CANADIAN OIL SPILL THREATENS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

PREAMBLE: On April 29, 2011, there was a major oil spill from a pipeline in Northern Alberta, Canada. This adversely affects the Lubicon Cree people living in the area, as well as wildlife, forests, streams and lakes.

By way of background, in November 2009, citing a report by Amnesty International, Global Perspectives drew attention to the estimated $14 billion in revenue generated on Lubicon lands, even as traditional water sources have been contaminated since the onset of resource exploration. Despite this, Lubicon houses lack running water and plumbing. Within 3 years of the first oil wells the number of people dependent on social assistance increased from 10 to 90%. As a matter of human rights, action is required to alleviate these appalling health conditions. In addition, it is now clear also that a competent and independent health team must be provided to the community to address new concerns about the headaches, nausea and other illness experienced since the April 29 spill.

The main aim of this edition of Global Perspectives is to support Amnesty’s call that both federal and provincial (majority Conservative) governments have a responsibility to ensure that such an assessment is carried out with the results fully available to the community as a whole, and to the general public.

Apparently also, access to the spill site is controlled. We therefore also support Amnesty’s call to ensure that the Lubicon people have full access to the spill site so as to document the spill for themselves.

The main focus of this issue is to capture the content of two current information sources: A. A post by Melina Laboucan-Massimo on the Greenpeace site, dated May 4, 2011; and B. A new Amnesty Factsheet which outlines the situation in more technical detail. Both items are reproduced verbatim below:

A. RESIDENTS, INCLUDING CHILDREN, SICK AFTER LARGE OIL SPILL IN ALBERTA’S PEACE REGION
by Melina Laboucan-Massimo - May 4, 2011 at 13:43 on Greenpeace site (cited below)
Little Buffalo community members, including school children, continue to experience nausea, burning eyes and headaches after one of the largest pipeline spills in Alberta history last Friday by Plains All American leaked nearly 30,000 barrels of oil into Lubicon traditional territory in the Peace Region of Northern Alberta.

Instead of attending an in-person community meeting, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) faxed a one-page fact sheet to Little Buffalo School. The fact sheet indicates that 28,000 barrels of crude oil, or 4,500 cubic metres, has spread into nearby stands of “stagnant water.” The spill, April 29 at 7:30 a.m., occurred only 300 metres from local waterways. The ERCB said the spill has been contained, but community members report that the oil is still leaking into the surrounding forest and bog. The ERCB also said to the community that there is “no threat to public safety as a result of the leak.” Yet people are still getting sick, the local school has been shut down and children ordered to stay at home. An investigation into the incident is underway.

“It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air. The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs,” said Brian Alexander, the principle of Little Buffalo School. “We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well.

“The company and the ERCB have given us little information in the past five days. What we do know is that the health of our community is at stake,” said Chief Steve Nosky. “Our children cannot attend school until there is a resolution, The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with. The company is failing to provide sufficient information to us so we can ensure that the health and safety of our community is protected.”

The ERCB fact sheet states that air monitors are in place on site and have “detected no hydrocarbon levels above Alberta Ambient Air Quality guidelines.” But this is little consolation for a community that is scared to breathe the air. Veronica Okemow has six children, the youngest one attending the school, and she is very worried. “We are deeply concerned about the health effects on the community,” Okemow said. “It is a scary thing when your children are feeling sick from the air. People are scared to breathe in the fumes.”

Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and also a Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner said: “The Plains All American spill marks the second pipeline spill in Alberta in just a week, with Kinder Morgan spilling just days before. This is an alarm bell for Alberta residents. If this 45-year-old pipeline were to break elsewhere along its route there would be more safety and health hazards. Communities across Alberta and B.C. are demanding an end to this type of risky development; yet the government refuses to listen. Instead it continues on as business as usual without plans for the cleaner, healthier, sustainable future that is possible.”

Source: Greenpeace Canada. Blogpost by Melina Laboucan-Massimo May 4, 2011. http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/Blog/residents-including-children-sick-after-large/blog/34569

B. FACTSHEET - BACKGROUND TO THE PIPELINE SPILL ON TRADITIONAL LUBICON LANDS

1. Pipelines and Lubicon lands
There are more than 2300 kms of oil and gas pipe¬lines through the traditional lands of the Lubicon.

According to an Alberta government study, from 1983 to 1997, there were between one and eight leaks or ruptures per year for every 1000 km of pipeline in the province, depending on the kind of pipeline.

In 2008, when the Province of Alberta approved the last major pipeline across Lubicon land (TransCanada Pipeline’s North Central Corridor project) the Alberta Utility Commission denied the Lubicon the opportu¬nity to present their concerns. The Commission ruled that the Lubicon had not established that the project was harmful to their rights. The pipeline was then built over the community’s objections.

