Progress in Liberia, Tanzania, and South Africa

E-LAW U.S. honors the growing corps of grassroots advocates in Africa. Together, we are building the capacity to protect the environment for generations to come. We are pleased to report on recent victories and current work.

New Environmental Law for Liberia

Lawyers at Green Advocates, Monrovia, Liberia.

E-LAW U.S. has worked since 2001 to build Liberia’s first public interest environmental law organization, Green Advocates. Until recently, Liberia has lacked basic statutes protecting the environment. Lawyers at Green Advocates have called on E-LAW U.S. and E-LAW advocates around the world to review a draft environmental law for their country.

Alfred Brownell of Green Advocates recently wrote with good news: "After more than three years of hard work and lobbying, Liberia now has three instruments providing for the protection of the environment and the sustainable management of Liberia’s natural resources... This work would not have been accomplished had it not been for the good comments and valuable information provided by numerous [E-LAW] Amigos."

Helping Tanzanians Protect Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake, is threatened by water pollution, especially nutrients that promote runaway growth of invasive weeds that starve the lake of oxygen. E-LAW’s partners in Tanzania at the Lawyers` Environmental Action Team (LEAT) are seeking to restore Lake Victoria by forcing polluters to comply with environmental standards. Two such polluters are large fish-processing plants in the Gulf of Mwanza, Tanzania, that discharge fish carcasses and untreated wastewater into the lake.

Thanks to a grant from the Alice C. Tyler Perpetual Trust, E-LAW U.S. has provided LEAT with funds to pay for measuring pollutants in wastewater discharged by the fish-processing plants. This project will enable LEAT to obtain hard proof that the plants are violating the law and call on them to improve their waste disposal practices. LEAT collected samples of contaminated wastewater in April 2004 and expects to receive laboratory results soon.

Fighting Toxic Waste in South Africa

An ill-advised incinerator. Shongweni, South Africa.

Local governments in South Africa are wrestling with the question of what to do with thousands of tons of medical waste generated by hundreds of health care facilities throughout the country.

Incineration companies are pushing to build poorly designed medical waste incinerators that endanger public health by releasing dioxins and heavy metals into the environment. Fortunately, grassroots South African lawyers at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) are helping steer South Africa toward more sustainable solutions for medical waste management.

LRC is teaming with E-LAW U.S. to derail plans for flawed incinerators. South Africa requires proponents of new incinerators to prepare environmental impact assessments (EIAs) that describe the projects and their likely impacts on the environment and public health. This EIA process is designed to enable communities to participate in decisions about local medical waste incinerators. However, EIA documents are lengthy and technical. Often, lawyers and communities in developing countries have little or no experience reviewing EIAs and evaluating their adequacy.

E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientists worked with LRC’s lawyers to evaluate five EIAs submitted by incinerator proponents in South Africa. E-LAW U.S. found serious flaws in each EIA, including designs that failed to include technologies for controlling emissions of dioxins and heavy metals, and studies that failed to properly assess how dioxin emissions would impact local cancer rates.

With this support, LRC has stopped each of these medical waste incinerators from moving forward and protected South African communities from tons of toxic emissions. E-LAW U.S. continues to work with LRC to promote more sustainable ways to manage medical waste.

Working Exchange Fellow: Thuli Makama of Swaziland

Working Exchange Fellow Thuli Brilliance Makama, Swaziland.

Swaziland’s only public interest environmental lawyer traveled to Oregon in May to work with E-LAW U.S. on her efforts to protect workers at a poorly managed Swiss-owned coal mine and ferro vanadium plant, and challenge a paper mill that could destroy a river and jeopardize the health of local communities.

Thuli Brilliance Makama is the Director of Yonge Nawe Environmental Action Group. ("Yonge Nawe" means, "You too must conserve"). In Eugene, Thuli worked one-on-one with E-LAW U.S. Staff Attorneys and Scientists to get the tools and resources she needs to protect the environment and public health in Swaziland.

Swaziland is one of five countries in Africa hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic. Communities suffer from high levels of poverty, HIV infection, and an increasingly degraded natural environment. Weak governance makes addressing these issues a serious challenge.

Thuli traveled to Eugene after participating in the 2004 E-LAW Annual International Meeting where she collaborated with E-LAW advocates from Slovakia, Russia, Czech Republic, and other countries working to protect communities from polluting pulp mills and other industries that endanger public health.

