Exposing violences: Using women's human rights theory to reconceptualize food rights

Exposing food violences – hunger,malnutrition, and poisoning from environmentalmismanagement – requires policy action thatconfronts the structured invisibility of theseviolences. Along with the hidden deprivation offood is the physical and political isolation ofcritical knowledge on food violences and needs,and for policy strategies to address them. Iargue that efforts dedicated on behalf of ahuman right to food can benefit from thetheoretical analysis and activist work of theinternational Women's Rights are Human Rights(WRHR) movement. WRHR focuses on women andgirls; the food rights movement operates onbehalf of all people, with an emphasis on thepoor. Both attend to the protection of bodilyintegrity against physical and psychicviolences. Both cope with bodily violences thatare socially privatized and spatiallysegregated from public institutions of relief,that is, they are tacitly omitted from publicdiscourse and purview. Most typically, but notexclusively, these violences unfold in privatehousehold space. Both rights movements mustmobilize political rights to demand economicand social rights and security. I introduce theUnited Nations' early Declaration (1948) andCovenant (1966) language on the human right tofood and review problems of household accessand grassroots engagement that are ``writteninto' this early documentation. An abbreviatedoverview of the WRHR movement describes how thepublic/private and economic/political rightsdichotomies have been critiqued andre-formulated. A case study set in Polandacross the transition from (more) communist to(more) capitalist political economies attemptsto illuminate the discussion through agrounded example.     

A rights foundation for ecological democracy

ABSTRACT

What would it mean to conceptualize some environmental relationships as bundles of rights, rather than as a good as generally defined by liberalism? Environmental rights are a category of human rights necessarily central to both democracy and global environmental protection and governance (ecological democracy). The world of democratic politics and governance since mid-twentieth century has been transformed by a rights revolution in which recognized rights have come to constitute a ‘global normative order.’ There are several policy spaces in which persuasive environmental rights discourses have been emerging from existing or foreseeable congruences of elite and popular environmental norms, including (1) rights involving access to information and decision-making processes; (2) rights ensuring access to food and water; and (3) rights providing environmental security to all. We analyze these three rights discourses and assess their current and necessary future trajectories. We identify next steps in achieving better understanding and more meaningful establishment of environmental rights and their integration into our thinking about human rights, with attention to how they can be reconciled with the social and cultural diversity of democratic environmental governance in coming turbulent times.     

Obligations to animals are based on rights

Some feminist philosophers criticize the idea of human rights because, they allege, it encapsulates male bias; it is therefore misguided, in their view, to extend moral rights to non-human animals. I argue that the feminist criticism is misguided. Ideas are not biased in favour of men simply because they originate with men, nor are ideas themselves biased in favour of men because men have used them prejudicially. As for the position that women should abandon theories of rights and embrace an ethic that emphasizes care: women who made this choice would not so much liberate themselves from the patriarchy as they would conform to its representation of women as emotional, subjective and irrational. There is, then, no good reason to withhold ascribing rights to non-human animals, based on the criticisms of rights made by some feminists.Some of the material in the discussion of the feminist critique of rights originally appeared in my The Case for Animal Rights: A Decade's Passing inA Quarter Century of Value Inquiry: Presidential Addresses of the American Society of Value Inquiry, edited by Richard T. Hull, pp. 451–455. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1994. These passages are reprinted with the permission of the editor and publisher, whose thoughtful co-operation is gratefully acknowledged.     

Utilitarian killing,replacement, and rights

The ethical theory underlying much of our treatment of animals in agriculture and research is the moral agency view. It is assumed that only moral agents, or persons, are worthy of maximal moral significance, and that farm and laboratory animals are not moral agents. However, this view also excludes human non-persons from the moral community. Utilitarianism, which bids us maximize the amount of good (utility) in the world, is an alternative ethical theory. Although it has many merits, including impartiality and the extension of moral concern to all sentient beings, it also appears to have many morally unacceptable implications. In particular, it appears to sanction the killing of innocents when utility would be maximized, including cases in which we would deliberately kill and replace a being, as we typically do to animals on farms and in laboratories. I consider a number of ingenious recent attempts by utilitarians to defeat the killing and replaceability arguments, including the attempt to make a place for genuine moral rights within a utilitarian framework. I conclude that utilitarians cannot escape the killing and replaceability objections. Those who reject the restrictive moral agency view and find they cannot accept utilitarianism's unsavory implications must look to a different ethical theory to guide their treatment of humans and non-humans.     

