A Community Action Toolkit: A Roadmap for Using Environmental Rights to Fight Pollution

Pollution is the leading cause of disease, disability and premature death around the world. But its impacts are not evenly distributed. Poor and marginalized communities often bear the brunt of the environmental, health, and socioeconomic impacts, especially in middle- and low-income countries. Far removed from powerful decision-makers, these communities face multiple barriers in their efforts to fight pollution. Many are unaware of their rights to access pollution information or participate in policymaking decisions, and often lack the advocacy skills needed to form strategic partnerships and effectively engage government officials. Access to information, public participation and justice are environmental rights that not only are fundamental to good environmental governance, but also offer an important tool for improving the development, implementation and enforcement of pollution laws. Strategically applying these rights can enable civil society and local communities to evaluate the environmental and social justice aspects of pollution, demand better compliance with laws and help build a pollution accountability movement. Developed in partnership with more than a dozen civil society organizations across six countries, this toolkit offers practical guidance on how to use environmental rights to fight air, water and solid waste pollution. Designed to support civil society, local community activities and those concerned about pollution, the toolkit enables everyone, everywhere to conduct policy research, collect and use pollution information in decision-making processes, form coalitions and develop advocacy campaigns. Its eight modules feature important concepts, research indicators, worksheets and templates, which can be modified to fit a country’s context and downloaded to complete as a workbook. From Thailand to Morocco to Jamaica, civil society organizations and local communities have already used this toolkit to strengthen their right to a clean, healthy and safe environment. In Indonesia, for example, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry passed a new List of Public Information regulation that required over 111 documents, maps, and reports to be made proactively available. And in Morocco, there is growing civil society engagement with government officials over a newly passed Right to Information law. Communities around the world can follow in their footsteps and use this toolkit to protect lives, livelihoods and the environment from pollution.