human rights wins – UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog

A Bright Future – Recent Human Rights Victories

In the midst of a pandemic and international unrest, it is vital to stay encouraged and optimistic as we continue our efforts to uphold and protect human rights internationally. That is why we at the Institute for Human Rights at UAB will be using this article to break up the negative news cycle and put a spotlight on a few of the amazing victories and progress the international community has made during the pandemic that you might not have heard about. Though positive human rights news may not always make headlines, it is important to recognize each success, just as it is vital we address each issue.

The UN Declares Access to a Clean Environment is a Universal Human Right – July 2022

Of the 193 states in the United Nations general assembly, 161 voted in favor of a climate resolution that declares that access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a universal human right; one that was not included in the original Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. While the resolution is not legally binding, it is expected that it will hugely impact international human rights law in the future and strengthen international efforts to protect our environment. Climate justice is now synonymous with upholding human rights for the citizens of member-states, and the United Nations goal is that this decision will encourage nations to prioritize environmental programs moving forwards.

Kazakhstan and Papua New Guinea Abolish the Death Penalty- January 2022

Kazakhstan became the 109th country to remove the death penalty for all crimes, a major progress coming less than 20 years after life imprisonment was introduced within the country as an alternative punishment in 2004. In addition to the national abolition, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed the parliamentary ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 6 of the ICCPR declares that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of life”, but the Second Optional Protocol takes additional steps to hold countries accountable by banning the death penalty within their nation. Though the ICCPR has been ratified or acceded by 173 states, only 90 have elected to be internationally bound to the Second Optional Protocol (the total abolition of the death penalty), and Kazakhstan is the most recent nation to join the international movement to abolish the death penalty globally.

Papua New Guinea also abolished their capital punishment, attributing the abolishment to the Christian beliefs of their nation and inability to perform executions in a humane way. The 40 people on death row at the time of the abolishment have had their sentences commuted to life in prison without parole. Papua New Guinea is yet to sign or ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, but by eliminating the death penalty nationwide the country has still taken a significant step towards preserving their citizens right to life.

India Repeals Harmful Farm Plan – November 2021

Many of you will remember seeing international headlines of the violent protests following India’s decision to pass three harmful farming laws in 2020. The legislation, passed in the height of the pandemic, left small farmers extremely vulnerable and threatened the entire food chain of India. Among many other protections subject to elimination under the farm laws was the nations Minimum Support Price (MSP), which allowed farmers to sell their crops to government affiliated organizations for what policymakers determined to be the necessary minimum for them to support themselves from the harvest. Without the MSP, a choice few corporations would be able to place purchasing value of these crops at an unreasonably low price that would ruin the already meager profits small farmers glean from the staple crops, and families too far away from wholesalers would be unable to sell their crops at all.

Any threats to small farms in India are a major issue because, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, “Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihoods in India”. In addition, the FAO reported 70% of rural households depend on agriculture and 82% of farms in India are considered small; making these laws impact a significant amount of the nation’s population. A year of protests from farmers unions followed that resulted in 600 deaths and international outcries to protect farmers pushed the Indian government to meet with unions and discuss their demands. An enormous human rights victory followed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in November of 2021 that they would rollback the laws, and on November 30 the Indian Parliament passed a bill to cancel the reforms. As the end of 2021 approached, farmers left the capital and returned home for the first time in months, having succeeded at protecting their families and their livelihoods.

Sudan Criminalizes Female Genital Mutilation – May 2020

Making history, Sudan became one of 28 African nations to criminalize female genital mutilation / Circumcision (FGM/C), an extremely dangerous practice that an estimated 200 million woman alive today have undergone. It is a multicultural practice that can be attributed to religion, sexual purity, social acceptance and misinformation about female hygiene that causes an onslaught of complications depending on the type of FGM/C performed and the conditions the operation is performed in. Among the consequences are infections, hemorrhage, chronic and severe pain, complications with childbirth, and immense psychological distress. It also causes many deaths from bleeding out during the operation or severe complications later in life. We have published a detailed article about female genital mutilations, gender inequality and the culture around FGM before, which you can find here.

FGM/C is a prevalent women’s rights issue in Africa, and in Sudan 87% of women between the ages of 14 and 49 have experienced some form of “the cut”. While some Sudanese states have previously passed FGM/C bans, they were ignored by the general population without enforcement from a unified, national legislature. This new ban will target those performing the operations with a punishment of up to three years in jail in the hopes of protecting young women from the health and social risks that come from a cultural norm of genital mutilation and circumcision.

Where do we go from here?

While we have many incredible victories to celebrate today, local and international human rights groups will continue to expose injustices and fight for a safer and more equal future for all people. Our goal at the Institute for Human Rights at UAB is to educate; to inform readers about injustices and how they can get involved, and to celebrate with our incredible community when we have good news to share! While the past year has been marked with incredible hardships, it is always exciting when we have heart-warming international progress to share!

You can find more information about us, including free speaker events and our Social Justice Cafes on our Instagram page @uab_ihr! Share which of these positive stories you found most interesting in our comments, and feel free to DM us with human rights news you would like us to cover!