Thuli studied law at the University of Swaziland and received an MSC from the London School of Economics. She currently directs Yonge Nawe’s environmental law program.

For more information on Yonge Nawe Environmental Action Group, visit http://www.yongenawe.com.

In Danger: Magellanic Penguins

Magellanic Penguin (photo: San Francisco Zoo)

E-LAW advocates at Fiscalia del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) in Santiago, Chile, report a major victory protecting a colony of 6,000 Magellanic penguins threatened by an ill-advised charcoal mining project in southern Chile’s Patagonia region.

On April 30, 2004, the Court of Appeals of Punta Arenas declared that Chile’s Regional Environmental Commission acted illegally and arbitrarily when it approved a charcoal mining project for a site near famous penguin breeding grounds, 65 kilometers north of Punta Arenas on the Otway Inlet in the Chilean Antarctic. The proposed project lacked a satisfactory environmental impact assessment.

Between September and April each year, 6,000 Magellanic penguins return to their nesting site along the Brunswick Peninsula to lay their eggs and raise their young. These penguins (Speniscus magellanicus) are the largest of the warm-weather penguins.

Chile’s Patagonia region is home to spectacular and diverse ecosystems providing critical habitat to an enormous variety of plants and animals. E-LAW U.S. celebrates FIMA’s work protecting Chile’s natural heritage.

Conserving Caribbean Ecosystems

Caye Caulker, Belize

The Caribbean’s rainbow-hued coral reefs, low montane rainforests, dry scrub woodlands, freshwater swamps, mangrove stands, and cloud forests provide unique habitat that sustains rare species found nowhere else in the world. Pioneering work by local E-LAW advocates is safeguarding the region’s unique biodiversity.

E-LAW U.S. is working with partners in the Caribbean to advance environmental conservation in Jamaica, protect the Mesoamerican Reef, and educate attorneys general in Guatemala and around the world. E-LAW advocate Candis Hamilton in Jamaica contributed to this report with an excerpt from a paper about using the Inter-American system of human rights to protect the environment.

Jamaica

E-LAW U.S. is working closely with Diana McCaulay, the Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) on several initiatives to protect ecosystems and public health in Jamaica.

Yallahs River

Support from E-LAW U.S. helped JET protect the coast of the parish of St. Thomas from an ill-advised sand mining operation. The project threatened beaches, fishing grounds, and the livelihoods of local residents on Jamaica’s south coast.

Jamaica Pre-Mix Ltd. proposed to dredge two million metric tons of sand every year, for 20 years, from the mouth of the Yallahs River. Diana called on E-LAW U.S. to evaluate the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the proposed project.

E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik found that the EIA’s analysis was flawed. It failed to identify potentially destructive impacts on beach stability and failed to assess how increased loads of sediment would impact marine life.

Advocates at JET presented Mark’s findings to Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). NEPA notified the project proponents that approval would not be considered if the concerns outlined by Mark were not addressed.

JET has not heard any more from the project proponents.

Fisheries Act

E-LAW U.S. is working with JET to review Jamaica’s draft fisheries law and supporting policy. In June, E-LAW U.S. and JET will hold a workshop to inform local fishermen about the proposed changes in the law and help them participate in the review of the draft law and policy. E-LAW U.S. is providing JET with comments on the draft law and information about fisheries management in other countries. More than 700 species of fish inhabit the waters of Jamaica. Support from the New England Biolabs Foundation is making it possible to protect Jamaica’s valuable marine resources.

Managing Hospital Waste

E-LAW U.S. scientists worked with JET to score a big victory for the environment and public health.

Diana was challenging plans for a proposed medical waste incinerator at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Diana called on E-LAW U.S. for help. E-LAW U.S. Environmental Research Scientist Meche Lu and Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik critiqued plans for the proposed incinerator and gave JET information about alternative medical waste management practices that safeguard public health.

With this support, Diana won a major victory. In May, she wrote to the E-LAW network: "I want to report a victory — probably my first ever major one in 15 years. Thanks to advice and an excellent critique from Mark and Meche on a planned medical waste incinerator for one of our large hospitals, the hospital advised me yesterday that it has now decided to scrap the incinerator and use autoclaving, with a shredder.

I feel very encouraged by this — mostly victories are very hard to find here in Jamaica — and I intend now to see what I can do to get government policy changed, so that all hospitals will begin to change their waste management practices."

We salute Diana and JET for this victory, which
was made possible by support from the Alice C. Tyler Perpetual Trust.

