Worst Policy Principles and Early Warnings
Today’s sharing of information, resources and wealth is unfair and unequal, and participation and freedom of choice are undermined. The impact is psychological. People are insecure, conflicts are prolonged, exploitation of nature and the least protected is encouraged and violence is incited. Yet is the role of government, institutions and laws not to promote a fair society and reduce suffering?
Working from the basis of Best Policy Principles, laws and policies threatening Future Justice can be easily identified. In order to prevent conditions causing Future Injustice and Insecurity we not only issue social taboos, but also recommend to scrap or amend laws that
- promote the unsustainable use of natural resources
- exacerbate inequity and poverty within or between societies
- undermine precautionary approaches to human health, natural resources and ecosystems
- prevent public participation and hinder access to information and justice
- perpetuate and encourage bad governance in practice
- promote fragmentation and exploitation of social or ecological systems, that ignore human rights and undermine progress
- violate the principle of common but differentiated obligations.
Scrutinising existing policies and issuing “early warnings” when policies systematically aggravate injustice, insecurity and biodiversity depletion has an important preventive effect: destroying ecosystems and communities risks creating conditions that make crimes against future generations not only possible but even likely.
Yet, the urgency for quick and widespread change also means we have to defend Future Justice by tightening accountability and enforcement.
