Link

This report by Friends of the Earth International asserts that environmental rights—including the right to a sustainable lifestyle, a healthy environment, water access, and food security—are integral to human rights. It details specific conflicts, such as the Ava Guarani's struggle for ancestral lands in Argentina, the impact of Shell's pollution in Curaçao, and the fight against GMO contamination in Mexico. The text criticizes neoliberal economic globalization for enabling multinational corporations to operate with impunity, often displacing indigenous populations and degrading ecosystems. It calls for a new ethics of environmental justice and the implementation of legally binding international conventions to protect marginalized communities from environmental aggression.

• The Ava Guarani people in Argentina's Salta province have been violently displaced from their ancestral lands to make way for the San Martin del Tabacal sugar company, with some families now living on only two hectares while the company exploits one million hectares of indigenous land.
• In Curaçao, Royal Dutch Shell's refinery activities caused severe health issues, including cancers and congenital malformations, with pollutant concentrations reported in 1983 to be four times higher than accepted levels elsewhere in the world.
• The 'Plan Colombia' anti-drug strategy, supported by the US government, utilizes aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup Ready), which has caused skin and eye irritations and damaged ecosystems and subsistence crops.
• In Bolivia, the privatization of water services in Cochabamba by the consortium Aguas del Tunari led to a 300% price increase, sparking a massive popular uprising that eventually forced the company out of the country.
• Genetically modified (GM) maize from the United States has contaminated traditional maize varieties in Mexico, specifically in the states of Oaxaca and Puebla, threatening the genetic diversity essential for global food security.
• In South Korea, the Saemangeum reclamation project involves building a 33-kilometer dike to drain 41,000 hectares of wetlands for industrial and agricultural use, threatening the livelihoods of 22,000 fishers and the habitat of 200,000 migratory birds.
• Residents near London's Heathrow Airport are exposed to noise levels up to five times the World Health Organization's recommended maximums, leading to sleep deprivation and health issues like stress and memory loss.
• In Cameroon, the French company SA Rougier and its subsidiary SFID were sued for destroying cocoa and fruit plantations in the Miatta region through illegal logging, though French courts initially rejected the claims due to the requirement of double incrimination.

APA

Friends of the Earth International (2004). Link. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/human_rights1.pdf

Chicago

Friends of the Earth International. Link. 2004. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/human_rights1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Friends of the Earth International |title=Link |date=September 2004 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/human_rights1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{friendsoftheearthinternational2004link, author = {{Friends of the Earth International}}, title = {{Link}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2004}, month = sep, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/human_rights1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }