Human rights laws require a global ban on
fracking, say postgraduate
researchers at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway
Report
analysing the human rights impacts of
fracking to be launched at a webinar at 5pm on Monday 24 May featuring
affected
communities in Pennsylvania, Fermanagh and Namibia
Postgraduate law students
at the NUIG Irish Centre for Human Rights have published a research
report
finding that fracking is incompatible with states’ human rights law
obligations
under numerous treaties. Based on their research and findings that the
dangers
posed by fracking cannot
be mitigated through regulation, the students are
campaigning for Ireland to sponsor a UN General Assembly resolution
calling for
a global ban on fracking.
Rowan
Hickie, one of the authors of the report titled International
Human
Rights Impacts of Fracking, said: “Ireland has the
opportunity to shine
a global light of hope for other countries to follow, given the climate
leadership it demonstrated when it banned fracking in 2017. The Irish
Government previously recognised the need for a ban on public-health,
environmental and climate grounds, and we became the first country in
the world
to commit to withdrawing public money invested in fossil fuels in
2018.”
Michelle
Drury, another of the NUI students, said: “The Irish Government is the
first
government worldwide to publish a policy against fracked gas imports
and that
policy statement expressly includes a commitment to ‘work with
international
partners to promote the phasing out of fracking at an international
level’.
We are now asking Minister Simon Coveney to sponsor a UN General
Assembly
Resolution that calls for a global ban on fracking. With the help of
environmental, public health and legal experts in Ireland and around
the world,
we have drafted the wording for a General Assembly resolution and sent
it to
Minister Coveney to consider.”
Bridget
Geoghegan, one of the report’s authors, said: “Ireland is uniquely
positioned
to lead the effort as the global-north sponsor of the UN resolution
calling for
a global ban on fracking. Ireland’s tireless efforts to ban fracking
and to
stop the import of fracked gas have been in recognition of the very
principles
which underpin our draft resolution: that is, that fracking is an
inherently
harmful extraction process that has global impacts no matter where it
is
conducted, and no amount of regulation can adequately address all the
problems
that fracking causes.”
Johnny McElligott from ‘Safety Before LNG’
said: “a wide variety of over
600 science, academic, grassroots, religious and NGO groups across the
world
have already signed up to a petition supporting Ireland proposing a
call for a
global ban on fracking at the United Nations. This proves that a UN
call for a
global ban on fracking would be very warmly received on both the
national and
international stage and we want Ireland to lead the way.’
The
NUIG students’ report notes that a
significant body of scientific
evidence now exists to demonstrate that fracking is dangerous to public
health,
water, air, climate stability, farming, property, and economic vitality
in ways
that cannot be mitigated through regulation. This is a key conclusion
of the 7th
edition of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings
Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking produced by the
Concerned Health
Professionals of New York and Physicians for Social Responsibility. The
most
recent Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings
Demonstrating
Risks and Harms of Fracking also finds:
“The evidence
clearly demonstrates that the processes of
fracking contribute substantially to anthropogenic harm, including
climate
change and global warming, and involve massive violations of a range of
substantive and procedural human rights and the rights of nature.”
The
students’ 56-page report analyses the existing scientific evidence
alongside
caselaw and other legal standards emanating from the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on
Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women, the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention
on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the European Convention on
Human
Rights.
The students’
report concludes that fracking is
incompatible with states’ legal obligations to protect, respect and
fulfil
basic human rights including:
� the right to
life,
� the right to
health,
� the right to
water,
� the right to
food,
� the right to
housing,
� the right to
access to information,
� the right to
public participation,
� the right to a
safe, clean, and healthy
environment, and
� the rights of
marginalized persons & communities.
The
report will be launched at a webinar at 5pm on Monday 24th
May.
Speakers will also include Lois
Bjornson, whose community has been directly
impacted by fracking activities in Pennsylvania;
Dianne Little, whose
community in Fermanagh risks being affected by
fracking if the
Department of Economy in Northern Ireland approves the current fracking
application submitted by Tamboran Resources (UK) Ltd; and Ina-Maria Shikongo who will discuss
the impacts of fracking
in local communities in Namibia.
The webinar will
also feature anti-fracking campaigner
Eddie Mitchell, of Love Leitrim, Johnny McElligott
from Safety Before
LNG, Professor Shane Darcy and Dr Maeve O’Rourke of the Irish
Centre for
Human Rights.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The postgraduate
students’ report, entitled International
Human Rights Impacts of Fracking, is available here
A summary report
is available here
Summary
report in Spanish is available here ( Resumen del informe sobre las consecuencias
del fracking a la luz de las normas internacionales de
derechos humanos).
The campaign for
Ireland to support a UN General Assembly Resolution to
ban fracking globally can be joined here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12mir1zqXMI5TNCQzGK0HEHleSxoCWpe3t7v4jbntn2o/preview
Short video created
by grassroots activists outlining the impacts of fracking on local
communities,
created in support of the call for a UN General Assembly
Resolution to ban
fracking globally. Video available here: https://youtu.be/zd6Eg7gARhQ
Previous students
at the Irish Centre for Human Rights have
authored a legal opinion finding that an Irish legislative ban on
importing
fracked gas to Ireland would be compatible with EU and WTO trade law.
See more
here: https://www.nuigalway.ie/irish-centre-human-rights/newsevents/towards-a-statutory-prohibition-on-importing-fracked-gas.html
This work has been
carried out as part of the Human Rights
Law Clinic at the Irish Centre for Human Rights (ICHR), NUI Galway,
under the
supervision of Dr Maeve O’Rourke and Pearce Clancy. The ICHR at the
School of
Law, National University of Ireland Galway, is Ireland’s principal
academic
human rights institute. The ICHR undertakes human rights teaching,
research,
publications, and training, and contributes to human rights policy
development
nationally and internationally.
Contact:
John McElligott
Safety Before LNG
(087-2804474)
[email protected]
