SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
March, 09 2022, 10:12am EDT
Contact:
Jennifer K. Falcon, Indigenous Environmental Network, Fossil Free Media
218- 760-9958 , jennifer@ienearth.org
Climate Groups Call On Biden To Invoke Defense Protection Act and Resist Short-Sighted Domestic Fossil Fuel Policies
In the wake of Biden’s ban on Russian oil imports, groups call on President Biden to invoke the DPA to ramp up the deployment of renewable energy to transition the world off fossil fuels.
WASHINGTON
Following President Biden's announcement on Tuesday that the U.S. will ban all Russian oil imports, more than 200 climate, Indigenous, social justice, religious, and progressive groups sent a letter to the White House urging President Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) in order to ramp up the deployment of renewable energy to transition the world off the fossil fuels that are leading to global instability.
These groups, standing in solidarity with the Ukraine people, applauded the administration's decision to halt oil imports from Russia and implored President Biden to continue to resist short-sighted policies such as scaling up domestic fossil fuel production or expanding oil and gas infrastructure and financing, which would only deepen our dependence on fuels that lead to global instability and drive further devastating climate impacts.
The letter points to the power the oil and gas industry has provided for Putin, stating, "Putin's ability to wreak such destruction on Ukraine is predicated on global dependence on fossil fuels. Oil and gas constitute forty percent of Russia's national revenue, meaning Russian exports of oil and gas are literally funding this invasion."
President Biden has the ability to deploy his executive powers to weaken the geopolitical power of fossil fuels, address the climate emergency, and prevent further mass suffering by invoking the Defense Protection Act (DPA) to produce alternatives to fossil fuels, fight the climate emergency, combat Putin's stranglehold on the world's energy economy, and support the transition to a renewable and just economy.
"A renewable energy future is a peaceful and ultimately more prosperous one." Read the full letter here.
Established in 1990 within the United States, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN's activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.
LATEST NEWS
Experts Say Israel's 'Booby-Trap' Attacks in Lebanon Violate International Law
"These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time."
Sep 19, 2024
Experts from the United Nations and human rights groups said that the device attacks in Lebanon, which killed at least 37 people Tuesday and Wednesday while injuring 2,900, violated international law due to their indiscriminate nature and could constitute a war crime.
The surprise attacks have been widely attributed to Israel, including by unnamed U.S. officials. They came in two waves. On Tuesday afternoon local time, thousands of pagers exploded, killing 12 people, including four children, and injuring 2,300. On Wednesday, another 25 people were killed and 600 injured by the explosion of other communications devices, including walkie-talkies and smartphones. Many of the explosions occurred in supermarkets and other public spaces around Lebanon, leaving civilians maimed.
"These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time," a group of more than a dozen U.N. legal experts said in a statement on Thursday, including Ben Saul, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism.
The U.N. experts called the attacks "a terrifying violation of international law."
Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also denounced the attacks in a statement on Wednesday, calling them "shocking, and their impact on civilians unacceptable," and saying that "the fear and terror unleashed" was "profound."
"Simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location, and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law," Türk added.
Widespread pager explosions across #Lebanon & in #Syria yesterday are shocking and their impact on civilians unacceptable.
@volker_turk urges against further widening of current conflicts & calls for those responsible for such an attack to be held to account.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) September 18, 2024
Israel hasn't confirmed or denied responsibility for the device attacks but has indicated that it's shifting its military focus to the north as tensions mount with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group and political party in Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded airstrikes and rocket fire for the last 11 months, leaving many hundreds dead, mostly on the Lebanese side, but until now both sides have avoided an escalation that led to full-scale war. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the attacks were a "declaration of war" and Israel had crossed "all red lines."
Al Jazeerareported Wednesday that "Israel's supporters have celebrated the explosions in Lebanon, describing them as 'precise,' but the blasts went off around civilians—at funerals and in residential buildings, grocery stores, and barber shops, among other places."
The attacks' victims included a 9-year-old girl who had just that day finished her first day of fourth grade, as well as an 11-year-old boy and at least two other children. Some of the Wednesday explosions took place at funerals for those killed in the first wave. The explosions have led to panic regarding devices in the country.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), told Al Jazeera "this is exactly why booby-traps of ordinary civilian objects are illegal—because not only do they cause physical harm and injury, they cause psychological and emotional harm."
Whitson, who previously worked at Human Rights Watch, called the attacks "inherently indiscriminate"—violating international humanitarian law designed to protect civilians—and a "deliberate decision on the part of Israel" to create chaos.
Huwaida Arraf, a U.S.-based human rights lawyer, agreed with Whitson, telling Al Jazeera that the coordinated attack "meets the textbook definition of state terrorism."
The experts cited a 1996 U.N. treaty that forbids the use of "booby-traps" on devices associated with civilian use.
