Please leave this field empty
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
  • About
  • Problems
  • Campaigns
  • Impacts
  • Research
  • Contact
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
  • facebook
  • twitter
Please leave this field empty
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
$
Menu
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Search
Please leave this field empty
  • facebook
  • twitter

U.N. Committee Urges UK Government to Consider “Comprehensive and Complete Ban” on Fracking

“This U.N. committee is rightly taking the harmful impacts of fracking seriously, and calling on the United Kingdom to strongly consider banning fracking entirely.”

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • google-plus
  • envelope

We all need safe food and clean water.

Donate
03.13.19

Geneva/London/Brussels/Washington - In an extraordinary move, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) slammed the United Kingdom’s policies on fracking for failing to protect the rights of rural women, and urged the British Government to “consider introducing a comprehensive and complete ban on fracking.”

In summer 2018, the CEDAW asked the UK Government to “provide information on the measures being taken to mitigate and address the health and environmental impacts of toxic substances on women and girls, in particular rural women, due to planned fracking activities.” The government responded in November 2018, writing that it has “a robust regulatory system” and ”tough regulations in place to ensure on-site safety, prevent water contamination, and mitigate seismic activity and air pollution.”

A coalition of environmental groups (including Food & Water Europe, Talk Fracking, #BreakFreeFromPlastic, and Frack Free United), academics (Dr. Damien Short of the Human Rights Consortium and Professor Peter Strachan of Robert Gordon University), along with the Concerned Health Professionals UK and the National Union of Students, submitted a joint report to the CEDAW in January 2019 that strongly disputed the government’s claims.

“This U.N. committee is rightly taking the harmful impacts of fracking seriously, and calling on the United Kingdom to strongly consider banning fracking entirely,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe. “There is a wealth of scientific evidence showing that women are particularly at risk from this dangerous form of drilling. Fracking creates unacceptable public health risks, threatens clean drinking water, and deepens our global climate crisis. This report is one more sign that there is an urgent need to ban fracking anywhere and everywhere.”

Other prominent supporters of that joint report were fashion icon Vivienne Westwood and her son Joe Corré, as well as actress and human rights activist Amber Heard.

Amber Heard said on Twitter, retweeted by Vivienne Westwood: "Only a comprehensive ban can protect women and human rights from the destructive impacts of fracking in the UK.”

Vivienne Westwood says: “We wanted to highlight the harm fracking causes pregnant women. Pregnant women who live near active fracking operations in Pennsylvania were at a 40 percent increased risk of giving birth prematurely and at a 30 percent increased risk for having obstetrician-labeled high-risk pregnancies. This is an example of the virulent, poisoning effect of fracking to all life and we are very thankful to CEDAW that it calls on the UK Government to stop it."

The joint report served to bolster the conclusions reached by the CEDAW. The committee declared that it “commends the measures taken in Wales and Scotland” to halt fracking,” and is “concerned that women in rural areas in other territories... are disproportionately affected by the harmful effects of fracking, including exposure to hazardous and toxic chemicals, environmental pollution, and climate change.”

“We welcome CEDAW’s recognition that women and girls are disproportionately impacted by the harmful environmental and climate change impacts of fracking and its recommendation that the UK consider a comprehensive ban on fracking. Climate change is a gender issue and the UK must treat it as such.”, said Jennifer Robinson, human rights lawyer and barrister with Doughty Street Chambers in London.

Contact: Seth Gladstone - sgladstone[at[fwwatch[dot]org, 917.363.6615

###

72 Session (18 Feb 2019 - 08 Mar 2019): https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1190&Lang=en

Joint report submitted available at: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCEDAW%2fCSS%2fGBR%2f33560&Lang=en

CEDAW - Concluding observations on the eight periodic report of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, C/GBR/CO/8 (https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2FC%2FGBR%2FCO%2F8&Lang=en)

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Monsanto's Roundup is a "probable human carcinogen." We need to ban it!

Get the latest on your food and water with news, research and urgent actions.

Please leave this field empty

Latest News

  • Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

    Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

  • Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

    Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

  • Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

    Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

See More News & Opinions

For Media: See our latest press releases and statements

Food & Water Insights

Looking for more insights and our latest research?

Visit our policy & research library
  • Renewable Natural Gas: Same Ol' Climate-Polluting Methane, Cleaner-Sounding Name

  • The Case to Ban Fracking on Federal Lands

  • Dangerously Deep: Fracking’s Threat to Human Health

Fracking activist with stickersFracking activist in hatLegal team loves family farmsFood & Water Watch organizer protecting your food

Work locally, make a difference.

Get active in your community.

Food & Water Impact

  • Victories
  • Stories
  • Facts
  • Trump, Here's a Better Use for $25 Billion

  • Here's How We're Going to Build the Clean Energy Revolution

  • How a California Activist Learned to Think Locally

Keep drinking water safe and affordable for everyone.

Take Action
food & water watch logo
en Español

Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold & uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

Food & Water Watch is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Food & Water Action is a 501(c)4 organization.

Food & Water Watch Headquarters

1616 P Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20036

Main: 202.683.2500

Contact your regional office.

Work with us: See all job openings

  • Problems
    • Broken Democracy
    • Climate Change & Environment
    • Corporate Control of Food
    • Corporate Control of Water
    • Factory Farming & Food Safety
    • Fracking
    • GMOs
    • Global Trade
    • Pollution Trading
  • Solutions
    • Advocate Fair Policies
    • Legal Action
    • Organizing for Change
    • Research & Policy Analysis
  • Our Impact
    • Facts
    • Stories
    • Victories
  • Take Action
    • Get Active Where You Live
    • Organizing Tools
    • Find an Event
    • Volunteer with Us
    • Live Healthy
    • Donate
  • Give
    • Give Now
    • Give Monthly
    • Give a Gift Membership
    • Membership Options
    • Fundraise
    • Workplace Giving
    • Planned Giving
    • Other Ways to Give
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Learn more about Food & Water Action www.foodandwateraction.org.
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • 2021 © Food & Water Watch
  • www.foodandwaterwatch.org
  • Terms of Service
  • Data Usage Policy