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CHARTER ON INDUSTRIAL HAZARDS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Having convened four Sessions in New Haven, Bangkok, Bhopal and London since 1991 to receive testimony and deliberate on issues relating to the right to life, occupational health and safety, environment protection, risk management and damage reduction in the wider global context of hazardous production;
Having drafted over a period of four years a charter of rights designed to reflect the views and concerns of persons injured and distressed by industrial hazards, and having issued on the second day of December 1994 a Draft Charter for comment and discussion among individuals and nongovernmental organisations, including trade unions;
Following the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference of Human Rights, the Beijing Conference on Women, the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development and other relevant international human rights instruments;
Guided by the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21, the Draft Declaration of Principles on Human Rights and the Environment, the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other relevant instruments for prevention of industrial and environmental hazards;
Guided further by International Labour Organisation conventions and recommendations, including the Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, the Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining and the Convention Concerning the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents;
Gravely concerned by widespread diffusion of hazardous products and processes resulting in industrial practices which cause human, social and environmental destruction, threatening in particular the habitat, life, economy, society and culture of indigenous peoples;
Deeply concerned by the frequency of small-scale but harmful hazardous events, as well as the magnitude and nature of major industrial accidents, including the incidents in Saveso, Chernobyl, Bhopal, Basel and elsewhere;
Concerned by the ineffectual national and international system of hazard prevention, post-disaster relief, medical and legal assistance and legal accountability which in their current forms have failed both to adequately prevent occupational and environmental hazards and to bring to account those responsible for worldwide deaths and injuries;
Noting that urgent action is needed to prevent future degradation to human life, animal life and the environment and to adequately remedy the harms caused by industrial hazards;
Recognizing that the personal experience and repeated demands of community members and workers affected by hazards provide the most sound basis for the enunciation of rights;
Cognizant of the inherent limitations of national and international law, as well as the vital role of community organisations and people's movements in preventing and ameliorating industrial hazards;
Convinced that new national and international systems of prevention, relief and legal accountability must be formulated and established;
Declares the following:
Article 1: Non-discrimination
1. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Charter, without distinction of any kind, such as race, sex, language, religion, nationality, political opinion or affiliation, ethnic or social origin, disability, age, property, sexual orientation, birth, income, caste or any other status.
2. On account of the particular discrimination faced by women, both as waged and unwaged workers, attention should be given to the specific application of the rights stated below where women may be affected.
3. On account of their vulnerability and exploitation in the labour market, special protection should be accorded to children exposed to industrial hazards.
4. On account of the connection between low wages and hazardous working environments and the disproportionate impact of industrial hazards on racial and ethnic minorities, special protection should be afforded to low income groups and all minorities.
Article 2: Relation to other rights
The rights in this charter and other human rights, including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, are universal, interdependent and indivisible. In particular, freedom from hazards, including the right to refuse hazardous employment and the right to organise against hazards, depends upon the full implementation of social and economic rights, including the rights to education, health and an adequate standard of living.
Article 3: Right to accountability
All persons have the right to hold accountable any individual, company or government agency for actions resulting in industrial hazards. In particular, parent companies, including transnational corporations, shall be liable for the actions of their subsidiaries.
Article 4: Right to organise
1. All community members and workers have the right to organise with other local communities and workers for the purpose of seeking to ensure a working environment free from hazard.
2. In particular, the right to organise includes
(a) the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly;
(b) the right to form local, national and international organisations;
(c) the rights to campaign, lobby, educate and exchange information;
(d) the right to form trade unions;
(e) the right to strike or take other forms of industrial action.
Article 5: Right to appropriate health care
1. All persons have the right to appropriate health
2. In particular, the right to appropriate health care
(a) the right to individuals and groups to participate in the planning and implementation of health care;
(b) the right of equal access of individuals and families to health care the community can afford;
(c) the right to relevant health care services including where appropriate access to hospitals neighbourhood clinics, specialist clinics, as well as the services of general practitioners, other medical professionals and health care workers drawn from the affected community;
(d) the right to independent information on the relevance and reliability of health care services and treatments including allopathic, homeopathic, nutritional, physiotherapeutic, psychotherapeutic, indigenous and other approaches;
(e) the right to health care systems which recognise and take account of the different ways in which hazards affect women, men and children;
(f) the right to health education;
(g) the development of national, regional and international networks to facilitate sharing of information and experience.
Article 6: Right to refusal
1. All communities have the right to refuse the introduction, expansion or continuation of hazardous activities in their living environment.