Experts said that even if Israel sought to kill Hezbollah military operatives—the devices that exploded had been ordered by Hezbollah—there was no way it could have precisely targeted them with such attacks. Many Lebanese work for Hezbollah in non-combatant roles.
Luigi Daniele, an expert in international humanitarian law at Nottingham Trent University, toldAnadolu Agency that targeting non-combatants is a violation of international humanitarian law, as written in Article 8(2)(b)(i) of the Rome Statute. Like other experts, Daniele also cited the more general issue of detonating explosives in public places, which carries foreseeable impact on civilians that can violate Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the statute.
Saul, the U.N. rapporteur, said that being a Hezbollah accountant shouldn't make someone a target for assassination.
"The crux of the problem is it is absolutely impossible to know who would be in possession of so many pagers at the time they were detonated," he said, adding that the devices could have been passed on to loved ones.
Lama Fakih, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, agreed that the attacks were "unlawfully indiscriminate" and called for an independent investigation, in a statement issued Wednesday.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) herself called for a congressional investigation, including into whether U.S. played a role in the attack. Members of the Biden administration have so far said relatively little publicly about the attacks.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention issued a sharply-worded condemnation of the attacks on Thursday.
"What we see is a genocidal state that is completely out of control and supported by a Western world that is, in large measure, too racist and Islamophobic to care," the nonprofit group wrote on social media.
The Tuesday pager attacks also extended into Syria, where 14 people were injured.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Report Shows How Five Global Powers on UN Security Council Are 'Vetoing Humanity'
"The UNSC is failing people living in conflict, with Russia and the United States particularly responsible for abusing their veto power," said Oxfam.
Sep 19, 2024
As the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance worldwide has skyrocketed by 150% over the last decade, five powerful countries on the United Nations Security Council have had hundreds of opportunities to vote for progress in some of the world's most protracted conflicts—but in dozens of cases, countries including the United States and Russia have instead vetoed peace and security resolutions.
In its report, Vetoing Humanity, Oxfam International pointed Thursday to numerous vetoes made by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), or the P5, which the humanitarian group said have placed their own economic and political interests ahead of the council's mission.
The group examined 23 of the world's longest violent conflicts, including those in the occupied Palestinian territories, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen, which have collectively been the subjects of 454 resolutions passed by the UNSC since 2014.
But 30 resolutions have been vetoed by one of more of the P5 countries, including eight out of 12 regarding Palestine and Israel, 15 out of 53 on Syria, and 4 out of 7 on Ukraine.
"The UNSC is failing people living in conflict, with Russia and the United States particularly responsible for abusing their veto power," said Oxfam, noting that the two countries have together cast 75% of the 88 vetoes at the UNSC since 1989, with China casting the rest.
The other two permanent members, the United Kingdom and France, have not used their veto power since 1989, but they have still joined the other powerful countries in undermining global peace and security, said Oxfam.
In addition to veto power, the P5 has "pen-holding" privileges at the UNSC, allowing them to lead negotiations and decide how resolutions are drafted or whether they are ignored.
"The erratic and self-interested behavior of UNSC members has contributed to an explosion of humanitarian needs that is now outpacing humanitarian organizations' ability to respond. This demands a fundamental change of our international security architecture at the very top."
The P5 members have "deliberately cherry-picked which conflicts to address in the Council," reads the report. "Over the last decade, over 95% of the resolutions that the UNSC passed relate to just half of the protracted crises, leaving the other half mostly neglected."
France, the U.K., and the U.S. have held the pen on two-thirds of protracted crises over the last decade, allowing them to direct negotiations. For example, the U.K. has pen-holding privileges in talks on Yemen, "where it has interests due to historical colonial links and the strategic desire to maintain maritime routes."
The United States' use of its veto power at the UNSC has come under particular scrutiny in the past year, as it has vetoed three resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza since Israel began bombarding the enclave and blocking humanitarian aid to its 2.3 million people, pushing the population toward famine. It has also vetoed proposals to grant U.N. membership to Palestine, despite the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) voting in favor, 138-9.
"While the UNGA has passed at least 77 resolutions over the last decade supporting Palestinian self-determination and human rights and an end to Israel's illegal occupation, the U.S. has used its veto power six times to block resolutions perceived as unfavorable to its ally Israel," said Oxfam. "The U.S. vetoes have created a permissive environment for Israel to expand illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory with impunity."
P5 vetoes have "more often than not," said Oxfam executive director Amitabh Behar, "contradicted the will of the U.N. General Assembly, in which all states are represented."
The report details other vetoes by the P5, including a 2023 veto by Russia of a nine-month extension of cross-border assistance to northern Syria‚ a decision that left 4.1 million people with little or no access to food, water, or medicine. Russia has also vetoed several resolutions on the country's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, despite the fact that the U.N. Charter states that "a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting."
"China, France, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. took responsibility for global security at the UNSC in what is now a bygone colonial age," said Behar. "The contradictions of their acting as judge and jury of their own military alliances, interests, and adventures are incompatible with a world seeking peace and justice for all."