Strengthening Jamaican Lawyers

Akilah Anderson, Jamaica

In an effort to build the corps of Caribbean lawyers working to protect the environment through law, E-LAW U.S. collaborates each summer with the joint environmental law program of the University of Florida and the University of Costa Rica. E-LAW U.S. recruits students from the Caribbean for this program. Five Jamaicans participated in 2002 and 2003, and Akilah Anderson, a Jamaican lawyer hired to lead JET’s new environmental law program, will attend this summer.

The Mesoamerican Reef

The Mesoamerican Reef is the largest coral reef system in the Western Hemisphere, stretching from Isla de Contoy in Mexico to the Bay Islands of Honduras.

The Reef supports nearly 60 species of coral, 350 species of mollusks, and 500 fish species. It is also home to hawksbill sea turtles, crocodiles, lemon sharks, and Central America’s largest population of manatees.

Lori Maddox (left) E-LAW U.S. Associate Director, and Vicky Cajiao, E-LAW Costa Rica, boarding the international ferry in Punta Gorda, Belize.

With support from the Summit Foundation, E-LAW U.S. and its partners in the region assessed the state of public interest environmental law in each of the Reef countries — Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras — and identified organizations and individuals that will play key roles in building lasting environmental law capacity in the region. E-LAW U.S. is now embarking on a project to build a coalition of public interest environmental advocates across the region; support their efforts to enforce laws and regional agreements protecting the Reef; and educate recreational users of the Reef, small business owners, residents and their advocates, about the ecology and law governing the Reef.

E-LAW U.S. will work closely with the Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA), Mexico’s premier environmental law group, on this project. E-LAW U.S. has worked with CEMDA since 1995. Together, we reached out to educate lawyers across Mexico about using environmental law as a tool for environmental protection.

This work helped launch new environmental law organizations in Chihuahua, Guadalajara, and Tijuana, and led to the opening of CEMDA’s Cancun office. Patricio Martin, the lead CEMDA attorney in Cancun, is effectively using Mexico’s laws to protect marine resources, and will play a pivotal role in this project.

Protecting Environmental Human Rights

Candis Hamilton, Jamaica

Candis Hamilton is a Jamaican attorney with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Candis serves on the board of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) and is helping to develop JET’s environmental law program. The following is an excerpt from a recent paper she published about using the Inter-American system of human rights to protect the environment and human rights.

Can International Mechanisms Support Local Efforts?

by Candis Hamilton

As we face the challenges to protect our environment are we ignoring an important tool that could facilitate our local efforts? Particularly for environmental advocates in the Americas, the Inter-American system of human rights offers a fairly accessible mechanism for the protection of basic rights that can be linked to the protection of our environment.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (`Commission` or `IACHR`) was created in 1959 and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 1969 as a result of the adoption of the American Convention on Human Rights. Both bodies comprise the Inter-American system of human rights within the Organization of American States (OAS) with the mandate for the promotion and protection of human rights within this hemisphere.

There are two principal international instruments that are legally binding in the Inter-American system of human rights. These are the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the American Convention on Human Rights.

Any person or legally recognized non-governmental organization is entitled to submit a petition to the Commission and allege a violation committed by the State of one or more of the human rights established in either the American Declaration or the American Convention.

In 2001, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held in the Awas Tingni case for the first time that the right to property can go beyond the right of the individual to the framework of communal property rights. The ruling recognized the close spiritual and cultural link that indigenous peoples have to the land which the Court held falls within the protection of the right to property.

Based on that ruling, the State of Nicaragua was ordered to abstain from granting concessions, or other acts that would affect the use and enjoyment of the Awas Tingni community of their property. In essence, the environment was protected within the civil right of right to property.

This is an excerpt from the first in a series of reports on links between environmental protection and human rights. For a copy of the complete report, please visit http://www.elaw.org/resources/text.asp?id=2443.

Travel Notes: Antigua, Guatemala

Trip Report

Charlie Tebbutt

Antigua, Guatemala

On behalf of E-LAW U.S., Charlie Tebutt, Staff Attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center , attended the World Summit of Attorneys General in Antigua, Guatemala, February 2-5, 2004. Charlie offered his expertise on enforcement of environmental laws from an NGO perspective. The following is an excerpt from his report.