2. Indigenous rights denied
The Lubicon Cree have never entered into a treaty with the Government of Canada. They have not given up their rights to their lands and resources through any other legal agreement. Resolution of the dispute requires a negotiated settlement but there have been no negotiations since 2003.

Large-scale development began on Lubicon territory in 1979. Since then, more than 2600 oil and gas wells have been drilled, along with some in situ oil sands extraction.

The scale of development led to the rapid collapse of the Lubicon hunting and trapping economy. At the same time, the community has been denied basic services that most other communities in Canada take for granted, such as running water and sanitation.

Since the early 1980s, the Lubicon have reported pervasive health problems associated with poverty, environmental degradation and cultural erosion. These problems include high rates of infectious dis¬ease such as tuberculosis; disproportionate numbers of miscarriages, stillbirth and other maternal health concerns; and high youth suicide.

The Alberta government has leased approximately 70 percent of Lubicon territory for future oil, gas and minerals development.

3. Repeatedly condemned by the United Nations
In 1990, the United Human Rights Committee ruled that Canada was violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by failing to properly protect Lubicon land rights from the impact of re¬source extraction activities.

Since then, the treatment of the Lubicon Cree has been condemned by the UN Human Rights Committee again in 2006 and 2007, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2006, and by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Ad¬equate Housing in 2008. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination raised concerns about pipeline development in 2008.

In 2010 the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples submitted a detailed report to the UN Human Rights Council in which he said there should be no further development on Lubicon land unless the Lubicon people give their consent.

Source: Amnesty International (Canada). Fact Sheet: Background to the pipeline spill on traditional Lubicon lands http://www.amnesty.ca/files/factsheet_context_of_pipeline_spill.pdf

EPILOGUE: On May 15, 2011, efforts at clean up and to contain the impact were suspended due to numerous uncontained forest fires in the region.

HISTORIC UN RESOLUTION ON WATER AND SANITATION AS HUMAN RIGHTS

PREAMBLE: On Wednesday, 28th July, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on States and international organizations to provide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all. The assembly, in a text on the human right to water and sanitation, highlights that 884 million people lacked access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion were without access to basic sanitation.

Regretfully a full consensus was not achieved and the resolution was approved with 122 votes in favour, none against and 41 abstentions. We are disappointed to note that our own Canadian government, the Conservative regime of Stephen Harper, abstained from the vote, giving no adequate explanation for this.

For the substance of this months blog, we provide below (verbatim) the full text of the speech by the Permanent Representative of the State of Bolivia, delivered July 28, 2010.

UN SPEECH: “The Human Right to Water and Sanitation”

Mr. President,
Allow me to begin the presentation of this Resolution by recalling that human beings are essentially water. Around two thirds of our organism is comprised of water. Some 75% of our brain is made up of water, and water is the principal vehicle for the electrochemical transmissions of our body.

Our blood flows like a network of rivers in our body. Blood helps transport nutrients and energy to our organism. Water also carries from our cells waste products for excretion. Water helps to regulate the temperature of our body.
The loss of 20% of body water can cause death. It is possible to survive for various weeks without food, but it is not possible to survive more than a few days without water. Water is life.

That is why, today, we present this historic resolution for the consideration of the plenary of the General Assembly on behalf of the cosponsoring countries of: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, The Plurinational State of Bolivia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Fiji, Georgia, Guinea, Haiti, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles, The Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tuvalu, Uruguay, Vanuatu, The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and Yemen.

The right to health was originally recognized by the World Health Organization in 1946. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declared “the right to life,” “the right to education,” and “the right to work,” among others.

In 1966, these were furthered in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with the recognition of “the right to social security,” and “the right to an adequate standard of living,” including adequate food, clothing and adequate shelter.

However, the human right to water has continued to fail be fully recognized, despite clear references in various international legal instruments, such as: the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This is why we, the cosponsors, present this resolution in order that we now recognize the human right to water and sanitation, at a time when illness caused by lack of drinking water and sanitation causes more deaths than does war.
Every year, 3.5 million people die of waterborne illness.

Diarrhea is the second largest cause of death among children under five. Lack of access to potable water kills more children than AIDS, malaria and smallpox combined.
Worldwide, approximately 1 in 8 people lack potable water.

In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed by collecting and transporting water for domestic use.

The situation of lack of sanitation is far worse, for it affects 2.6 billion people, or 40% of the global population.

According to the report on sanitation by the Independent expert,
“Sanitation, more than many other human rights issue, evokes the concept of human dignity; consider the vulnerability and shame that so many people experience every day when, again, they are forced to defecate in the open, in a bucket or a plastic bag. It is the indignity of this situation that causes the embarrassment.”

The vast majority of illnesses around the world are caused by fecal matter. It is estimated that sanitation could reduce child death due to diarrhea by more than one third.

On any given day, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from illnesses associated with lack of access to safe water and lack of sanitation.

Mr. President,
Human rights were not born as fully developed concepts, but are built on reality and experience. For example, the human rights to education and work included in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights were constructed and specified over time, with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international legal instruments such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The same will occur with the human right to water and sanitation.

That is why we emphasize and encourage in the third operative paragraph of this resolution that the independent expert continue working on all aspects of her mandate, and present to the General Assembly “the principal challenges related to the realization of the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation and their impact on the achievement of Millennium Development Goals.”

The Summit on the Millennium Development Goals is approaching, and it is necessary to give a clear signal to the world that drinking water and sanitation are a human right, and that we will do everything possible to reach this goal, which we have only 5 more years to achieve.

That is why we are convinced of the importance of the second operative paragraph of this resolution, which “Calls upon States and international organizations to provide financial resources, capacity‐building and technology transfer, through international assistance and cooperation, in particular to developing countries, in order to scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.”

All resolutions contain a passage that we can point to as the heart of the matter, and the heart of this resolution is in its first operative paragraph. Throughout many informal consultations, we have striven to accommodate the different concerns of the Member States, leaving aside issues that do not pertain to this resolution and always seeking balance, but without loosing the essence of the resolution.
The right to drinking water and sanitation is a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life.

Drinking water and sanitation are not only elements or principal components of other rights such as “the right to an adequate standard of living.” The right to drinking water and sanitation are independent rights that should be recognized as such. It is not sufficient to urge States to comply with their human rights obligations relative to access to drinking water and sanitation. Instead, it is necessary to call on states to promote and protect the human right to drinking water and sanitation.

Mr. President,
In our effort to seek transparency and understanding without losing perspective on the essence of this resolution, in the name of the cosponsors we would like to propose an oral amendment to the first operative paragraph of the resolution that would replace the word “declares” with the word “recognizes.”

Mr. President,
Before moving to the consideration of this resolution, I would like to ask all delegations to bear in mind the fact that, according to the 2009 report of the World Health Organization and UNICEF entitled “Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done,” 24,000 children die in developing countries every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water. That is one child death every 3.5 seconds.

One, two, three…
As my people say, “Now is the time.”

Thank you very much.

Source: Speech delivered by Ambassador Pablo Solón of the Plurinational State of Bolivia before the General Assembly of the United Nations on 28 July, 2010. “The Human Right to Water and Sanitation”. http://pwccc.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/speech-the-human-right-to-water-and-sanitation/

OVER A BILLION HUNGRY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD - IMF AND FAO REPORT

PREAMBLE: World hunger spiked sharply in 2009, significantly worsening an already disappointing trend in global food security since 1996. The combination of food and economic crises has pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels.

This issue gives space to the text of a report published in the International Monetary Fund on-line bulletin: Finance & Development, March 2010, Vol 47, No 1.. The report, entitled “Hunger on the Rise” was developed by David Dawe and Denis Drechsler, based on The State of Food Insecurity in the World, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2009 (see below for full citations).

OVER A BILLION HUNGRY PEOPLE
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 1.02 billion people were undernourished in 2009—about 100 million more than in 2008. As a result, reaching the World Food Summit target and the Millennium Development Goal for hunger reduction looks increasingly out of reach.

Poor harvests are not to blame. The FAO estimates that total cereal production in 2009 was only slightly below the record high set in 2008. Instead, the increase in hunger is mainly a result of poor people’s inability to afford the food that is produced. Many drew down savings during the food price crisis and have now lost jobs as a result of the global economic crisis.

Food prices increased considerably in developing countries during the 2006–08 world food crisis and were still high when the economic crisis started. Domestic prices of staple foods were typically 17% higher at the end of 2008 than two years earlier, after adjusting for inflation. This seriously hurt the purchasing power of poor consumers, who often spend 40% of their income on staple foods.

Thus, the global economic crisis hit developing countries at a very bad time. It further reduced access to food by lowering employment opportunities, remittances from abroad, development aid, foreign direct investment, and export opportunities.

How can hunger be eliminated? Improving world food security calls for both measures for immediate relief and more fundamental structural changes. In the short term, safety nets and social protection programs must be improved to reach those most in need.

In the medium and long term, the structural solution to hunger lies in increasing agricultural productivity to increase incomes and produce food at lower cost, especially in poor countries. The importance of longer-term measures is evidenced by the unacceptably high number of people who did not get enough to eat before the crises and are likely to remain hungry even after the food and economic crises have passed. In addition, these measures must be coupled with better governance and institutions at all levels.

Source: Dawe D, Drechsler D. Hunger on the Rise, available online at: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2010/03/picture.htm
Text material attributed to the following source: The State of Food Insecurity in the World Economic crises – impacts and lessons learned, FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2009 is available from PDF [61p.] at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/i0876e/i0876e.pdf