Friday 22 May 2020

'Every organism has the right to an adequate quality of life'

Dr. Nirmal Selvamony | Ecorights

The United Nations has proclaimed 22 May as The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.

International Day for Biological Diversity focuses on the importance of nature in people’s daily lives, offers concrete steps to make our food systems healthier and more biodiversity-friendly.

As the definition of biodiversity, suggested by the 1992 Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), puts it, Biodiversity is the ‘variability among living organisms, within species, between species, and of ecosystems’.

As the UN Secretary General has pointed out, our aim should be ‘to protect and sustainably manage the fragile and vital web of life on our one and only planet!

It is said that, in the last 100 years, more than 90 per cent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields. 

Added, this huge loss of diversity in our food systems results in malnutrition and unhealthy diets, which are major risk factors of noncommunicable diseases!

On this occasion, it would be meet on our part to celebrate our own Vandana Shivas and Jiddu Krishnamurtis at the regional level.

The first in line would be –

Dr. Nirmal Selvamony!

Dr. Nirmal Selvamony, my past colleague and mentor, [with whose help I presented my very first paper in Punjab!] was the first to introduce a course on Ecocriticism in India in the late 1980s at his alma mater Madras Christian College, Chennai. 

He is also the founder of the forum known as tiNai


He has also coined the term, ‘Neo-tiNai poetics’, based on the tiNai theory of Classical Tamil Literature. He has an entire list of ‘firsts’ to his credit.

[On an aside, kindly allow me to take some little happiness in the fact that, I was one of the founding members of an amazing organization started by Dr. Nirmal for the study of Literature and Environment, which originally was a wing of ASLE-USA!]

In one of his essays titled, ‘Ecorights’, which was published in a book titled, Current Issues in Bioethics and Environment, 2001, by the Department of Philosophy, Madras Christian College, Chennai, Dr. Nirmal Selvamony has drafted a wonderful declaration of Ecorights much akin to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!

There are 24 Articles in this Declaration, that are as follows –

Universal Declaration of Ecorights

Article 1: All organisms (human and non-human) are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Though all of them are not endowed with the same sentient and mental powers, all should act towards one another in a spirit of kinship.

Article 2: Every organism is entitled to all the rights of freedom set forth in this Declaration without any discrimination on the basis of either organismic status, or possessions of any kind, material or non-material.

Article 3: Every organism has the right to life, liberty and security.

Article 4: No organism shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5: No organism shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, or degrading treatment.

Article 6: Every organism (including man) has the right to recognition everywhere as an organism (and not above an organism) before law that is common to all organisms.

Article 7: All organisms are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

Article 8: No organism shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 9: Every organism has the right to “privacy,” family, and home; to be safeguarded against any attack upon its honour and dignity.

Article 10: Every organism has the right to freedom of movement and residence within its ecologically determined territory.

Article 11: Every organism has the right to land and territory.

Article 12: Every organism has the right to the resources required for its survival, sustenance and well-being.

Article 13: Every organism has the right to freedom of expression and the right includes freedom to change identity and association according to ecological welfare and positive eco-traditions.

Article 14: Every organism has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Article 15: Every organism has the right to take part in the government of its ecoterritory.

Article 16: Every organism has the right to ecological security (which includes the security of its community and territory)

Article 17: Every organism has the right to work and subsequent reward. Article 18: Every organism has the right to rest and leisure.

Article 19: Every organism has the right to an adequate quality of life; and the right to be safeguarded from threats to such necessary quality of life.

Article 20: Every organism has the right to knowledge necessary for the well-being of its community.

Article 21: Every organism has the right to participate in the events of its ecocommunity.

Article 22: Every organism has the right to an ecological order both local and global.

Article 23: Every organism has the right to duties to a positive ecocommunity.

Article 24: Nothing in this Declaration of Ecorights should be interpreted in favour of any one class of organism (such as the humans) and nothing harmful to these rights should be indulged.

What an amazing Declaration from a legend and a visionary, Dr. Nirmal Selvamony!

We are so proud of you dear Sir!

On this wonderful occasion, commemorating The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB), let us take a resolve to abide by the Universal Declaration of Ecorights, celebrating Biological Diversity in our own little ways.