Wellness That Matters: Black Health News & Community Care
- Black voices are excluded from INC-5.2 negotiations despite bearing disproportionate harm from plastic pollution and petrochemical industries.
- Advocates urge an inclusive, health-protective Treaty that recognizes reproductive justice and Black peoples' unique experiences as people of African descent.
- Community expertise and technical recommendations from groups like Black Women for Wellness and The Descendants Project can help break negotiation deadlock.
(Geneva, Switzerland) – Black Women for Wellness, The Descendants Project, and Break Free from Plastic held a press conference today during Global Plastics Treaty negotiations at the United Nations campus in Geneva, Switzerland. A link of the live recording is available here.
Black communities in the United States (US) are suffering at every stage of the lifecycle of plastic pollution. Yet, Black voices are grossly excluded from representation and consultation during Treaty negotiations. In a world that forces Black people to bear undue harm from the current fossil-fuel based economy, it is imperative that Black voices are heard during this present INC 5.2 Global Plastic Treaty session.
Black communities in the US, many of whom are descendants of formerly enslaved people, are not formally recognized within the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (MGoS) structure. Despite this, we remain deeply impacted stakeholders in global environmental policy.
As we continue the necessary work to establish a legal foundation for our inclusion, we encourage participants in the INC-5.2 negotiations to review our fact sheet, which outlines ways to engage with and support Black partners. The fact sheet includes Do’s and Don’ts, along with historical context that highlights the unique environmental justice experiences of Black communities in the U.S.
Quotes from panelists:
“From plantations to petrochemical companies & segregation to environmental racism, the exploitation of Black bodies has evolved but it has never ended. Petrochemical and plastic production in the US profits off of tormenting my Louisiana community known as ‘Cancer Alley’” says Jo Banner, Co-Founder of The Descendants Project. “Though I’ve been involved in these negotiations since INC 1, me and my Black colleagues in the US are still fighting to be heard.”
“To be clear, we aren’t here to stand on the side lines – Black folks have technical expertise, research-backed textual suggestions, and strategic analyses that can support UN member states to break the deadlock in these negotiations,” says Dr. Jamala Djinn, Science/Policy Advisor for Break Free from Plastic and the Center for Coalfield Justice. “Ending the plastics crisis in the Black community will always and already end it in other communities with more privilege and access than ours.”
“The lifecycle of plastic pollution – from extraction to disposal – violates reproductive justice by harming the reproductive health of Black women and girls. We need a health-protective Treaty that upholds our human right to bodily autonomy, and explicitly references our unique experiences as people of African descent, ” says Tianna Shaw-Wakeman, Environmental Justice Director at Black Women for Wellness. “We invite UN delegations, environmental ministers, environmental NGOs, university representatives, scientists, Indigenous partners, environmental justice allies, and other members of civil society to listen to our voices and the stories we carry.”
Speakers:
- Jo Banner, The Descendants Project, Co-Founder
- Dr. Jamala Djinn, Break Free From Plastic/Center for Coalfield Justice, Science/Policy Advisor
- Tianna Shaw-Wakeman, Black Women for Wellness, Environmental Justice Program Director
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- Heather McTeer Toney, Beyond Petrochemicals, Executive Director
- Darryl Jordan, Breathe Free Detroit, Organizer
- John Beard Jr., Port Arthur Community Action Network, Founder & Executive Director
- Aminah Taariq-Sidibe, EarthDay.org, Manager of the End Plastic Initiative
About Black Women for Wellness
Founded in 1997, Black Women for Wellness is a California-based nonprofit organization committed to the health and well-being of Black women and girls. BWW’s Environmental Justice Built Environment program is on a mission to address the ways in which Black communities are overexposed to and under-protected from toxic pollution in their built environment from multiple sources, including neighborhood oil extraction and plastic pollution.
About The Descendants Project
The Descendants Project was founded to preserve and protect the health, land, and lives of the Black descendant community located in Louisiana’s River Parishes, also known as “Cancer Alley”. Through programming, education, advocacy, and outreach, The Descendants Project is committed to reversing the vagrancies of slavery through healing and restorative work.
https://www.thedescendantsproject.org
About Break Free from Plastic
#BreakFreeFromPlastic is the global movement working to achieve a future free from plastic pollution. More than 13,000 organizations and individuals around the world have come together to demand reductions in single-use plastics and to advocate for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. BFFP members work together to bring about systemic change by tackling plastic pollution across the whole value chain – from extraction to disposal – focusing on prevention rather than cure.
https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/
For press & questions, please contact:
Jo Banner (she/her), The Descendants Project
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