2. All workers have the right to refuse to work in a hazardous working environment without fear of retaliatory action by the employer.
3. All workers have the right to reject inappropriate legal, medical or scientific advice shall not be infringed.
Article 7: Permanent sovereignty over living environments
1. Each state retains the right of permanent sovereignty over the living environments within its national jurisdiction. No state shall exercise this right so as to injure the health or living environments of its people, nor to cause damage to the environment of other states or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.
2. Each state has the right and the obligation to regulate and exercise authority over hazardous and potentially hazardous enterprises in conformity with the interests and well-being of its people and their environment.
3. No state shall be:
(a) refused external finance or assistance on the grounds of its refusal to import or establish hazardous products or processes;
(b) compelled to grant preferential treatment to foreign investment;
(c) made subject to external threats or coercive measures, whether military, diplomatic, social or economic, intended to affect regulations or policies regarding hazardous production.
4. Transnational corporations and multinational enterprises shall not intervene in the internal affairs of a host state.
Article 8: Right to living environment free from hazards
1. All persons have the right to a living environment free from hazards. In particular, this right applies where hazards arise from:
(a) the manufacture, sale, transport, distribution, use and disposal of hazardous materials;
(b) any military or weapons application, regardless of national security.
2. Any person has the right to raise a bona fide complaint to the owner or occupier of an economic enterprise regarding activities of the enterprise which he or she believes are hazardous to the living environment.
3. Any person living in an environment from which it is impossible to eliminate a hazard shall have the right to protective safety systems necessary to eliminate any such hazard as far as possible. The owners or occupiers of the concerned hazardous enterprise may not refuse to provide the most effective systems available on the grounds of cost or inconvenience.
Article 9: Right to environmental information
1. All persons have the right to be given reasonable notice of any proposal to establish, expand or modify a hazardous industry in such location or in such a manner as may put at risk public health or the living environment. To achieve the full realization of this right, the following steps shall be taken:
(a) All states shall ensure that communities, individuals and non-government organisations have the right of access to full information regarding the proposal. This right shall not be abridged by claims of commercial secrecy.
(b) All states shall ensure that prior to official approval of any hazardous enterprises, independent and thorough assessments of the impact upon the environment and public health be conducted in consultation with the communily. The models and conclusions of such impact assessments shall be made available for public debate.
2. All persons have the right to be informed in their own language and in a manner which they are able to comprehend, of any possible hazards or risks associated with any product or process used by any enterprise with which they may come into contact.
3. All persons have the right to be informed of the safety record of any economic enterprises whose manufacturing or industrial processes could affect their living environment, including the number of accidents, the types of accidents that have occurred, the extent of injuries resulting from such accidents and any possible Iong-term adverse health effects.
4. All persons have the right to be informed of types and quantities of hazardous substances used and stored at the facility and emitted from the facility and contained in any final products. In particular, the right to information includes the right to regular toxic release inventories where appropriate. All persons living in the neighbourhood hazardous facilities have the right to inspection of factory premises and to physical verification of hazardous substances and processes.
5. All persons who live in environments in which they may come into contact with materials or process that are known to be seriously hazardous and which emanate from the activities of an economic enterprise, have the right to be examined regularly by an independent medical expert provided by the owner or occupier of the enterprise.
Article 10: Right to community participation
1. All persons have the right to participate in planning and decision-making processes affecting their living environment.
2. All persons have the right to planning and decision-making proceedings which are:
(a) public and open;
(b) accessible to all in timing and location;
(c) widely advertised in advance
(d) not restricted by literacy, language or format of contributlons.
3. All persons have the right to express their concerns and objections relating to hazards associated with establishing, modifying or expanding any economic enterprise.
4. All persons have the right to participate in the design and execution of on-going studies to determine the nature of any hazards to the living environment resulting from an economic enterprise.
Article 11: Right to environmental monitoring
1 . All persons have the right to regular and effective monitoring of their health and the living environment for possible immediate and long-term effects caused by hazardous or potentially hazardous economic enterprise.
2. All persons have the right to be consulted on the frequency, character and objectives of environmental monitoring. The right to organise non-professional monitoring strategies, such as lay epidemiology, shall be protected. The rights of women, whose experience in providing health care may reveal otherwise unidentified consequences of hazards, are particularly affirmed.
3. Any person who bona fide believes that his or her community environment is endangered by the actions of any economic enterprise, has the right to an immediate and thorough investigation, to be carried out by an independent agency at no cost to the person acting bona fide.
