From Root to Tree: Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement—The Grassroots Approach to Addressing Human Rights Violations
2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 25; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10406026.2013.782251
ISSN1547-657X
Autores Tópico(s)Transboundary Water Resource Management
ResumoAbstract The Green Belt Movement's success in fighting for environmental and social issues, often prior to these issues becoming mainstream, will hopefully serve as a model for the next generation in addressing human rights violations, including environmental wrongs. Organizations should be proactive in the fight against human rights violations and need not be concentrated on a singular social issue. Human rights violations result from a combination of multiple social issues. The Green Belt Movement gives people a strong support network, educating and empowering them to provide their own resources and be responsible for their own physical and environmental well-being. As a result, the movement has strengthened in both numbers and influence to demand good governance and care for the environment, with its power spreading beyond the borders of Kenya. At the grassroots level, protecting the environment is a basic step that all can benefit from, and which can prevent the need for future environmental claims. Acknowledgments *Kayleigh Q. DeLap is a third-year law student at Syracuse University College of Law, graduating in May 2013. She graduated from William Smith College in 2010 with a dual bachelor of arts in history and public policy with a concentration in environmental policy and a minor in environmental studies. She worked as a law clerk for the Federal Highway Administration's Eastern Legal Services Division during the summer of 2012, focusing on intense reviews of environmental impact statements, NEPA litigation, contracts, and other transportation issues. Notes Wangari Maathai explaining the Green Belt Movement's work during her Nobel Prize Lecture, "The Challenge Is to Restore the Home of the Tadpoles and Give Back to Our Children a World of Beauty and Wonder" in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 2004. In Speaking of Earth: Environmental Speeches that Moved the World, ed. Alon Tal, 254 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006). "History of the Document." The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/history.shtml (accessed March 2, 2012). Id. "About the Special Court for Sierra Leone," The Special Court for Sierra Leone, http://www.sc-sl.org/ABOUT/tabid/70/Default.aspx (accessed March 2, 2012). The Green Belt Movement, http://greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=61 (accessed March 22, 2011). Wangari Maathai, Unbowed (New York: Anchor Books, 2007), 124. Id., 122–24. Id. Id., 124. Id. Maathai , supra note 6, 3. American Public Media Speaking of Faith: Planting the Future: A conversation with Wangari Maathai (American Public Media radio broadcast April 24, 2008). [hereinafter Planting the Future]. Maathai , supra note 6, 173. Id. Maathai , supra note 6, 125. Planting the Future, supra note 12. Maathai , supra note 6, 125. Id., 174. 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