The International Steering group for the Permanent People’s Tribunal into Human Rights impact into unconventional gas have released the following Media Release.

An International Tribunal on Human Rights and Fracking

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal will hear testimony from around the world to make a judgement on whether the effects of hydraulic fracturing have breached human rights norms.

The practice of extracting natural gas by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has come under intense scrutiny in recent years for its profound impacts on water, land, people, and climate change. To examine the morality of these impacts, an international human-rights forum called the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal has scheduled its next session on the topic of fracking. The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Human Rights, Fracking, and Climate Change will be held from May 14 to 18, 2018.

During the Tribunal, attorneys with expertise in human rights law will present evidence to a panel of international judges. The attorneys will build their cases with testimony from expert witnesses and those who have felt the effects of fracking first-hand. Between now and March 1, anyone who has been impacted by fracking can testify by submitting a statement online or by contacting Spring Creek Project, a co-organizer of the Tribunal.

For the first time, the Tribunal’s proceedings will take place virtually, using Zoom conferencing software, and be broadcast live around the world. Viewers can watch the live feed via the Spring Creek Project Facebook page, and communities and organizations are invited to host live screenings.

While the Tribunal is not affiliated with a State and its ruling will not carry the weight of law, the collected testimony and resulting judicial opinion may be used in future legal proceedings taken against corporations or State actors that undermine human rights norms through fracking.

In conjunction with the Tribunal, Spring Creek Project will present the Bedrock Lectures on Human Rights and Climate Change, an online lecture series. Beginning January 31, the organization will release one new lecture each Wednesday on its Facebook and YouTube pages. This series, which will include about 20 speakers, will contribute to the important conversation about the nexus of human rights and climate change. Lecturers include Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org; Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth; and Josh Fox, documentary filmmaker of Gasland. Find a full list of speakers here.

Please contact the Spring Creek Project for more information, photos, or to request an interview.

About the Spring Creek Project:

The Spring Creek Project, an initiative affiliated with Oregon State University, engages the most urgent environmental issues of our time. Its challenge is to bring together the practical wisdom of the environmental sciences, the clarity of philosophical analysis, and the creative, expressive power of the written word, to find new ways to understand and re-imagine our relation to the natural world.

About the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal:

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal is an influential, international forum that evolved from the Russell-Sartre Tribunal created to determine whether breaches of human rights norms occurred during the Vietnam War. Since 1979, it has conducted more than 40 high-profile hearings around the world to determine whether human-rights standards were abridged.