projects?
6.2 Does it ensure that development decision-making takes environmental and social impacts into account, providing for mitigation, modification or cancellation if necessary?
6.3 Does it provide or enhance benefits for the environment, and the society?
Principle 7
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7. The principle of common but differentiated obligations
7.1 Does the law/policy take into account historical and other inequalities, including who has benefited from past activities and policies, when imposing obligations?
7.2 Is the law/policy appropriate and well-adapted to the society or region’s present level of technology, scientific knowledge, human/ financial resources, cultural values and traditions?
7.3 Does it avoid placing inappropriate burdens on vulnerable groups, or imposing costs on those least equipped to bear them?
Potential Projects for the Policy Principles
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• Create a public brochure in people’s language to explain WFC best policy work, including the Principles and a Support Kit for their use in policy monitoring, improvement and creation
• Publish annual brochure on 6 Best Policies targeting the hottest political debates
• Create a network and online community of allies using the Principles worldwide
