15 August 2024
We are social movements, civil society organisations, grassroots communities, peasants, lawyers, academics, experts, working people and others, from different provinces of Mozambique and also from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Togo, Uganda, Nigeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, Algeria, Senegal, and allies from Japan, Mexico, Portugal and United States of America.
We met for the 8th Workshop on Corporate Impunity and Human Rights in Maputo, Mozambique, from 12-15 August 2024, organised by Justiça Ambiental JA!. Our workshop was conducted in multiple languages including Portuguese, Xangana, Nyungwe, Makonde, Swahili, Makua, isiZulu, Arabic, English, French, Spanish.
We acknowledge the struggles for justice and survival of our peoples and communities, especially of women and children. We stand against apartheid, occupation, war, conflict, militarisation and genocide, in Palestine, Cabo Delgado, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh and everywhere. We reiterate our unconditional solidarity with peoples resistance and struggles for justice everywhere.
We note that the capitalist, colonial, patriarchal, classist, racist and deeply unequal system is an enemy of peoples and planet; it places profits above life and plunders territories and common goods.
We shared about African political economy, colonialism and the violent power of transnational corporations. We note that the global north, enabled by our own political class, continues to perpetuate the myth that Africa will remain poor if we don’t exploit our fossil fuels; thereby drawing many African countries into perpetual economic entrapment through a dependence on fossil fuels which exacerbate the climate crisis. Our African governments misuse the concept of the ‘right to development’ to continue enriching themselves. We assert our collective and individual human right to a dignified life, to a development that responds adequately to cultural and social realities within the African context; however this is not what is being offered to us. Our States have the legal obligation to protect, respect, promote and fulfil the human rights of their citizens.
We know too well that human rights are not just an imported concept, they are deeply linked to African histories and lives, as affirmed in the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights. We denounce the impacts that are already affecting our peoples lives and livelihoods, from climate change to fossil fuels, extractivism, land grabbing and dispossession. People are suffering from multi-crises that they had no part in creating.
We denounce the structural architecture of impunity and unregulated power of transnational corporations and the playbook they use to spread denial and disinformation. We denounce the corporate capture of our democracies causing shrinking civic space and increased attacks on environmental human rights defenders. We reject “free” trade and investment agreements that undermine the sovereignty of our States.
We denounce the architecture of climate injustice. The countries of the global north have created the climate crisis and they must act first and fastest to address it. But the opposite is happening. We need to phase out fossil fuels and support a just transition that guarantees sovereignty in the global south. Our governments must do everything possible to protect the peoples and all forms of life already affected by the climate crisis, including in COP climate negotiations where fossil fuel lobbies have been allowed to dominate the agendas and create barriers to action.
We assert the need to cut emissions at source. No forests or carbon sinks can compensate for these emissions. The forests, our lands and our rivers are our life, they are not new markets for capital. African forests must not be captured. There should be nothing about us without us. We assert our right to say no.
OUR VISION
We are constructing our vision for the world we want to live in, the world we want to leave for our children. Our demands are as follows:
On Corporate Impunity and the Climate Crisis:
We demand a strong and effective UN Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights, so that they are held liable for the crimes they commit.
We demand that current financial injustices, like inequality, debt, tax and wage evasion and illicit financial flows are dismantled along with the institutions that drive these processes.
We support struggles against dirty energy and fossil fuels that challenge the impunity of the system. We join the call for the establishment of a Peoples World Commission on a fair, fast, full, funded Fossil Fuel Phase out, to discuss how this phase out will actually happen, and support the process towards a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.
We reject all false solutions including carbon markets, REDD, offsets, geoengineering, net zero, “natural” gas, hydrogen, mega-dams, industrial plantations and delaying tactics.
On Rights, Sovereignty, Repair and Reparations:
We call for socially-owned renewable energy systems.
We demand the strengthening of rights-based frameworks, including land and forest rights.
We support community forest management and peasant agroecology towards food sovereignty.
We demand healing justice and reparations for communities whose rights have been violated.
We affirm that there is no climate justice under occupation, apartheid, conflict and militarisation.
We denounce and reject the normalisation of war and conflicts and the accompanying dehumanisation (e.g. Palestine, Sudan, DRC, Western Sahara, Cabo Delgado and everywhere).
