A people’s tribunal creates a public forum to present evidence for and information about issues critical to a just and civil society, especially when local, state, and federal governments are not responsive to public concerns. Ours is based on the UN Convention on Racism and Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on the Human Rights Impacts of Fracking, which call on member nations to:
“Undertake independent and effective investigation into all cases of environmentally polluting activities and their impacts on the rights of affected communities; bring those responsible to account; and ensure that victims have access to appropriate remedies."
Lois Gibbs, founder of Center for Health, Environment, and Justice and recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, will lead a team of experts to preside as judges of opinion. They will hear testimonies of first-person impacts, environmental science, Virginia Slave and Freedmen, Native American and Appalachian history, and fracked gas economics. Judges’ findings and recommendations will be sent to these human rights committees and will form the basis around which local groups can organize.