The concepts o f justice have implicit reference to rights, needs and desert regarding the discussion o f environmental problems (Almond, 1995: 4). Following the legacies o f the enlightenment tradition, Locke argues that individuals have certain rights in virtue o f simply being human, not o f political or economic status. For Locke, natural law is a test o f the justice o f actual (positive) laws o f states, and the conception o f rights to life, liberty and property eventually led to the flowering o f the contemporary notion o f human rights (Almond, 1995: 10). Traditionally human rights concerns focus on liberty and welfare. B y 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment declared as a first principle: ‘the fundamental right to freedom,
equality, and adequate conditions o f life, in an environment o f quality that permits a life o f dignity and w ell-being.’ Then it is proposed in the Brundtland report in 1987: ‘A ll human begins have the fundamental right to an environment adequate for their health and w ell-being.’ Many expansive environmental rights have been proclaimed in some national constitutions since the declaration. The aspects o f environmental concerns depends on how ‘health and well-being’ are constructed, which includes pollution, waste disposal and toxic contamination as well as the quality o f life in aesthetic, cultural and spiritual terms (Hayward, 2000).
Hayward (1994: 145) points out that the right to an adequate environment faces radical critique and two lines o f objection. One is ecological constraints and neo- Malthusian objections that the pursuit o f the full range o f human rights would be ecologically unsustainable and producing scarcity. The second objection is that if humans have fundamental rights, then other beings might have some claims o f rights too. Instead, Hayward (1994: 168-172) argues that a reconstructed conception o f rights is compatible with ecological considerations. Rights are seen as to some extent conditional on the corresponding recognition o f certain responsibility. He attempts to reconceptualise the ‘persons’ who are the bears o f rights and follows Benton’s (1993) point that humans are ‘necessarily embodied, and are also to be conceptualized as “individuals-in-relationship” both to other persons (and living beings) and to ecological conditions through the medium o f (highly variable) cultural forms.’ Hayward’s contextualizing persons refers to contextualizing their rights and seeks to relate rights to responsibility. As he puts it,
Human rights can be correlated with human responsibilities—responsibilities between humans, and also responsibilities regarding non-human beings and the environment— so that the aims of social justice are actually consistent with and promote ecological sensitivity (Hayward, 1994: 130).
Environmental justice has been framed in terms o f rights in the Yami and Taiwanese professional groups. It reflects the significance o f the concepts o f human rights and the link between rights and duties in the Taiwanese context. The Chinese began to adopt the Western concepts o f human rights in the early twentieth-century. According to Woo (1980: 118), Dr. Sun Yat-sen who established the republic government in China in 1911 declared the ‘Three Principles o f the People’ that reflected the combination o f the old ideal o f universal harmony and equality and the Western concept o f the individual person. Woo (1980) argues that the concepts o f universal harmony and duty in Chinese philosophy provide bases for human rights, which is different from the individualist roots o f natural law doctrine in the West. These Chinese ethical concepts are seen to offer a metaphysical foundation for human rights, which do not alter ‘the basic conception o f rights and duties as derived from the nature o f human life’ (Rosenbaum, 1980: xii). Three Principles o f the People (nationalism, civil rights, and people’s livelihood) remains explicitly part o f the platform o f the KMT Party and in the anthem and Constitution o f Taiwan.
The Taiwanese groups recognize the life free from pollution as fundamental human rights. Their notion o f rights reveals the importance o f responsibility for protection the environment from destruction and respect for others’ rights. As one Taiwanese professional participant puts it: ‘I think huan jin g zheng y i [environmental justice] means to keep huan jin g [the environment] clean, and to avoid producing pollution. To fight for one’s own deserved rights.’
One Yami professional group also understands environmental justice in terms o f rights to life. Some Yami professional participants regard a clean environment as their fundamental rights, and view the Yami anti-nuclear waste movement as striving for a healthy environment. As one Yami professional states: ‘Several days ago, newspaper
and magazines reported top ten Taiwanese human rights [ren chiu] violations,48 and Orchid Island’s anti-nuclear campaign is also included in the list. Taiwan has not emphasized on this aspect. It w ill be disadvantageous to Taiwan’s international image if the Taiwanese mainstream society does not emphasis on this. International organization would come to care about u s.’ Another participant echoes: ‘We clearly see that Taiwan exist discrimination... choose the tribe to live with nuclear waste.’ It shows that the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and mass media appear to have played an important role, directly or indirectly, in shaping the different ways the Yami or Taiwanese people see the nuclear waste disputes. It shows the possible role o f the NGOs or environmental groups to act as a mediator or facilitator o f dialogue between the Yami and Taiwanese people (see Chapter 7).
Environmental rights claims are one o f the crucial elements o f environmental justice movement. However, the values o f rights might be in conflict and need to be balanced, such as property rights versus equality rights or environmental rights (Penna and Campbell, 1998: 22). The Principles o f Environmental Justice ratified at the First National People o f Color Environmental Leadership Summit assert rights ‘to be free from ecological destruction’, fundamental right to clean air, water, land and food, and right to a safe and health work environment (Taylor, 2000: 539). For Harvey (1996: 400), the environmental justice movement that incorporates the demand o f both negative and positive rights has internal contradictions. As he writes, ‘the right to be free o f ecological destruction is posed so strongly as a negative right that it appears to preclude the positive right to transform the earth in ways conductive to the well-being
48 The Taiwan Association for Human Rights cited 10 incidents in the news over the year 2002 and asked President Chen Shui-bian to improve as he vowed to turn Taiwan into a human-rights-oriented country. The government’s storing of nuclear waste on Orchid Island, despite the objection of local aboriginal residents listed on the list. Taipei Times, 03/12/02. Available at
o f the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed’. It also contains positive rights o f all people to ‘political, cultural, and environmental self-determination’.
Some Taiwanese participants recognize this contradiction, and emphasize compensation has great help for the welfare o f those Yami elders, children’ education and local economy. However, many o f the Yami participants do not consider that the Yami anti-nuclear waste or environmental justice movement has internal contradictions or regard it as a problem. For example, the Yami fisherman and housewife groups focus on the negative right to be free from nuclear risks, and emphasize that the tribe could not give up protesting against nuclear waste for the huge amounts o f compensation or job opportunity (see Chapter 4). It shows that the tremendous adverse impacts or threat posed by the nuclear waste repository, and the continuation o f the tribe and tradition are some Yami participants’ main concerns, and the contradictions articulated by Harvey are not so blatant. Instead, the Taiwanese participants’ concerns about the Yam i’s economic survival and well-being reflect the complexity o f environmental justice.