Article 12: Right to community education
1. All persons have the right to the effective dissemination of information regarding hazards in the community. This right extends to instruction based upon the best available information and standards, drawn from both national and international sources.
2. States shall take effective steps to provide for:
(a) clear and systematic labelling of hazardous substances;
(b) appropriate education of the community, including children, on hazardous products and processes;
(c) training of police, medical professions and other service providers on hazardous products and processes.
Article 13: Right to community emergency preparedness procedure
1. All persons have the right to an appropriate emergency preparedness procedure. Such procedure shall include warning systems for impending dangers and systems for immediate relief efforts.
2. All states shall take steps to provide communities with adequate emergency services, including the provision of police, fire fighting, medical and paramedical facilities and disaster management services.
Article 14: Right to enforcement of environmental
1. All persons have the right to have their local environment adequately and frequently inspected by a trained environmental inspector who will rigorously enforce the law and take punitive legal action when serious breaches have taken place.
2. All persons have the right to environmental management legilslation in compliance with the precautionary principle, so that where there are threats of serious or irreverslble damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason to postpone cost-effective measure to prevent hazards and environmental degradation.
Article 15: Rights of indigenous peoples
l. Indigenous peoples have the right to protect their habitat, economy, society and culture from industrial hazards and environmentally destructive practices by economic enterprises.
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to control over their land and resources management of their land which includes the right to assess potential environmental impacts and the right to refuse to allow environmentally destructive or hazardous industries to be set up on their land.
Article 16: Specific rights of workers
In addition to their rights as members of the community, workers have specific rights applicable to their working environments.
Article 17: Right to working environment free from hazards
1. All workers, both waged and unwaged, have the right to a working environment free from any existing or potential hazard arising directly or indirectly from the activities of any economic enterprise in particular from manufacturing or other industrial processes.
2. Any worker has the right to raise bona fide complaints to the employer or any outside parties regarding conditions or practises in the working environment that he or she believes are harmful or hazardous without fear of retaliatory action or other discriminatory action by the employer.
3. Any individual working in an environment from which it is impossible to eliminate any hazard, shall have the right to have provided, fitted free of charge and maintained in fully effective order, protective safety devices including personal protective equipment necessary to eliminate any such hazard as far as possible. Employers may not refuse to provide the most effective equipment available on the grounds of cost or inconvenience.
4. All workers have the nght to safe systems or work. All employers have the duty to devise, provide, maintain and regularly update safe systems of work based on the best available information at all times.
5. No worker shall be subjected to exposure to a chemical, product or process when a less hazardous one could be substituted.
6. Governments and employers are responsible for ensuring hazard-free working environments. The inaction by either employer or government shall not be an adequate excuse for a derogation of duty by the other.
Article 18: Right to health and safety information
1. All workers have the right to be given reasonable notice of any proposed changes to their working environments which may pose a threat to worker health and safety.
2. All workers have the right to be informed in their own language and in a manner they are able to comprehend, of any known health hazard associated with any substance, material or process with which they come into contact during the course of their employment.
3. All workers have the right to be informed of the safety record of the work environment in which they are employed, including the number and type of accidents that have occurred, the extent of the injuries resulting therefrom and any known long-term adverse health risks that result from the substances, materials and processes used by the employer. Workers have the right to be regularly informed of the safety records of any economic enterprise affiliated by common ownership to the economic enterprise in which they work, and which uses any similar substance, material or process to that used in their work environment.
4. All workers employed in hazardous work environments have the right to be examined by an independent medical expert provided by the employer at the commencement of employment and thereafter at periodic intervals defined on the basis of the most conservative estimate of potential risks, but in any case not exceeding one year and to be furnished with the resulting medical information.
Article 19: Right to worker participation.
1. All workers have the right to participate effectively in management decision-making affecting health and safety.
2. All workers have the right to elect safety representatives. Such representatives have the right to participate in joint committees, composed of worker and management representatives in equal number, which meet regularly to address health and safety matters.
3 . All workers have the right to participate in the design and execution of ongoing health and safety studies in their working environments to determine the nature ˜f any risks to health and safety.
4. All workers have the nght to establish and associate with community hazards centre and information networks. Governments and employers have a responsibility to support such organisations and programmes.
Article 20: Right to health and safety monitoring
1. All workers have the right to a work environment that is regularly and effectively monitored for possible harmful effects to the health and safety of the workers employed therein.
