Tímarit lögfræðinga - 01.12.1989, Page 11

The World Watch Institute’s Report 1989 formulates mankind’s
present dilemma in a series of recommendations for the abatement
of some of the most conspicuous pollution ills. It states in this context:
“If societies successfully mobilize for change, the new age
will be one in which forestcover is expanding, hunger is diminish-
ing and life expectancy is everywhere increasing. This age will
see the evolution of transportation systems that rely heavily on
bicycles and mass transit as well as more fuel efficient auto-
mobiles. It will be an age in which most residential hot water
comes from rooftop solar collectors, more windmills and fewer
polluting power plants dot the landscape, and Third World
villages are electrified by photovoltaic solar cells. It will be an
age in which population growth slows because birth rates fall,
not because death rates rise. It will, by necessity, be a more
equitable world and, by consequence, a more peaceful world.”
(p.193).
Well, we can only hope.
2. In addition to the general legal principles which may be distilled
from the Preamble and Chapter I of the Charter as to mankind’s
commitments towards the natural environment, the United Nations
General Assembly has through its untiring efforts in a series of
resolutions defined applicable legal principles for the protection of
nature and the human environment. One of the most central of these
General Assembly resolutions is the so-called „World Charter for
Nature” adopted by the General Assembly at its 37th Session as
Resolution 37/7 on 28 October 1982. In this resolution the General
Assembly expressed its conviction that the benefits which could be
obtained from nature depend on the maintenance of natural processes
and on the diversity of life forms. The World Charter for Nature
comprises 24 legal principles.
It is my conviction that this unique document of the General
Assembly has not received the attention and recognition it deserves.
It expresses in an admirable manner the prevailing principles of
international law concerning man’s relation to and obligations towards
our globe’s natural environment.
3. As its obvious starting point the World Charter postulates in its
preamble that “mankind is a part of nature”, and that life depends on
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