|
|
|
Why November 06?
On 5 November 2001, the General Assembly declared 6 November of each year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict (resolution 56/4).
| | | |
|
|
|
On 5 November 2001, the General Assembly declared 6 November of each year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict (resolution 56/4).
In taking this action, it considered that damage to the environment in times of armed conflict impairs ecosystems and natural resources long after the period of conflict, often extending beyond the limits of national territories and the present generation. The Assembly also recalled the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which emphasized the necessity of working to protect our common environment.
In a message to mark the observance of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, on 6 November, the United Nations Secretary-General said, "I urge the international community to examine how legal and other mechanisms can be strengthened to encourage environmental protection in wartime. Ensuring environmental sustainability is not a luxury; it is a prerequisite for the future peace and prosperity of our planet.
Conventions
The Geneva Conventions and Protocols and other international laws had discouraged the worst excesses of armed conflict, including targeting civilians, mistreating prisoners of war, and destroying sensitive infrastructure, such as large dams and nuclear power stations. The increasingly devastating potential of modern warfare showed, however, that existing international laws have not fully addressed environmental dangers, such as the indiscriminate use of landmines, the ecological destruction caused by mass movements of refugees and the potential devastation threatened by weapons of mass destruction.
All wars are destructive -- to people, to countries and to the environment. That is why the Geneva Conventions and Protocols and other international laws discourage the worst excesses of armed conflict, including the targeting of civilians, the mistreatment of prisoners of war, and the destruction of sensitive infrastructure such as large dams and nuclear power stations.
However, with the increasingly devastating potential of modern warfare, it has become apparent that existing international laws do not fully address the danger that conflict poses to the environment. That danger takes many forms, including the indiscriminate use of landmines, the ecological destruction caused by mass movements of refugees, and the potential devastation threatened by weapons of mass destruction. While instances in which the environment is deliberately targeted are relatively few, there remain too many grey areas where more care could, and should, be exercised to protect the environmental base on which sustainable development and recovery from conflict largely depend.
Ensuring environmental sustainability is not a luxury; it is a prerequisite for the future peace and prosperity of our planet.
United Nations Environment Programme
Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of UNEP, said two international agreements cover some ground. Article 35 of the 1977 Geneva Protocol I bans "methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment. The 1976 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) was designed to tackle new, environmentally unfriendly technologies for waging war. But most legal experts have concluded that these and others fall far short of what is ideal and what is needed.
|
