Academic literature on the topic 'Environmental self-declaration'

In many industrial countries voluntary commitments are emerging as a new instrument for energy policy to reduce greenhouse gases. This paper examines the latest version of the German Industry's Declaration on Climate Protection from 1996. The statistical analysis shows that the largest part of the German Industry's commitments for 2005 were already reached in 1994 and 1995, thus prior to signing the Declaration. This result corresponds to economic theory that in an open competition-based economy, companies cannot do more for the environment than the market allows.

Abstract: Broadly speaking, this paper is about the relationship of the human rights tradition to substantive issues of social justice, including class exploitation and environmental destruction. These themes I take to be of global concern, but I will examine them today as they arise from conflicts and struggles situated in Brazil. The key to the argument is to show that the human rights tradition recognizes necessary features of self-determination, and that claims for socio-environmental rights in Brazil and elsewhere derive their legitimacy from the same kind of argument that justifies individual rights, such as the 1948 United Nations Declaration, and collective rights, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007. That is, I will try to show that individual, collective and socio-environmental rights are each necessary conditions but, on their own, insufficient conditions for the possibility of self-determination. The need for such rights emerges in the history of the struggle for justice. This this paper will also defend the claim that the universality of rights necessarily emerges from the historicity of social life and solves what Marx calls the “riddle of history.” Keywords : Socio-enviromental rights; riddle of history. Resumo: De um modo geral, este artigo trata da relação da tradição dos direitos humanos com questões substantivas de justiça social, incluindo a exploração de classes e a destruição ambiental. Esses temas são de interesse global, mas vou examiná-los hoje, pois eles surgem de conflitos e lutas no Brasil. A chave do argumento é mostrar que a tradição dos direitos humanos reconhece as características necessárias à autodeterminação, e que as reivindicações por direitos socioambientais no Brasil e em outros lugares derivam sua legitimidade do mesmo tipo de argumento que justifica os direitos individuais, como o Declaração das Nações Unidas de 1948, e direitos coletivos, como o Pacto Internacional sobre Direitos Econômicos, Sociais e Culturais de 1966 e a Declaração dos Direitos dos Povos Indígenas das Nações Unidas de 2007. Ou seja, tentarei mostrar que os direitos individuais, coletivos e Direitos socioambientais são, cada um, condições necessárias, mas, por si só, condições insuficientes para a possibilidade de autodeterminação. A necessidade de tais direitos surge na história da luta pela justiça. Este artigo também defenderá a afirmação de que a universalidade dos direitos surge necessariamente da historicidade da vida social e resolve o que Marx chama de "enigma da história".

This paper addresses the issue of what happens in the aftermath of conflict when humanitarian response is absent, to see how “self-help” recovery can inform development assistance paradigms and practice. We explore livelihoods strategies and community-led recovery processes in the context of conflict in Somaliland, a region that experienced an acutely disruptive conflict and an absence of humanitarian aid, to evaluate the economic recovery that emerged. The conflict is tracked through perceptions and recollections of those who lived through the disaster: the bombing of Hargeisa in 1988 that flattened the city, the declaration of a semi-autonomous nation in 1991, and its subsequent development over the last 25 years. This critical case study aims to inform the humanitarian assistance agenda in relation to livelihoods as a self-help process in post-conflict recovery.

Abstract The EU has entered into many binding undertakings (international agreements) with third States on access to fisheries resources. In the Venezuelan Fisheries case, the ECJ was, for the first time, confronted with an EU unilateral declaration granting fishing opportunities in EU waters to Venezuela-flagged vessels. We argue, contrary to ECJ’s conclusion, that the declaration is a binding unilateral act and not an international agreement. This case is important for the burgeoning debate on the ECJ’s approach to international law. It represents a missed opportunity for the ECJ to clarify its previous case-law on the broad concept of ‘international agreement’ and align it with relevant international jurisprudence and doctrine. More fundamentally, it is a missed opportunity for the ECJ to truly develop and shape international law practice and doctrine on unilateral acts by international organisations – an omission that does not comport with the EU’s self-projection as an internationally engaged polity.

