International Appeal for the Inclusion of the Right to Water and Air

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International Appeal for the Inclusion of the Right to Water and Air

It is a fact that Water and Air are indispensable for the survival of mankind and of every single person, of life on the planet Earth.

Full supporting the general comment No.15, adopted in 2002 by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in 2010 the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recognized that “ Water is the essence of life. Safe drinking water and sanitation are indispensable to sustain life and health, and fundamental to the dignity of all. ” (OHCHR,  Fact Sheet No.35, The Right to Water , August 2010, https://www.refworld.org/docid/4ca45fed2.html [accessed 13 February 2019]). In 2008, the Human Rights Council created the mandate of the “independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation” to help clarify the scope and content of these obligations (OHCHR,  Fact Sheet No. 35 ). 

It is a fact, however, that still today the Right to Water and, we add, to Air, which also is essential to life, is denied to the majority of humanity. Certain diseases in the evolution of economic and social structures, the development of technologies originally aimed at improving the quality of life, but often used solely for the purpose of greater economic profit, certain phenomena of arrogance and unscrupulous finance, wars and the devastation of enormous natural resources lead us to have serious concerns about the real availability of water and air, today and in the near future, to every human being and each one of them and to every other living being in general. 

It is a fact that there is an indivisible unity between the atmospheric system and the water resources of the Earth, freshwater, and marine; this same ecosystem, the “biosphere”, in its indivisible unity includes human beings and all living beings in the richness of their diversity and it guarantees their survival in the succession of generations. It makes food production possible and the same economy gets advantages from it. “Biosphere integrity plays a critical role in determining the state of the Earth system, regulating its material flows, energy balance, climate, and responses to abrupt and gradual change.” ( WWF Living Planet Report 2018 , p.85 https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-10/LPR2018_Full%20Report.pdf).

It is therefore on these premises that we ask His Excellency Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to the Honorable Tedros Adhanom, to the Honorable Joyce Msuya, to U.N. Member Nations to introduce in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the Right to Water and  Air, the very basis of life in all its forms, common good of humankind, without which any other right does not exist in fact. The universal Right to Water and Air is a necessary condition and adds scientific concreteness to the Right to Life stated in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Various national agencies in various countries established in different ways rules aimed at the protection of Water and Air. However, in the vast majority of cases, these agencies fail to pursue and fulfill their mission not only because of the pressure exerted on them by interested lobbyists and criminal associations but also because of the lack of indisputable references in terms of the law. Recommendations and recognitions of Committees and Councils are not enough.  The inclusion  of the Right to Water and Air among the fundamental
human rights in the Universal Declaration will surely introduce a clear legal basis to appeal to.

Among the first to sign : Prof. Noam Chomsky, Prof. Luc Montagnier (Nobel Prize for Medicine) and many scientists participating to the 13th Conference on the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Water, held in Sofia, Bulgaria, October 18-21, 2018. The Appeal has been included in the final resolutions of the IV Conferencia International por el Equilibrio del Mundo, La Habana, Cuba 28 - 31 January 2019. 


You can subscribe to the appeal by clicking on the link.

https://secure.avaaz.org/it/community_petitions/United_Nations_Assembly_and_its_Secretary-General__Inclusion_of_the_Right_to_Water_and_Air_in_the_UN_Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights/details/
or
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Il7W_jvtThDFbQ6Zw3NKFEgEBhsPJa_KCecKdTSzSj0/edit?fbclid=IwAR1vlq0kbdHREW9RtpPIYs--Qy0_3oqT2O80wk-yQzcEMlD3CuHeRADn_DE

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2 Comments

  1. Touché. But it needs long-lasting bite, which I am sure the majority of the Earth's population would agree (when they really think long and hard about the world we live today)... It's due time to impose an unflinching, unavoidable, globally enforced environmental tax for which the shareholders of "every" notably large company that releases air, water and land pollution "must" offer some return to Nature at the UN's governance; exclusively for Sustainable Development acts across the globe - not for remediation (which remains the Corporate's continued/future responsibility) but exclusively for reclamation of that already lost (due to lack of Corporates' past-abandoned responsibility). In short, the bigger the polluter (that affects more of the world's population), the bigger the Earth Tax before return of dividend to the Shareholder (that benefits less of the world's population) - End the exploitation!

  2. *For safe drinking water and clean air ceramics is genuinely sustainable!*

    Ceramics is uniquely suited in remediating the two most apparent problems of environmental health in the developing world.  In the January/February 2019 issue of *Ceramic Bulletin,* publication of the American Ceramic Society, is the article, *Filtering safe drinking water through granulated ceramics,*

    http://tamceramics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/TAM-feature_01-02-2019.pdf

    No less urgent in ceramics is the need for environmentally responsible cook stoves. Thousands of women and girls die every day as a result of smoke and fumes around stoves.  In the March 2019 issue of Ceramic Bulletin, scrolling down to page 22 is the article, *Reducing air pollution: Insulating ceramic rocket stoves*: http://ceramics.org/wp-content/bulletin/2019/pdf/March2019.pdf 

    Also from *Ceramic Bulletin* here’s the link of the article, the title within:  https://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today/international/reducing-air-pollution-insulating-ceramic-rocket-stoves