Resources for Human Rights & Toxicology

Photo by Jannis Brandt on Unsplash

• "Is Environmental Health a Basic Human Right?" - Article published in the December 2004 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed environmental health journal housed in the U.S. National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences.
• University of Minnesota Human Rights Library- Information portal to over 60,000 human rights documents and materials, available in nine languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish, English).

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights - On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• United Nations: Human Rights - The United Nations' information portal on human rights.

• United Nations Environment Programme - "To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations." Includes a sub-program on harmful substances and hazardous wastes.

• Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - Includes the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights.

• Science and Environmental Health Network: Guardianship of Future Generations - "People who live today have the sacred right and obligation to protect the commonwealth of the Earth and the common health of people and all our relations for many generations to come."

• The People's Movement for Human Rights Learning: Human Rights and Health - A nonprofit, international service organization that works directly and indirectly with its network of affiliates — primarily women's and social justice organizations — to develop and advance pedagogies for human rights education relevant to people's daily lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice and democracy.

• World Health Organization: The Health and Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples

• Advocates for Human Environmental Rights- A nonprofit, public interest law firm whose mission is to provide legal services, community organizing support, public education, and campaigns focused on defending and advancing the human right to a healthy environment, and advocating for the human rights of internally displaced Gulf Coast hurricane survivors. (Based in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., USA.)

• Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL): Human Rights and Environment program - Established in 1998 to identify and develop connections between international environmental law and human rights law, to integrate the theoretical and advocacy approaches of the two movements, and to promote a more just, equitable and sustainable approach to development and natural resource management.

• EarthRights International - "A nongovernmental, nonprofit organization that combines the power of law and the power of people in defense of earth rights. We specialize in fact-finding, legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, training grassroots and community leaders, and advocacy campaigns. Through these strategies, ERI seeks to end earth rights abuses, to provide real solutions for real people, and to promote and protect human rights and the environment in the communities where we work."

• Environment and Human Rights Advisory - A non-profit corporation that provides information and analysis services nationally and internationally to environmental organizations and government agencies regarding the human rights dimensions of their work. Chartered in Oregon, USA. Includes links to key international human rights documents pertaining to the environment. Director Tom Kerns teaches the online courses Environment and Human Rights and Introduction to Bioethics.

• American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Position on Environmental Health- AAIDD promotes progressive policies, sound research, effective practices and universal human rights for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• Center for Human Rights and Environment - The mission of The Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) is to foster the creation of inclusive public policy that promotes socially and environmentally sustainable development, through community participation, public interest litigation, strengthening democratic institutions, and the capacity building of key actors. Based in Argentina. (Website in development.)

Books

Kerns, Thomas. Environmentally Induced Illnesses: Ethics, Risk Assessment, and Human Rights. McFarland & Company, 2001.

Kravchenko, Svitlana and Bonine, John. Human Rights and the Environment. Carolina Academic Press, 2008.

Picolotti, Romina and Jorge Daniel Taillant. Linking Human Rights and the Environment. University of Arizona Press, 2003.