Love, Commitment and Anger in Detroit
Published by TERRAVIVA IPS
Written by Bankole Thompson
27 June 2010
Bolivian ambassador Pablo Solon said the great challenge of this century is to build a new environmental and social contract. Credit:Bankole Thompson/IPS
DETROIT, Jun 27, 2010 (IPS) – The 2010 U.S. Social Forum ended Saturday in Detroit, a city viewed by many as a metaphor for the excesses of U.S. capitalism, with strong parting words from Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
On Saturday evening, to the thunderous applause of the thousands of civil society delegates who attended the weeklong forum in ‘Motor City’, Solon called on activists to lobby the United Nations for an international tribunal empowered to prosecute those endangering what he repeatedly referred to as “mother earth’s rights”.
Solon said the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which is wrecking livelihoods and ocean and shore ecosystems alike, is a perfect example of the kind of issue that should be brought before an international court designed to address such environmental cases.
“There has to be justice. This is something we cannot accept,” Solon said. “The message is we need to build an environmental court of justice when it comes to nature and mother earth.”
