[permaculture-oceania] the 'rights-based' approach'

[Russ Grayson]

On 15/8/06 6:24 PM, "Rosemary Morrow" <rowe at lisp.com.au> wrote:

> Hello Mike:
> 
> Recently I attended two seminars, one organised by the labour party
> and one by the greens,  and both are advocating some sort of Bill or
> Charter of Rights for NSWe such as Victoria and ACT already have in
> order to try to escape some of the worst of the reversal of many of
> our 'rights'   

This is good news because, unlike Americans, Australians have no legal
protection from government.

Rights are what cultures appropriate to themselves, under their legal
system, to guarantee a basic level of freedom and dignity. There may be no
ultimate rights in the sense of something granted by nature or existence,
but if we are to maintain a vestige of civilisation and individual capacity
to follow personal goals, then we need to enshrine that in law.

> I accept and support that
> our rights lie within a framework of laws and a society that works  well by
> law is superb compared with the alternative which is militia  and corruption
> such as I have experienced in Cambodia and Afghanistan.

... and the Solomon Islands, which is why people there welcomed the
intervention of Pacific nations - the Regional Assistance Mission Solomon
Islands (RAMSI). People lived in fear, the economy collapsed, education,
medical services went... that's no basis for development or self-help. When
I was there, even in what had just before been militia territory on Malaita
island, people would ask expectedly: "Are you from RAMSI?".
 
> However with globalisation and a decline in all finite resources it
> occurred to me that perhaps people, and perhaps other species, could
> have additional rights to those decided upon when the UN framed its
> Charter of Human Rights and asked all nations to sign and ratify them.

I wonder what rights you give to other species and how you select which
species to give them to? Rights beyond the UN charter? You mean rights to
fresh water etc? Good in principle and achievable in a technical sense, but
the political will is lacking.

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