Human rights and fracking in England: the role of the Oregon permanent people’s tribunal
File(s)Health & Human Rights Journal 2018.pdf (189.59 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Aczel, MR
Makuch, KE
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The United Kingdom’s government is promoting development of its unconventional natural gas resources in England, following the United States’ commercial success employing horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) to extract shale gas. The potential impacts of fracking on the environment and health, as well as impacts on local communities and change in ‘quality of life’ are well documented. The UK commenced commercial drilling in the North of England on 15 October, 2018, despite community concerns and legal challenges that suggest potential harm to human health, impacts on environmental quality, inadequate procedural fairness, and limited distributive justice. The UK does not have a written environmental constitution nor any explicit environment-related provisions in the Human Rights Act, 1998, the latter drawing its content from the European Convention on Human Rights, 1950. The lack of explicit recognition of environmental rights-based provisions arguably makes it easier for the UK government to promote a pro-fracking agenda in England aligned to a political agenda rather than broader societal and environmental standards and safeguards. Despite calls for human rights impact assessments in relation to fracking, the UK government is resisting development of further legislation largely on grounds that they are confident the current regulatory regime is ‘more than robust enough’ coupled with the strong desire to promote technological development and industrial growth through extraction of shale gas using fracking. To this end, this perspective piece outlines the potential human rights impacts of ‘fracking’ and argues for a human rights-based, participatory and justice-based approach to regulation. In this context, the paper discusses the findings of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Human Rights, Fracking, and Climate Change ‘Oregon’ hearing, held May 14-18 2018, and the potential impact of the Tribunal's decision on other jurisdictions where fracking takes place, particularly England.
Date Issued
2018-12-01
Date Acceptance
2018-11-27
ISSN
1079-0969
Publisher
Harvard School of Public Health
Start Page
31
End Page
41
Journal / Book Title
Health and Human Rights: an international journal
Volume
20
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2018 Aczel and Makuch. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Sponsor
Imperial CollegeTrust
Identifier
https://www.hhrjournal.org/
Grant Number
Conference Fund
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
NATURAL-GAS
GOVERNANCE
1801 Law
Public Health
Publication Status
Accepted
OA Location
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/3109/