Hundreds of “eco-labels” and “social labels” exist for consumer products. These labels claim to provide information about characteristics of these products, which consumers cannot directly observe but which many of them consider desirable, such as low environmental impact, good treatment of workers during production, and relatively high prices paid to the local producers of ingredients from developing countries. Third-party certifiers are supposed to solve the well-known problem that a producer's unilateral declarations lack credibility, given the producer's conflict of interest and the information asymmetries between producer and consumer. Much of the literature on global private regulation—through standards for environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, among others—assumes that third-party certification works (i.e., overcomes the problems of producer self-declaration). But closer inspection shows that many third-party certifiers lack credibility. This article examines why some third party certifiers are more credible than others. In doing so, we elucidate the ways in which social capital and trust bolster third party certifiers' credibility. The empirical analysis focuses primarily on Kosher food labels within the global food supply chain. We then explore the consequences of the credibility paradox for other third party certified labels that promote social and environmental values.

This article argues that the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) selectively recognises and affirms international conventions and agreements that promote the narrow economic self-interests of powerful groups. It does this whilst disregarding those international instruments — including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity — that seek to recognise and promote the cultural and intellectual property rights of Indigenous people. Although AUSFTA does make some concessions for Indigenous interests by providing negative exemptions from the chapters dealing with trade in services, government procurement and investment, these concessions are relatively weak in the face of the Agreement's pursuit of free trade. Using the model of Chapter 19, which imposes positive obligations on the United States and Australia to promote environmental interests, it is proposed that future Australian FTAs should enunciate positive obligations for Australia's Indigenous people.

IntroductionClinically, OC-checkers often report staring compulsions and “lack of action completion” sensations, which have been linked to self-agency alterations. Belayachi and Van der Linden (2009) theoretically proposed that “abnormal” checkers self-agency could be due to an over-reliability on environmental cues and to a tendency to specify actions in a procedural and inflexible way, conceiving them as “low-level” agents. Currently, no studies have experimentally address this issue.ObjectivesTo investigate self-agency in OC-checkers subtype, measuring gaze agency (the ability to understand that we can cause events through our eye movements) and taking into account both agency beliefs and agency feelings.Methods13 OC-checkers and 13 healthy controls underwent two tasks. “Discovery” task, a completely novel task used to examine causal learning abilities. Subjects watched bouncing balls on a computer screen with the aim of discovering the cause of concurrently presented acoustical beeps. “Detection” task, a two-alternative forced choice task that required subjects to tell whether or not the beeps were generated by their own eye movements.ResultsCheckers exhibit:– lower performance scores and confidence ratings when they have to self-attribute the beep cause, but not eye behavioral differences, during discovery task;– lower confidence ratings, but a level of accuracy similar to that of controls, during detection task.ConclusionsCheckers do not show an altered self-agency per se, but what we have called a “doubtful” self-agency: indeed, we argue that agency beliefs alterations found during Discovery task can be due to pathological doubt, rather than to altered agency feelings.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

IntroductionSome findings in patients with first psychotic episode (FEP) could be related to alterations of stress responses. Alterations of stress response are reflected in the alterations of the HPA axis.ObjectiveTo assess the difference in stress response in FEP patients and healthy controls as well as implications of environment to vulnerability to psychosis.AimTo assess endocrine and autonomic responses to acute psychosocial stress, their associations with onset of the first psychotic episode as well as the influence of the environmental factors.MethodsWe have assessed clinical status through clinical psychiatric interviews, standardized psychiatric scales and validated psychological scales, (LEQ, WHOQOL-BREF, PBI, Rosenberg) in 45 subjects with FEP and 50 age and gender matched controls. All participants were then exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSTT).ResultsOur preliminary findings on a sample of 95 participants indicate a differences between patients and controls in salivatory cortisol measured in 5 time points during the TSST. Patients with FEP experience more levels of baseline cortisole, and less changes during the stress test then controls. Baseline stress levels indicated in the salivatory cortisole levels correlate with perceived self-esteem, psychological and social quality of life.ConclusionOur findings support the alterations of stress response, possibly indicating vulnerability to stress in persons with FEP.FundingThis work was funded by the grant of the Croatian Science Foundation No UIP-2014-09-1245 Biomarkers in schizophrenia – integration of complementary methods in longitudinal follow up of first episode psychosis patients.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Numerous risk factors for schizophrenia can be reconciled through a common enteric source. These risk factors include systemic and localized inflammation, compromised endothelial barriers, IgG sensitivities to food antigens, exposure to viral and parasitic pathogens, and autoimmunity. The gut in a homeostatic state equates with a functional digestive system, cellular barrier stability and properly regulated recognition of self and non-self antigens, as managed by a complex community of resident microbes. Our studies address how environmental and genetic factors relate to GI dysfunction, impact the resident gut microbiota and result in dysregulation of processes in the host central nervous system. We hypothesize that disturbance to GI equilibria activates peripheral immune factors including complement pathway components that function in synaptic pruning. We evaluate these issues with peripheral immune biomarkers and deep sequencing in a number of case-control psychiatric cohorts that include antipsychotic-naïve individuals. Although certain medications and lifestyle factors might affect GI functioning, our findings support a GI pathology inherent to the schizophrenia disease process and a role for the gut-brain axis in complex brain disorders. The identification of those individuals affected by GI-related risk factors will enable appropriate and individualized treatments to be designed and tested for efficacy of both gut and brain-related symptoms.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