On Feminist Economics:
We support a new economy for people and planet – a solidary and circular economy that values and centres care work and bodily autonomy; an economy that centres sustainability and abundance of collective life, as opposed to profit and individual gain. From extraction to regeneration.
We call for the reclamation of the public sphere to ensure peoples rights and support public services.
Above all, our vision is based on our human values of solidarity, cooperation, Ubuntu and Eti-uwem. We will continue fighting, resisting, mobilising, organising, and moreover transforming our societies. We assert our right to say NO!
GROUPS / COLLECTIVES PRESENT AT THE WORKSHOP:
Advocacy Coalition for Sustainable Agriculture (ACSA) – Uganda
ALTERNACTIVA – Acção pela Emancipação Social – Mozambique
Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) – South Africa
Associação de Cooperação Para o Desenvolvimento – Mozambique
Associação de Jovens Combatentes Montes Errego (AJOCME) – Mozambique
Associação dos Jornalistas Ambientais – Mozambique
Associação LaVatsongo – Mozambique
Bairro Bagamoio Moatize – Mozambique
Basilwizi Trust – Zimbabwe
Centre Congolais pour le Développement Durable (CODED) – République Démocratique du Congo
Centre pour la Justice Environnementale – Togo
Centro de Jornalismo de Investigação Moçambicano (CJIM)
Centro para Desenvolvimento Alternativo (CDA) – Mozambique
Don’t Gas Africa
Dynamique pour le Droit, la Démocratie et le Développement Durable (D5) – République Démocratique du Congo
Earthlife Africa
Entembeni Crisis Forum (ECF) – South Africa
Environmental Rights Action, FoE Nigeria
Environment Governance Institute – Uganda
Fair Finance Coalition – Southern Africa
FishNet Alliance Network – Africa
Fórum Mulher – Mozambique
Friends of the Earth Africa
groundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa
Health of Mother Earth Foundation – Nigeria / Africa
Hikone – Mozambique
Justiça Ambiental JA! – Mozambique
KULIMA – Mozambique
La Via Campesina Southern and Eastern Africa
Missão Tabita – Mozambique
Mukadzi-Colaboratório Feminista – Mozambique
Natural Justice – Africa
No REDD in Africa Network (NRAN)
Observatório das Mulheres – Mozambique
Oilwatch Africa
Power Shift Africa
Resource Rights Africa – Uganda
Right to Say No Campaign – South Africa
Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) – Southern Africa
South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) – South Africa
Southern Africa Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power
Southern Africa Green Revolutionary Council (SAGRC)
Support Centre for Land Change (SCLC) – South Africa
União Nacional de Camponeses (UNAC) – Mozambique
Uganda Land Owners Association
WoMin African Alliance
ZIMSOFF – Zimbabwe
350Africa.org
Afrikagrupperna
Climáximo – Portugal
FIAN International
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth Japan
Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity
Global Forest Coalition
International Rivers (IR)
Oilwatch International
Transnational Institute (TNI)
World Rainforest Movement (WRM)
IN SOLIDARITY:
Actions Internationales pour le Développement et le Climat AidClimat
Africa Climate Movements Building Space
Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ)
Associação Consciente Sociedade – Mozambique
Associação Homens pela Mudança (HOPEM) – Mozambique
Bio Vision Africa (BiVA)
CHePEA
Centre de Recherches et d’Appui pour les Alternatives de Développement – Océan Indien (CRAAD-OI)
Coligação de 4 Bairros da Localidade Canhavane – Mozambique
Egyptian Organization for Environmental rights
Enviro Vito NPO – South Africa
Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development FENRAD – Nigeria
Grassroots International
Green Advocates International
Innovation pour le Développement et la Protection de l’Environnement – République Démocratique du Congo
JOINT – NGO league in Mozambique
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center – FoE Philippines
Les Amis de la Terre – Togo
Ligue des Jeunes Paysans de la République Démocratique du Congo (LJP-RDC)
Malamba-Mazuene, Inhambane – Mozambique
Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) – Brazil
Muyissi Environnement – Gabon
National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) – Uganda
PENGON – Friends of the Earth Palestine
Protecting Our Environment Today (POET)
Thenjinosi Community Development Project – South Africa
University of Johannesburg – Centre for Social Change, South Africa
West Coast Food Sovereignty and Solidarity Forum – South Africa