2. Notwithstanding the duty of employers to monitor working environments, the right of workers to seek independent or worker-based monitoring shall not be infringed. This right includes the right to regular monitoring for possible adverse, long-term effects which may result from contact with substances, materials or processes used in the working environment.
3. Any worker who bona fide believes that his or her health and safety is being or will be endangered by any substance, material or process used in the work environment has the right to an immediate and thorough investigation, to be carried out by the employer, an independent agency by other means at no cost to the worker.
Article 21: Right to instruction and practical training
1. All workers in contact with hazardous or potentially hazardous substances, materials or processes have the right to ongoing instruction and practical training regarding management of the hazard. The right to instruction and practical training based on the best available information drawing from both national and international sources, is affirmed.
2. All workers and supervisors have the right to know and be fully instructed about the proper use and handling ol any hazardous materials, the proper execution of any processes, the precautions necessary to protect health, safety and the living environment, and procedures which should be followed in the event of an emergency.
Article 22: Right to workplace emergency preparedness procedure
1. All workers have the right to an emergency preparedness procedure appropriate for the conditions or practices in their work environment which shall include warning systems for impending dangers and systems for immediate relief efforts, with full scale emergency preparedness rehearsals and desk top exercises to be held frequently.
2. Emergency preparedness procedures shall take account of the particular needs of individual workers, including those with visual, hearing or mobility impairments.
3. All workers have the right to adequate emergency services including police, fire fighting, medical and paramedical facilities and disaster management.
Article 23 Right to enforcement of health and safety laws
1. All workers have the right to have their work environments adequately inspected by trained health and safety inspector who will rigorously enforce the law and take punitive legal action when serious breaches have occurred.
2. All workers have the right to adequate planning control legislation in compliance with the precautionary principle, so that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason to postpone cost-effective measures to prevent hazards and environmental degradation.
Article 24: Right to relief and compensation
1. All persons injured or otherwise detrimentally affected by any hazardous economic activity have the right to swift, comprehensive and effective relief. This right applies to all persons affected by hazards or potential hazards, including persons not yet born at the time of injury or exposure, and those injured, bereaved or economically and socially disadvantaged, whether affected directly or indirectly.
2. This right includes the right to fair and adequate monetary compensation, paid to cover all costs associated with hazardous or potentially hazardous activities including the costs of:
(a) drugs, tests, therapies, hospitalisation and other medical treatments;
(b) travel and other related costs;
(c) lost wages, bridging loans and other pecuniary;
(d) redundancy and unemployment in the case of plant shutdown;
(e) additional unwaged work, including health care, borne by family and community;
(f) any purchase, measure or lost opportunity caused directly or indirectly by hazardous processes or Froducts;
(g) environmental rehabilitation.
3. All persons affected by hazards have the right to effective and innovative policies to reduce, abate or compensate for hazardous activities. To achieve the realization of this right, the steps taken by states and businesses shall include:
(a) plant shutdown;
(b) pollution abatements or cessation;
(c) guarantee by liable defendants to keep assets unencumbered;
(d) forced liquidation of the assets of a corporation whose liability is equal to or greater than its measurable assets;
(e) placement of corporate assets to annuity funds controlled by the persons affected or their representatives for the interests of persons affected;
(f) fair and adequate compensation for the costs of the medical monitoring of symptoms;
(g) other remedies that may be deemed to be necessary for the benefit of persons affected.
4. Funds shall be established adequately to satisfy the claims for the persons affected and of those affected in the future.
Article 25: Right to immediate interim relief
1. All persons adversely affected by any hazardous economic activity have the right to immediate and adequate interim relief to alleviate their injuries and suffering during the time that liability and compensatory damages are being determined. States shall ensure all hazardous or potentially hazardous enterprises provide financial resources, through insurance or other means, adequate to cover potential interim relief costs.
2. Where an economic enterprise fails to provide interim relief, it shall be the duty of the state to do so. Interim relief so provided will not be set-off against any final compensation allowed by the court.
Article 26: Right to medical information
All persons immediately or subsequently affected by hazardous activities, including persons unborn at the time of the exposure to hazard, have the right to obtain relevant documents pertaining to injuries, including medical records, test results and other information.
This right may be exercised at the earliest opportunity and may not be made subject to delay or noncompliance by other government or industry. Such disclosure shall not be made in a manner so as to prejudice the affected person's right of access to any service, insurance, employment or any social or welfare opportunities.
Article 27: Right to professional services
1. All persons adversely affected by hazardous activity have the right of access to effective professional services, including service to lawyers, journalists, scientific experts and medical professions.
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