Property rights regimes and the management of resources

The property rights regime is an important link between the yield of a natural resource and the appropriation and maintenance incentives of its users. This paper discusses the theoretical background for this link and provides insights as to the function of the property rights regime, drawing from recent developments in the economics literature on optimal ownership patterns and the theory of repeated games. The performances of different resource ownership patterns are evaluated using the criterion of economic efficiency. The economic theory of property rights is based on the idea that, because contractual arrangements are bound to be incomplete, there is scope for opportunistic behaviour and therefore the resulting resource management is likely to be inefficient. Optimal resource ownership patterns are viewed as solutions to the problem of structuring private users' incentives in accordance with the socially desirable management of resources.     

动物权利思想历史考察

动物权利问题是西方环境伦理学中的一个重要问题,本文根据人类历史过程中自然观的变化及生产方式的变化对人与动物关系的影响,把动物权利思想观念分为古代朴素的动物权利思想、近代动物权利思想以及现代动物权利观三种理论形态.     

Agriculture,ethics, and restrictions on property rights

The argument in this essay is twofold. (1) Procedural justice requires,in particular cases, that we restrict property rights in natural resources, e.g., California agricultural land or Appalachian coal land. (2) Conditions imposed by Locke's political theory and by dense population require,in general, that we restrict property rights in finite or non-renewable natural resources such as land. If these arguments are correct, then we have a moral imperative to use land-use controls (such as taxation, planning, zoning, and acreage limitations) to restructure land ownership and land use in a far more radical way than has ever been accomplished in the past.     

Obligations to animals are not necessarily based on rights

I offer a very qualified argument to the effect that rights are grounded in a certain sort of prejudice that privileges individualistic and perhaps masculinist ways of thinking about moral life. I also propose that we look carefully at other conceptions of social ontology and moral life, including the much discussed care conception.     

Water rights and legal pluralism: four contexts for negotiation

Increasing water scarcity is increasing pressure on water management institutions, particularly in the area of water rights. A common response is to formalise water tenure, one of several options for securing access and resolving conflicts concerning water allocation. This article looks at four contexts where negotiation, self-governance and concepts of legal pluralism may help improve water resource management. Existing users and potential new users need to negotiate before water resources are developed. Users can participate in forums with authority to solve basin management problems through self-governance. Negotiated water transfers offer an alternative to water acquisition by expropriation.     

Lease delay rights: Market valued permits and offshore leasing

Sealed bid auctions for offshore federal mineral holdings are a source of substantial litigation brought by environmental groups and the states against the US government. A basic utility maximizing model and explanations based on externalities and wealth seeking behaviour are used to predict a willingness to pay by interest groups to delay a lease on specific tracts. A method is developed that incorporates bids for delay into the auction process. Estimates of the minimum payment to delay a lease, based on data from two lease sales, are compared to the budget of selected environmental groups, states and local governments.     

Complex property rights and Coasean bargaining in natural resource management

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the debate on whether private or common property rights are better for advancing the sustainable management of natural resources. This contest between public and private ownership is often exaggerated, we claim, because in the real world, complex entitlements with varying degrees of privateness/publicness prevail. Property rights belonging to families, companies, clubs, corporations, and communities are simultaneously common to the members/shareholders and private to the entities. We call these entitlements private-common entitlements. When we acknowledge this complexity, it becomes evident that neither private nor common ownership rights are alone responsible for resource depletion. Instead, depletion is caused by freeriding or evading the payment of the full price of natural resources. This invites Coase’s solution to resource allocation. Therefore, the key problem is whether and how Coasean bargaining is employed to allocate ownership over resources threatened by depletion. We contribute to the debate by showing that Coase’s approach promotes not only economically efficient but also ecologically sustainable resource management. Often, this approach would lead to the establishment of largely private property or control rights by largely collective/public entities. We apply this theoretical framework to the development of a ski resort in Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria.     

Reasonable creatures: rights and rationalities in valuing the countryside

Debate on the economic valuation of the countryside is typically polarized between absolutist critics who would deny it any valid role and equally fervid proponents who see its techniques as the only way of integrating the environment into policy making. Such debate is structured by conflicting notions of rights, responsibilities and values, rather than by consideration of the role of technique in practical policy‐making. This paper attempts to take the debate forward and begins by examining the ways in which rights, responsibilities and values have been historically created. The techniques of economic valuation rest on particular conceptions of these, making them irreducibly political, and at the same time their results are often used to justify political decisions. Yet the proper role of technique ought to be to explore options. Provided that the sort of clarification that economic valuation offers is understood, it may, along with other types of technique, be used to open up the decision making process.     