This thesis draws on David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” and an international political economy (IPE) approach centred on the institutional arrangements and power structures that privilege certain actors and values, in order to critique current capitalist practices of primitive accumulation by the global corporate extractive industry. The thesis examines how accumulation by dispossession by the global extractive industry is facilitated by the “free entry” or “free mining” principle. It does so by focusing on Canada as a leader in the global extractive industry and the spread of this country’s mining laws to other countries – in other words, the transnationalisation of norms in the global extractive industry – so as to maintain a consistent and familiar operating environment for Canadian extractive companies. The transnationalisation of norms is further promoted by key international institutions such as the World Bank, which is also the world’s largest development lender and also plays a key role in shaping the regulations that govern natural resource extraction. The thesis briefly investigates some Canadian examples of resource extraction projects, in order to demonstrate the weaknesses of Canadian mining laws, particularly the lack of protection of landowners’ rights under the free entry system and the subsequent need for “free, prior and informed consent” (FPIC). The thesis also considers some of the challenges to the adoption and implementation of the right to FPIC. These challenges include embedded institutional structures like the free entry mining system, international political economy (IPE) as shaped by international institutions and powerful corporations, as well as concerns regarding ‘local’ power structures or the legitimacy of representatives of communities affected by extractive projects. The thesis concludes that in order for Canada to be truly recognized as a leader in the global extractive industry, it must establish legal norms domestically to ensure that Canadian mining companies and residents can be held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies abroad. The thesis also concludes that Canada needs to address underlying structural issues such as the free entry mining system and implement FPIC, in order to curb “accumulation by dispossession” by the extractive industry, both domestically and abroad.

In 1995, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established as an interim Palestinian government on shreds of land within the West Bank and Gaza. One of the new authority’s lesser-known administrative mandates is protection of the environment from pollution. Though the PA was to have a semblance of “self-rule,” the Oslo Accords that established the PA also stipulated that the latter seek Israeli approval when building most large-scale infrastructures—including those designed to manage waste. Meanwhile, emergent ideas about the environment defined it as a limitless expanse. The environment projected out from PA enclaves on thirty percent of the land in all directions—including into the air above and into the subterrain below. The Accords projected environmental responsibility into Israel proper as well as into areas it “shares” with Palestinians in the occupied territories. As a consequence, Palestinian waste infrastructures are objects of concern not only to the Palestinian communities they are designed to serve but also to the Israeli state, to Israeli settlements, to regional neighbors and to foreign donors in far-flung offices who are concerned with “environmental security.” This dissertation investigates a series of multimillion dollar PA projects aimed at protecting what came to be called the “shared” environment through management of Palestinian wastes. In doing so it analyzes the tension between the insistence, on the one hand, that the PA govern “its” population within strictly defined borders as part of a hierarchical system of nested sovereignties in which Israel’s is the superior form, and the imperative, on the other hand, that this territorially-defined, officially interim government perform care for the territory’s longterm ecological future. It tends to be taken for granted that Oslo produced a period of separation by enclosing the West Bank and Gaza and cleaving them off from Israel proper. Millions of West Bank Palestinians are no longer permitted to work in, travel through or even visit Jerusalem or Israel. Israel has prohibited Israeli citizens’ entry into PA areas of the West Bank. This allows PA areas to appear relatively autonomous—insofar as they are viewed as separate from Israel. But in a number of significant ways, Israel continues to control and to direct the daily experiences and future possibilities of West Bank Palestinians. Separation and control are thus equally accurate characterizations of Palestinians’ experiences post-Oslo. This dissertation contends that their particular combination in the post-Oslo period has allowed people living in the West Bank to experience PA governance as what, borrowing a term I heard there, I call a phantom state (shibih dowlah). Palestinians see the limits of PA autonomy vis-a-vis Israel and the PA’s many donors. The PA is specter-like: an appearance without stable material follow-through. People nevertheless treat the PA as a matter-of-fact, tangible part of their lives: as an address for appeal, requests and complaints, as a distinct entity upon which responsibility, blame and, very occasionally, even praise is bestowed. Studies of garbage at the turn of the twenty-first century show that modern waste has the capacity to destabilize and to undermine political systems because of the risks it is perceived to pose and because of the difficulty of keeping it stable and contained. Unlike water, oil and electricity, waste is an infrastructural substrate whose flows should move out from inhabited areas rather than into them. As mobile, abject matter that perpetually threatens the environment, it requires constant monitoring. It is managed at regional scales. In the Palestinian context, waste therefore reveals some of the spatial-geographical complexities that render the treatment of separation and control as an either/or dynamic impossible to sustain. It also reveals the ways in which believing both separation and control to be true for the people experiencing them in combination means living, working and planning within a logic of constant contradiction. Waste is not the only infrastructural substrate that reveals the Mobius strip of separation and connectedness of the post-Oslo period. But waste and its infrastructures are uniquely useful for showing the impossibility and the partialness of a politics of separation more broadly in an emergent era of environmental securitization. This dissertation thus analyzes an incommensurable tension in what Achille Mbembe has called a “late-modern colonial occupation” that operates in the style of older forms of indirect colonial rule. That tension renders governance of people and territory both difficult and incoherent. It produces environmental hazards while seeking to eliminate them. And it performs major political displacements among colonized and colonizers alike.

