César E. Chávez, 1927-1993
Berkeley Celebrates “Si Se Puede!”
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PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
WE THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, gathered together at this multinational People
of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, do hereby agree to begin
to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color
to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, to
re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our
Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and
beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to insure
environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute
to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and, to secure our
political, economic and cultural liberation that has been denied for over
500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our
communities and land and the genocide of our peoples, do affirm and adopt
these Principles of Environmental Justice:
- Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth,
ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the
right to be free from ecological destruction.
- Environmental justice demands that public policy be based on mutual
respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination
or bias.
- Environmental justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced
and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest
of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.
- Environmental justice calls for universal protection from nuclear
testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous
wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental
right to clean air, land, water, and food.
- Environmental justice affirms the fundamental right to political,
economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all
peoples.
- Environmental justice demands the cessation of the production
of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and
that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable
to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point
of production.
- Environmental justice demands the right to participate as equal
partners at every level of decision-making including needs assessment,
planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.
- Environmental justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe
and healthy work environment, without being forced to choose between
an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right
of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.
- Environmental justice protects the right of victims of environmental
injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages
as well as quality health care.
- Environmental justice considers governmental acts of environmental
injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration
On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.
- Environmental justice must recognize a special legal and natural
relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through
treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty
and self-determination.
- Environmental justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological
policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in
balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our
communities, and providing fair access for all to the full range
of resources.
- Environmental justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles
of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental
reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people
of color.
- Environmental justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national
corporations.
- Environmental justice opposes military occupation, repression
and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life
forms.
- Environmental justice calls for the education of present and future
generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues,
based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural
perspectives.
- Environmental justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal
and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth's resources
and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious
decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to insure
the health of the natural world for present and future generations.
Adopted today, October 27, 1991, in Washington, D.C.