While the P5 ostensibly helped form the UNSC with the aim of promoting and maintaining global peace and security, the report notes that "they are providing more resources in the form of military aid than they are in humanitarian assistance," with its assistance being used not just defensively by recipients but also helping "to fuel and perpetuate the conflicts that the UNSC is failing to prevent and resolve."
"In 2019, the USA provided three times as much security assistance as humanitarian aid: $18.8 billion versus $6 billion," reads the report. "China pledged $20 million a year in military aid grants to Africa over 2015–17, whereas its worldwide humanitarian assistance in 2016 totaled less than $21 million."
"Not only have the P5 governments repeatedly failed to act to avert conflict, many have profited from wars by directly selling weapons to warring parties despite violations of international humanitarian law and the human suffering resulting from these wars," the report continues.
Behar said that "the erratic and self-interested behavior of UNSC members has contributed to an explosion of humanitarian needs that is now outpacing humanitarian organizations' ability to respond. This demands a fundamental change of our international security architecture at the very top."
The report comes as the U.N. prepares for the Summit of the Future, scheduled to kick off next week with the aim of envisioning "a revitalized U.N."
Oxfam made several recommendations to end the P5's ability to undermine the mission of UNSC, calling on member states to:
- Abolish the veto and take the preliminary step of requiring the P5 to refrain from vetoing resolutions related to war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity;
- Increase UNSC membership to include under-represented and unrepresented regions and countries;
- Reform the tradition of pen-holding;
- Make humanitarian funding mandatory for UNSC members; and
- Require that members refrain from transferring weapons to countries when there is a high risk that they will be used in violations of international humanitarian law.
"We need a new vision for a U.N. system that meets its original ambitions and made fit for purpose for today's reality," Behar said. "A Council that works for the global majority, not a powerful few."
Keep ReadingShow Less
For-Profit US Healthcare System—Once Again—Ranks Dead Last Among Its Peers
"Our private, profit-driven system means that we are paying more for less," said one progressive activist.
Sep 19, 2024
A report out Thursday shows that the United States' for-profit healthcare system still ranks dead last among peer nations on key metrics, including access to care and health outcomes such as life expectancy at birth.
The new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund is the latest indictment of a corporate-dominated system that leaves tens of millions of people uninsured or underinsured and unable to afford life-saving medications without rationing doses or going into debt.
"Despite spending a lot on healthcare, the United States is not meeting one of the principal obligations of a nation: to protect the health and welfare of its residents," the report states. "Most of the countries we compared are providing this protection, even though each can learn a good deal from its peers. The U.S., in failing this ultimate test of a successful nation, remains an outlier."
People in the U.S., which spends roughly twice as much per capita on healthcare as other rich nations, "live the shortest lives and have the most avoidable deaths," Commonwealth noted, pointing to frequent "denials of services by insurance companies" and other systematic defects of the American system, including massive administrative costs.
Meanwhile, insurance giants and pharmaceutical companies are raking in huge profits, benefiting in particular from the growing privatization of Medicare. More than half of the Medicare-eligible population in the U.S. is currently on a privately run Medicare Advantage plan.
"Our private, profit-driven system means that we are paying more for less," progressive activist Jonathan Cohn wrote in response to the Commonwealth report.
The Commonwealth Fund's findings bolster progressives' case for transitioning to a Medicare for All system that would provide comprehensive coverage to everyone in the country for free at the point of service. Studies have repeatedly shown that such a program would cost less than the immensely wasteful for-profit system—which is set to drive national healthcare spending to $7.7 trillion per year by 2032—while saving lives.
Commonwealth observed Thursday that while affordability "is a pervasive problem" in the U.S., Australia "offers free care in all public hospitals, and the nation's universal Medicare system provides all Australians with coverage for all or part of the cost of [general practitioners] and specialist consultations and diagnostic tests, with additional subsidies available for private hospital care."
"The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its healthcare sector," the report continues. "While the other nine countries differ in the details of their systems and in their performance on domains, unlike the U.S., they all have found a way to meet their residents' most basic health care needs, including universal coverage."
With the U.S. presidential election less than two months away, neither 2024 candidate for the two major parties has outlined a detailed healthcare proposal thus far.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, said during last week's debate in Philadelphia that he merely has "the concepts of a plan," while Harris—who once co-sponsored Medicare for All legislation in the Senate—said she "absolutely" supports "private healthcare options" and wants to "maintain and grow the Affordable Care Act."
Just days after the debate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio)—Trump's running mate—said the Republican nominee prefers a system in which "a young American" and a "65-year-old American with a chronic condition" are not placed in "the same risk pools," suggesting a rollback of the ACA's protections for people with preexisting conditions.
"You can't really say people with preexisting conditions are protected if they are in a separate insurance risk pool and can be charged exorbitant premiums,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the research group KFF, wrote in response to Vance's comments.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular