Local governments that are not adequately addressing the climate crisis need to be called to account for failing to protect the basic rights of their citizens. Elders who feel called to protect the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants – including young people whose rights are already being, and will continue to be, most dramatically impacted – are ideally placed to take on the work of calling governments to account.
Elders understand that the future belongs to today’s young people, and yet the right of the young to a healthy environment conducive to a decent life is not being respected or protected. Elders realize too that, at this hinge point in human history it is now incumbent on them to bring their moral strength, their years of wisdom and their deep recognition of the importance of respecting people’s rights to the work of compelling governments to act.
- Because human rights stand as basic moral minimums that governments must to live up to;
- Because the central function of government is to secure and protect the rights of citizens;
- Because human rights serve as the clear moral standard against which government policies and practices must be measured;
- Because human rights standards are universal; they are not limited to certain people, groups, religions, nations, or situations but apply to everyone;
- Because human rights protect the poor, the disenfranchised, the unempowered, the non-privileged, the injured, minorities, indigenous peoples, women, and yes, even children. Especially children.
The important thing about human rights norms is that they set standards for what duty-bearing governments must do and must also make sure they never do.
To start your own ECC, decide who your team will be, decide which local government or government agency you will put on trial, then click on the How To pages here on the ECC site and go from there.
Bearing Witness: The Human Rights Case Against Fracking and Climate Change
First YCC Trial in Oregon in June, 2021
Development Opportunity Provided by the Sant’Anna School
Organizing 2.0 Conference on April 16th and 17th
