Jordan Times
Tuesday, November 13, 2001
Arab environmentalists call for adoption of Earth Charter
By Ruba Saqr
AMMAN — Arab environmentalists from governmental and non-governmental organisations on Monday called on their governments to adopt the Earth Charter, an international initiative that promotes the respect of justice for humanity and the integrity of the environment.Around 50 participants meeting here endorsed the “Amman Statement of the Earth Charter,” which will be submitted during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Among participants were representatives of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), in addition to child-care and environmental NGOs.
The statement included seven points emphasising the role of Arab governments in easing poverty, establishing peace in the region, respecting human rights and adopting environment-friendly programmes at the state level .
“We feel today that it is time for our nation to participate in this endeavour,” of adopting the Earth Charter, said HRH Princess Basma, who chairs the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD).
“The Arab nation still holds an immense reservoir of ambitions and noble values and principles. This reservoir is vast enough to breathe renewed fortitude into the nation and motivate it to restore its leading role in the arena of progress and civilisation,” said Princess Basma, who is one of the Earth Charter commissioners.
Principles of the Earth Charter are drawn from international law, science, philosophy, religion, recent UN summit meetings, and the international Earth Charter dialogue on global ethics. It calls for the “respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, social and economic justice and democracy, non-violence and peace.”
Environmentalists and development experts around the world hope that this “people's declaration” will lead to an emerging global consensus on fundamental values and principles for a just and sustainable world.
In yesterday's meeting, participants from Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Bahrain, Lebanon and Tunisia expressed their full support for the charter's principles and formulated recommendations that work within the Arab context.
“We believe that the principles of the Earth Charter are in agreement with the values, traditions and customs of Arab communities and all religions,” participants said in their final statement.
Last month, JOHUD and the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) spearheaded a local document, namely the Declaration of Support to the Earth Charter, which was signed by eight civil society institutions and environmental organisations.
The “symbolic” document was incorporated in yesterday's statement to be part of an Arab call for easing regional countries' foreign debts, in a bid to enable them to combine economic development with environmental protection.
As the international community began preparing for next year's WSSD, also dubbed the second Earth Summit, the Arab League held several meetings for environment ministers, the last of which took place in Cairo in October.
There, Minster of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the Environment Abdul Razzaq Tbeishat joined counterparts from 20 Arab countries to formulate a “unified Arab stand,” to be taken at the Johannesburg summit.
“Today's statement does not contradict the recommendations of the Arab League, [which calls for financial and in-kind assistance for Arab countries to carry out environmental protection programmes]. They go in parallel with Arab efforts to achieve sustainable development,” Tbeishat told The Jordan Times.
The Earth Charter, he said, forms an “international code of ethics” that could work for every individual, institution and state on the face of the earth.
Jordan, PNA call for international environmental court
On the sidelines of the meeting here, Tbeishat joined Yousef Abu Safiyeh, Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Minister of the Environment, in a call for the establishment of an international court to look into environmental violations between states.
“We are calling for an international court to stop Israel's aggression on the Palestinian environment,” Tbeishat told The Jordan Times.
He said that lands under the PNA's rule are suffering from massive wood-cutting by Israeli machines, which causes “destruction of human and environmental” assets.
Abu Safiyeh told the regional conference that “Israel is declaring a war against environmental and natural resources in Palestine,” adding that Israeli settlements “plunder... and pollute the natural resources [on PNA lands] by disposing of industrial waste there.” Since 1967, he explained, Israel has been burying “hazardous industrial and chemical waste” in the Gaza Strip and Hebron, which polluted underground aquifers.
He said Israel had used “security excuses” to uproot almost one million trees, 12,000 of which were palm trees that were removed from Palestinian lands and replanted inside a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
He said the PNA will provide evidence that Israel had burnt 6,000 water networks and that it was behind the desertification that is eating away at agricultural lands there.
Riham Fakhouri from Al Rai contributed to this article