Despite being billed primarily as a summit to discuss terrorism and drug trafficking, environmental issues were prominently featured on the agenda of the 2004 World Summit of Attorneys General. Following inaugural addresses, we broke into seven workgroups, one of which was on prosecution of environmental crimes. E-LAW advocate Jose Ignacio Pinochet from Chile served as facilitator of that workgroup, composed of attorneys general and prosecutors from Central and South America, Mexico, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. Our task was to provide recommendations for the full Summit on improving standards of environmental enforcement for introduction to countries of the world as well as potential use in international protocols.

Charlie Tebbutt (right), Santa Domingo, Guatemala

I made several recommendations, including:

• shifting the burden of proof to polluters to show that chemicals are safe before being discharged into the environment,
• including citizen enforcement provisions in national and international laws with fees paid to citizens by polluters and governments when citizens are successful, and
• presuming that corporations are acting criminally when they leave one country to move to another with less stringent environmental standards.

To my great surprise, these suggestions were not only welcomed, but strengthened!

The recommendations of our workgroup were incorporated generally into the final Declaration of the World Summit adopted by the members of the 75 countries in attendance.

There was widespread awareness and recognition of the importance of E-LAW’s work and accomplishments. One legal counsel from the United Nations told me that he cruised E-LAW’s website on a regular basis and found its accomplishments incredible.

To be an ambassador for an organization that has made such important global impacts as E-LAW is an honor.

The next Summit will be held in Qatar in late 2005. We’ll keep an eye on progress toward achieving the recommendations made in the Declaration of Antigua.

Inside E-LAW U.S.: Visitors from Japan and Bangladesh

Amy Solomon Joins Board

Amy Solomon, E-LAW U.S. Board of Directors

Amy Solomon has joined the E-LAW U.S. Board of Directors. Amy is a program officer at the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle. She served as the Executive Director of the Northwest Renewable Resources Center from 1987 to 1995 and is currently on the Executive Board of Energy Northwest. She holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a BA degree cum laude from Yale University.

International Public Interest Defenders

Seven E-LAW advocates have formed a new organization, the International Public Interest Defenders (IPID), based in Geneva, to take public interest cases to the heart of the international community.

Many international organisations, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Trade Organization, and the Office of the Special Representative for Human Rights Defenders, have their headquarters in Geneva. IPID will help grassroots advocates gain direct access to international organizations, tribunals, and forums. IPID and E-LAW U.S. have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly promote the human rights-environment agenda. The collaboration is part of a wider E-LAW U.S. human rights-environment initiative funded by the Oak Foundation. Through this project, IPID will help advocates develop and bring environment related cases to the UN Human Rights Committee and other international institutions based in Geneva and elsewhere in Europe. IPID will also raise the awareness of grassroots environmental advocates about international human rights instruments and institutions.

For more information, please contact IPID’s Geneva Secretariat at secretariat@i-pid.org.

Visitors from Japan and Bangladesh

Left to right: Carolyn Sykora, E-LAW U.S. Education Coordinator; Mirza Hasan; Nobuo Kojima; and Maggie Keenan, E-LAW U.S. Communications Director

Nobuo Kojima of Toyko, Japan, and Mirza Hasan of Dhaka, Bangladesh, visited E-LAW U.S. in April to gain tools they need to protect the environment in Asia.

Nobuo is a pioneering public interest environmental lawyer in Japan. He has been practicing for more than two decades and has worked with the E-LAW network since 1993. He has brought numerous cases in Japanese courts to challenge short-sighted highway development and defend community rights to a biodiverse environment.

Nobuo is now teaching environ-mental law at Japan’s prestigious Waseda University, where he is inspiring a new generation of Japanese lawyers to protect the environment. In Eugene, Nobuo learned about setting up environ-mental law clinics, met with E-LAW’s law student interns, and interviewed law professors at the University of Oregon School of Law.

Mirza was a close friend of the late Mohiuddin Farooque, who founded the Bangladesh Environmental Law Association (BELA). Mirza helped BELA bring early air pollution cases to court. Today, Mirza is a private attorney and traveled to Eugene to learn more about U.S. environmental law. He left with information about reducing vehicular emissions and skills for using information technology to support his work.

E-LAW Advocates Gather in Ukraine

Grassroots attorneys at Ecopravo-Lviv did a tremendous job hosting this year`s E-LAW Annual International Meeting. Thirty-six advocates from 11 countries gathered May 15-20, 2004, in Slavske, Ukraine, a small village on the edge of the Carpathian Mountains. E-LAW advocates worked together, one-on-one, and furthered their pioneering efforts to protect the environment, public health, and human rights. Look for a full report in the next E-LAW Advocate.