The Restoration of the Everglades: A Big Win for Environmental Rights

Just like many who grew up in the Southern United States, I spent much of my childhood outside. I was born in a suburb of Birmingham, and as a child, I would play in the Cahaba River and bask in the beauty of the short leaf pines and oak trees that towered high in magnificent forests.

I may not have known it then, but my ability to enjoy the natural beauty of my home in an unaltered way was not being protected in a concrete way. As our environment continues to degrade from the ongoing climate change disaster, human rights activists have begun championing environmental rights. Eloquently defined by the Pachamama Alliance, environmental rights can be understood as “an extension of the basic human rights that mankind requires and deserves. In addition to having the right to food, clean water, suitable shelter, and education, having a safe and sustainable environment is paramount as all other rights are dependent upon it.”

2021 brought lots of bad news for the environment. Despite much more attention from activists and the general public alike, promises from the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021 (also known as COP26) seem to ring empty, as nations who pledged to cut emissions continue to approve new fossil-fuel based plants for power generation.

Despite this, it is important for activists to celebrate victories, however small their size or infrequently they occur. In the United States, this week marked a huge victory for the restoration of the Everglades

The Everglades, a History

The Everglades, an ecosystem in southern Florida, has been called “one of the world’s most unique and fragile ecosystems”. Many people believe that the Florida Everglades is a swamp ecosystem, though this is just a popular misconception. In reality, the Everglades is actually a slow-moving river flowing over an area 40 miles wide by 100 miles long.

The Florida Everglades was formed over many thousands of years, creating a delicate balance of ponds, marshes, and forests. The Everglades have been inhabited for at least 14,000 years by human beings with the arrival of the first indigenous peoples to the area. When European settlers first arrived to the area in the early 1800s, the Everglades were considered little more than a “worthless swamp”, and work to drain the wetlands of the Everglades quickly began. By the early 20th century, much of the Everglades was in the process of being converted to farmland, and this stimulated the first “land boom” in Southern Florida.

As the Everglades began to shrink, Florida’s population began to boom as cities like Miami and Fort Lauderdale grew, increasing the demand for housing and fueling further destruction of the Florida Everglades.

As the American environmental movement began in response to extreme environmental degradation across America and the extremely important work of early climate activists such as Rachel Carson (whose 1962 publication of Silent Spring is to this day considered to be a milestone of modern environmentalism), activists began to realize the extreme importance of the Florida Everglades. According to the Naples, Florida Travel Guide, “People like author and activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas who organized the Friends of the Everglades in the 1960s to battle the federal government’s plan to build an airport in the Everglades”, which thankfully worked. Activists like Douglas helped preserve the Everglades the best they could, allowing us to begin restoration work on the Everglades.

It is also worth noting that the Everglades have been classified as a national since 1947, entitling the wetlands to federal protection and further bolstering the Everglades as one of America’s most sacred national treasures.

Shows map of everglades — A map of the natural range of the Everglades, courtesy of the Everglades Foundation. SOURCE : Yahoo! Images

The Everglades Today

Once sitting at over 4,000 square miles in size, deforestation and environmental degradation have reduced the Florida Everglades to about half of their original size. The number of endangered species in the Everglades, both flora and fauna, continues to increase at an alarming rate. Among these endangered species is the Florida Panther, which now occupy less than five percent of their historic range, which once included the entirety of the Southeastern United States. It is thought that less than one hundred Florida panthers exist in the United States today.

One of the largest threats to wildlife species in the Everglades is the introduction of invasive species to the area. These non-native species are often accidentally introduced by human beings, and they can quickly destroy the balance of a delicate ecosystem, such as the Everglades. One of the most famous invasive species in the Florida Everglades is the Burmese Python, which was believed to be introduced into the area by Hurricane Andrew, a category five storm which struck Florida in 1992, destroying a python breeding facility and releasing dozens of snakes into the surrounding Everglades.

Shows when funding was added — A picture of President Biden signing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill into law. The historic allocation of funding towards the restoration of the Everglades came from this bill. SOURCE : Yahoo! Images

A Historic Investment into the Everglades

On January 19, 2022, the Biden Administration announced a historic $1.1 billion allocation of funds towards the restoration of the Everglades. The funding will come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which was signed into law by President Biden on November 15 of last year. An announcement by the White House declared that this allocation was “The largest single investment ever to restore and revitalize the Everglades in Florida”.

The announcement was seen as a huge political victory for the bipartisan Everglades Caucus, which is currently co-chaired by U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Ballard (R-FL). Representative Schultz released a statement following the historic announcement highlighting the importance of the restoration of the Everglades :

“The Everglades is the lifeblood of South Florida, and this historic funding commitment by the Biden Administration will ensure we can much more aggressively move to restore and protect the natural sheet flow of water that is the largest environmental restoration project in American history. The Florida Everglades is a vital source of drinking water and essential to combat climate change and this massive infusion of funding will have the added benefit of creating more jobs,” showing the real human opportunities that will be created by this new investment.

Restoration of the Everglades will also help ensure continued access to clean drinking water for Florida’s population. The Everglades currently provides water to over eight million people across the state. Activists across the state remain cautiously optimistic as the plan will begin to come into effect later this year. The future for one of the world’s most fascinating ecosystems appears to be finally be headed in the right direction, ensure access and protection for our descendants.