User talk:IF u a BOSS then stand up

Standing up for what you believe in is one of the most important skills you'll need in life. People in life will always try to knock you down, but as long as you get back up, you're showing them that you can stand for what you believe in.

Standing up for yourself can be challenging if you're used to letting others have their way or you're a people pleaser. When you trim yourself down to suit everyone else, it's all too easy to whittle yourself away; learning to stand up for yourself is a way of ensuring other people respect you and don't try to push you around or manipulate you. Unlearning the old habits of self-effacement and gaining the confidence to stand up for yourself won't happen overnight but the journey to improvement starts with the first step; and here is how. I have always been one of those people who stood up for what is right. I've always been the spokesperson for my class, my team, my dept. at work...basically any group I've ever been a part of. I'm not afraid to speak my mind and I don't like to see people being treated unfairly. I can't sit by and watch injustice.

Over the last decades it has become painfully clear that human activities can and do cause serious environmental problems. And that these problems, in turn, often result in grave harm to human beings.

Most recently our news tends to focus on environmental challenges humanity faces due to climate change. But there are many more environmental challenges. To name some here: marine life and eco systems being over exploited to the extent that it outweighs nature's ability to maintain it. Throughout the world, ancient forests are in crisis. Many of the plants and animals that live in our diverse ecosystems face extinction. And many of the people and cultures who depend on these ecosystems for their way of life are also under threat. Toxic chemicals threaten our rivers, our air, land, and oceans, and ultimately ourselves and our future.

The tension between environmental protection and economic development emerges time and again in day-to-day politics and discussions of sustainable development. More and more it is recognised that sound economic development ultimately depends on maintaining a healthy and ecologically sound environment. Although this acknowledgment is clear and true, over the long term current economic incentives and the configuration of international debt and global monetary funds create a significant bias that favours exploitation of the environment.

Responding to a growing environmental consciousness, many international treaties and local laws and regulations on environmental protection have been introduced in the second half of the 20th century. At first none of them quoted or referred to a human rights approach to environmental protection. But since the 1970’s, slowly but certainly, links between human rights and the environment have been recognised.

It has always been clear that human rights law and environmental law have an important element in common: they are both seen as a challenge to, or limitation on, the traditional understanding of state sovereignty as independence and autonomy. Despite their separate initial stages, it has become more and more acknowledged over the years that human rights and the environment are inherently interlinked. More and more people agree that a clean and healthy environment not only yields great benefits for human beings, but is essential to the realisation of fundamental human rights. To give some examples; the right to life, personal integrity, family life, health and development of each human being all depend on protecting the environment as the resource base for all life.

However, recent case law based on international conventions such as the American Convention on Human Rights and African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other local, regional and international developments and initiatives – including the Millennium goals and the Earth Charter – have reaffirmed that environmental and human rights are strongly linked and that the right to a healthy environment is a fundamental part of the right to life and to personal integrity.

It is safe to say that links between human rights, health and environmental protection are today well established in international law, accepted by states in agreements and implemented in practice.

At this time there are several regional human rights charters and multiple national constitutions that contain an explicit articulation of a human right to a healthy environment. Although this has not yet been accepted in the European Convention on Human Rights or in a treaty at UN level, over the last decennia it has been considered more and more and to a greater extent that individuals should have a “Human Right to (a Clean and Healthy) Environment”.

The next step could and should be made in due time at European and UN level. To conceive and acknowledge the international human right to (a clean and healthy) environment