Omniprésent au coeur de la stratégie globale des entreprises, l’enjeu environnemental est un moteur distinctif du secteur de fabrication. S’inscrivant dans une tendance qui entraîne un fort niveau d’enthousiasme, la fabrication de produits environnementaux connaît depuis peu une ascension importante. S’appuyant sur l’idéologie du développement durable et du fondement de l’écoconception, les entreprises mettent de l’avant leur performance environnementale en tant qu’argument de vente principal. Pour revendiquer cette plus-value, la communication environnementale se déploie à travers la publicité, notamment grâce à l’écomarketing. L’autodéclaration fait partie des outils de communication. L’autodéclaration, étant l’outil de communication le plus permissif, autorise une grande liberté pour les industriels qui s’engagent dans cette démarche. Ce faisant, en raison même de cette latitude, elle est pauvre en directives; le résultat de la communication peut-être ainsi altéré et la véracité des propos avancés mise en doute. La non-justesse des arguments peut résulter d’une mauvaise volonté de l’industriel ou d’une bonne volonté qui comporte des lacunes lors de la compréhension et de l’exécution de la norme. L’opinion des parties prenantes est ainsi partagée et la réputation de l’autodéclaration se retrouve sous les projecteurs. Cependant, en comparaison avec les autres outils, l’autodéclaration semble moins exigeante en temps, en argent et en facteurs de complexité. C’est pourquoi elle est fortement utilisée dans le secteur de fabrication. Représentant 98 % des entreprises au Québec (BDC, 2011:1), les petites et moyennes entreprises disposent de ressources limitées; c’est d’ailleurs pour cette raison qu’elles sont prédisposées à favoriser l’autodéclaration. L’engouement pour le respect environnemental a suscité l’intérêt du consommateur pour les produits verts. Toutefois, cet intérêt éveille une certaine controverse qui est à l’origine d’une attitude de prudence, voire de méfiance, pouvant laisser présager une ruse marketing. Ce doute est susceptible d’extrapoler et de généraliser la perception négative des consommateurs quant au segment des produits verts. L’usage de cet outil peut remettre en question les principes éthiques de l’entreprise. Le manque de justesse des arguments avancés peut être dû aux directives insuffisantes de l’outil et il peut s’avérer ardu pour les industriels de justifier leurs arguments. Cette recherche qualitative aspire à mettre en lumière les procédures d’autodéclaration environnementale. Cet étude de cas multiples souhaite documenter le cheminement des petites et moyennes entreprises du Québec intéressées par ce type de label; pour ce faire, tant les responsables d’entreprises que les conseillers de l’Institut de Développement de Produit sont conviés à des entrevues semi-dirigées. L’analyse des données présente les bénéfices de l’usage de « la double labellisation ». Cette stratégie jumelle les avantages de la certification à ceux de l’autodéclaration. Afin de redorer la réputation de l’autodéclaration, une des solutions proposées est la stratégie de « double labellisation » et ce, ultimement dans l’intention de lui reconnaitre les mérites qui lui reviennent. Parallèlement, la recherche invite le designer industriel à s’impliquer davantage à l’élaboration de la communication, compte tenu de ses compétences et connaissances.
Ubiquitous in the business management’s strategy, environmental issues are a distinctive factor in what drives the manufacturing sector. Taking part in a trend that requires a high level of enthusiasm, environmental concerns of manufactured products are on the rise as of recent. Based on the ideology of sustainable development and on eco-design statements, companies tend to take advantage of environmental properties by using it as a main sales argument. As a result, environmental communication is gaining more and more importance through advertising so-called green marketing. Self-declaration is among these communications tools. Self-declaration is the most permissive tool and allows great freedom to manufacturers. In regard to its flexibility, it lacks guidelines. Therefore, it often results in a miscommunication and a misunderstanding where veracity can be questioned. The lack of accuracy of the argument can be the result of the industry’s unwillingness or a good will with pitfalls concerning the comprehension and use of the norm’s guidelines. The opinion of stakeholders is thus divided. Therefore, the reputation of self-declaration has been under the spotlight for sometime. Although being the simplest, cheapest and less time-consuming of all environmental tools, self-declaration is still highly used in the manufacturing industry. As 98 % of Québec’s industry is represented by small businesses (BDC, 2011:1), their reality of having limited resources makes it appropriate to use self-declaration. The popularity of the environmental compliance attracts consumers interest towards green products. However, the global controversy about those tends to impair consumers’ craze. In some cases, it may favor a cautious attitude and suggest a marketing skeems. This is likely to extrapolate and generalize consumers’ negative perceptions towards the entire green products market segment. The companies’ ethical principles are being questioned. The lack of accuracy of the argument due to the tool’s insufficient directives makes it hard to defend their arguments. This qualitative research aims to highlight the self-declaration procedures. This multiples case study document the path of small and medium businesses in Québec concerned with self-declared environmental approaches; both business managers and advisors of the Institute of Product Development are invited to semi-directed interviews. The data analysis presents the benefits of the use of “double labeling”. This strategy combines the benefits of certification and self-declaration. In the process of strategically enhancing the standing of self-declaration, ‘double labelling’ would be an option to adopt, the ultimate goal being a well deserved recognition of its merits. This research invites industrial designers to get more involved in the development of communication, due to their skills and knowledge.

