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Guardians of Future Generations: A Legal

Frameworkby Carolyn Raffensperger

Science and Environmental Health Network

Global Conference on Implementing Intergenerational Equity

July 4-5, 2013Geneva Switzerland

Eleanor Roosevelt

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Rights and Responsibilities Framework

Create a legal framework that defines the rights of future generations to a habitable planet. Constitutions Statutes U.N. Declaration

Create the legal mechanisms for present generations to fulfill their responsibilities to future generations. Constitutions Executive Orders Statutes Treaties

Creating new institutions

Commissioner at the U.N. Cabinet level offices of Guardian of Future

Generations Ombudsmen or guardians housed in specific

agencies Community Review Boards analogous to

Institutional Review Boards.

U.N. Commissioner

Assign responsibility for the rights of future generations to the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights

Convene Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Guardian or Ombudsman?

A Guardian has the proxy for future generations An Ombudsman is an advocate for future

generations but does not speak as the voice of future beings.

Tasks of a guardian or ombudsman

Ensure that all decisions taken protect the rights of future generations. Legislation Regulation Judicial

Do an audit of the commons (air, water, pollinators, public health) and report as part of the budget.

Intervene in court cases on behalf of future generations. Convene Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Community or Futures Review Boards

Medical and scientific experiments on human subjects require that those experiments meet two criteria. The first is that the experiment is ethical. The second is that the subject has given consent.

Many environmental decisions (pipelines, mining, drilling, development) have unknowns and are essentially experiments. They should require the same oversight as human subjects research. Is this project ethical? Has the guardian, ombudsman or commissioner given consent?

The Commons

The right of future generations is essentially a right to the common heritage, the commonwealth and common health of humanity and nature. The commons include all the elements of ecosystems and culture necessary for life and community well-being. The commons include but are not limited to air, water, the ocean, the moon, wildlife.

Decision-making

Rights-based decisions not utilitarianism-based decisions Precautionary principle (taking action to prevent harm in

the face of scientific uncertainty.) Consent (free, prior and informed consent) Budget

No debt to future generations without a corresponding asset. Commons are the economic foundation of the future

Rights of Nature and Rights of Future

Generations The emerging international law on rights of nature

is a limit on the rights of corporations and a litigation tool.

The emerging law on the rights of future generations is a day to day decision making strategy.

They are not in conflict and need to be integrated in the evolving jurisprudence.

George Bernard Shaw

“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.”