Property rights and governance of Africa's rangelands: A policy overview

Recent efforts at securing property rights in dryland Africa have generally involved several interrelated processes such as legal and policy reforms that recognize and strengthen customary rights or the seasonal rights of pastoralists, and the decentralization of land allocation and administration to lower governance levels. These solutions are in turn beset by new problems, key among them are establishing norms for local participation in decision making, preventing manipulation and capture by elites, lack of accountability of local level institutions and authorities, and the onset of a new generation of resource user conflicts. Increasing avenues through which dialogue and communication can occur among policy actors (including local communities) in order to mobilize multiple experiences, information, and to manage power relationships — a collaborative approach to policy governance — is one way of approaching the complexity paradox. This is anticipated to provide opportunity for learning, innovation and adaptability.     

Transfer of development rights,growth management,and landscape conservation in Virginia

Urban sprawl in Virginia has led to the loss of wildlife habitat and agricultural land, reduced water quality, and to severe traffic congestion. We conducted a survey to identify the tools being used by the state's localities to manage growth and protect land from development, and the factors that influence interest in particular planning goals and strategies. More specifically, we sought to explore the level of interest in using the transfer of development rights (TDR). Almost every locality in Virginia has stated goals of protecting green space and agricultural land but very few have pursued a TDR programme since it became legal to do so in 2006. However, the main tools being used by planning departments are of limited effectiveness, particularly with regard to ensuring permanent or even long-term land preservation. More broadly, they are reflective of a reactive response to individual development proposals rather than a proactive, comprehensive approach to planning.     

Health sector reform in Nigeria: A perspective on human rights and gender issues

Public health and human rights are complementary approaches to promoting and protecting human dignity and well-being. The aim of this paper is to examine international provisions and national policies on health and human rights that regulate the health system in Nigeria, along with the institutional arrangements created for the design and implementation of health services. The paper reviews the framework for policy formulation and planning on health matters and emphasizes the responsibilities of the state to implement Millennium Development Goals and international obligations of human rights. It highlights the importance and impact of gender and reproductive rights on health system performance and concludes by proposing legal strategies to improve health outcomes in the country.     

Land rights in Darfur: Institutional flexibility,policy and adaptation to environmental change

With environmental change set to affect the developing world in significant ways, examination of the process of adaptation is increasingly being brought to the fore. Common to all forms of adaptation in rural livelihoods will be a process of change in resource use and the resource rights that will either facilitate or subvert adaptation. This paper looks at Darfur and the repercussions from the multi‐year drought and land degradation that led to forms of adaptation that involved change in relationships between groups over land resources. The analysis looks at how changes in land resource rights relationships have been dealt with historically, as adaptation developed. Approaches involving highly flexible customary institutions were used to effectively manage the change in land resource rights relationships inherent in adaptation, and considerable opportunity existed for positive interaction between customary and statutory law. Initial success at adaptation was followed by interventions by the Sudanese government to manage these relationships for specific objectives that worked against adaptation. This resulted in competition, animosity, confrontation and the subsequent collapse of the institutions, legitimacy, and trust necessary for successful management of land resource rights change. These national policies debilitated the adaptation opportunities and instead led to profoundly negative repercussions in relationships about land in Darfur, eventually becoming a primary driver in the current war. This highlights both the importance of land resource rights relationships to adaptation and how these relationships can be changed (positively and negatively) by specific practices and policies.     

Blocking pipelines,unsettling environmental justice: from rights of nature to responsibility to territory

ABSTRACT

Indigenous peoples are among the most affected by environmental injustices globally, however environmental justice theory has not yet meaningfully addressed decolonisation and the resistance of Indigenous communities against extractivism in the settler-colonial context. This paper suggests that informing environmental justice through decolonial analysis and decolonising practices can help transcend the Western ontological roots of environmental justice theories and inform a more radical and emancipatory environmental justice. The Unist’ot’en Resistance and Action Camp blocking pipelines in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, their “Reimagined Free Prior and Informed Consent protocol” and the Delgamuukw case are described to discuss limitations of the state and legal framework for accommodating a decolonial and transformative environmental justice. A decolonial analysis informed by these two moments of Wet’sewet’ten history suggests limits and adaptations to the trivalent EJ framework based on recognition, participation and distribution. It is argued that a decolonising and transformative approach to environmental justice must be based on self-governing authority, relational ontologies of nature and epistemic justice and the unsettling of power through the assertion of responsibility and care through direct action. This discussion is placed in the context of the expansion of the concept of ecological rights, for example through the enshrining of the “Rights of Nature” in the constitutions of countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador, to highlight the Inherent tensions in the translation of Indigenous cosmo-visions into legal systems based on universalist values.