This chapter assesses Articles 29, 30, and 32 to consider natural resources and the environment. Article 32 bears a profound relationship with the right to self-determination and defines overall the contours and the requirements for States' disposal of natural resources, in line with the contemporary emphasis on human-rights based and participatory forms of development. The provision is in fact pivotal to enabling indigenous peoples to set and pursue their own development path and requires participation and engagement at a broader level, beyond ad-hoc consultations on specific projects. Thus, the issue of use and control of natural resources in indigenous territories should be addressed more broadly in the light of the recognition of indigenous peoples' right to determine their priorities and strategies for the development and use of their lands and territories in Article 32(1) of the Declaration.

AbstractAgency is central to humans’ individual rights and their organization as a community. Human agency is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through guaranteed rights, such as the right to life, basic education, freedom of expression, and the freedom to form personal relationships, which all protect humans from tyranny and oppression. Though studies of animal agency consistently suggest that we grossly underestimate the capacity of animals to make decisions, determine and take action, and to organize themselves individually and as groups, few have concerned themselves with whether and how animal agency is relevant for the law and vice versa. Currently, most laws offer no guarantee that animals’ agency will be respected, and fail to respond when animals resist the human systems that govern them. This failure emerges from profound prejudices and deep-seated anthropocentric biases that shape the law, including law-making processes. Law and law-making operating exclusively as self-judging systems is widely decried and denounced—except in animal law. This chapter identifies standpoint acknowledgement as a means to dismantle these tendencies, and provides instructions on how to ask the right questions. It concludes by calling for an “animal agency turn” across disciplines, to challenge our assumptions about how we ought to organize human-animal relationships politically and personally, and to increase our civic competence and courage, empathy, participation, common engagement, and respect for animal alterity.

This chapter highlights Indigenous peoples and international environmental law. There is a myriad of international instruments and commitments that presently incorporate some recognition of Indigenous peoples. The chapter provides a broad overview of some of these milestones in international environmental law to demonstrate the general tenor of how these instruments are purporting to encompass (or not) Indigenous peoples' aspirations for self-determination in caring for the environment. It first reflects on Indigenous peoples' law. The chapter then considers the development of rights of Indigenous peoples at international law, focusing on the International Labour Organization's (ILO) 1989 Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries and the 2007 United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It concludes that international environmental law is simply at the early stages of recognizing the aspirations of Indigenous peoples.