Sustainable Design International Ltd. is a professional and multi-disciplinary design,
engineering, research and consultancy practice. Its mission is to engage in any and all
activities relating to, or compatible with, the promotion and/or implementation of Sustainable Development generally, and Sustainable Design & Construction in particular.
Our Organization – with physical locations in Ireland, Italy and Turkey, but operational throughout
the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA).
Sustainable
Development ?
Development which meets the responsible needs, i.e. the Human & Social
Rights(a), of this generation - without stealing the life
and living resources from future generations, especially our children
... and their children.
(a) As
defined in the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN OHCHR).
Many years before
the 2002 WSSD, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development
had identified four aspects of 'sustainable development', i.e. social,
economic, environmental and institutional.
If we are seriously concerned with implementation, however, another
important aspect must be added - political. And there are
still more aspects ......
Supported by an
Ethical Framework, there are a number of prerequisite Essential
Requirements, therefore, before we can realize a Sustainable 'Built
Environment' which is in harmony and dynamic balance with a Flourishing
'Natural Environment' ......
| (i) |
Social
Justice, Solidarity & Inclusion for All ; |
| (ii) |
Economic
Equity for All ; |
| (iii) |
Past Damage Repair & New Positive 'Environmental Impact' ; |
| (iv) |
Open, Innovative & Transparent Institutions ; |
| (v) |
Accountable & Representative Governance ; |
| (vi) |
Effective International Law. |
| (vii) |
Judicial
Independence & Integrity ; |
| (viii) |
Lasting
Peace. |
Social Wellbeing
is a general condition - in a community, society or culture - of health,
happiness, creativity, responsible fulfilment, and sustainable development.
Principle 24 of
the European
Charter on Sustainable Design & Construction states ......
' Peace, political accountability, institutional openness, sustainable
development, social wellbeing, environmental protection, and energy
efficiency are interdependent and indivisible.'
At international
level, the concept of 'sustainable development' is not yet fully understood.
However, let us begin to explore here some of the complex Links which bind this concept together ......
Dar-es-Salaam
- Friday, 7th August 1998
Nairobi - Friday, 7th August 1998
?
New
York - Tuesday, 11th September 2001
?
Bali (2) - Saturdays, 12th Oct. 2002 & 1st Oct. 2005
Casablanca - Friday, 16th May 2003
Istanbul - Saturday, 15th November 2003
Madrid - Thursday, 11th March 2004
?
Sharm el Sheikh, London & Kusadasi - July 2005
directly and indirectly linked to the Iraq Invasion
?
Mumbai - 26th, 27th & 28th November 2008
?
( After the bloodiest century in human history, this is a cruel entry
to the 21st Century ! )
Days of Tragedy and Human Loss
' Sustainability will demand fundamental and far-reaching
changes
in the world economic order ...... power relationships, development
models, production
practices, attitudes to resources and ways of living.'
Agenda
21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries
Related Themes of Sustainable Human & Social Development
|
"all our ignorance brings
us nearer to death "
t. s. elliot
"war is a crime - ask the
infantry and ask the dead "
ernest hemingway
|
The
War of the Flea & the Elephant
( Are politicians
and the 'generals' learning yet ? )
Article 51 of the United Nations Charter
Nothing
in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual
or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member
of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures
necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken
by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately
reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the
authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present
Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order
to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Under the current UN Charter, the self-defence of any Member(s) cannot
be held to begin on a different continent. There is no legal
basis for the actions of the United States in Afghanistan, the Philippines,
Africa, or the Middle East. And images of the richest country
on Earth carrying out intensive high level bombing on one of the poorest
.... are obscene.
USA treatment of the prisoners in Occupied Cuba (the annexation of Guantánamo Bay remains, to this day, an international act of piracy - see 1901 Platt Amendment and later 'treaties' with Cuba procured by the threat or use of force) is degrading, inhumane and illegal.
15th February 2006
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
Report on the Situation of Detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
Click to Download PDF
(PDF File, 337kb)
Have we really forgotten so quickly ?
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Germany
(visited by CJ Walsh, in February 2007)
June 2007
Amnesty International Report AMR 51/099/2007
Off the Record
U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances
in the 'War on Terror'
Click to Download PDF
(PDF File, 168kb)
Has anybody ever heard of, or seen, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights ?!?
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UN OHCHR - Adopted 10 December 1948)
- Geneva Convention
for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed
Forces in the Field - adopted 12 August 1949
- Geneva Convention
for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked
Members of Armed Forces at Sea - adopted 12 August 1949
- Geneva Convention
Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War - adopted 12 August
1949
- Geneva Convention
Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War - adopted
12 August 1949
- Protocol Additional
to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection
of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) - adopted
8 June 1977
- Protocol Additional
to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection
of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II) - adopted
8 June 1977
Three countries
which certainly cannot give sermons and issue dogmatic statements to
the rest of the world concerning terrorism, abuse of human rights, and
tyranny are :
- United
States of America ;
- Israel
;
- Great Britain.
|
10 August 2006
Appeal for the Protection of Cultural Property in Lebanon & Israel
The New Armed Conflict in the Middle East :
In Addition to the Human Tragedy - a Cultural Disaster
Press Release Issued by ....
Europa Nostra - the pan-European federation for Heritage ;
ICA - International Council on Archives ;
ICCROM - International Centre for the Study of the Preservation & Restoration of Cultural Property ;
ICOM - International Council of Museums ;
ICOMOS - International Council on Monuments & Sites ;
OWHC - Organization of World Heritage Cities.
Click Here to Download PDF
(PDF File, 131kb)
The social, economic,
environmental and political values of the United States - and its understanding
of 'democracy' (remember Florida in 2000 .... Venezuela
in 2002 .... and Latin America throughout the 20th Century ! ) - must be challenged by the Members of the United Nations,
particularly the Non-Aligned Countries, and the European Union. A global coalition to fight hunger, poverty, disease, injustice
and illiteracy - the real problems which threaten world peace and security
- is urgently required.
Compliance with
International Law and the International Human Rights Conventions
by all nations and peoples is an absolute necessity .... and the stern
demand of this organization !
11th April 2002 - The 1998 Rome Statute has now been ratified
by 66 Parties, and the
International Criminal Court (ICC) can immediately become
fully operational. All Members of the United Nations should be
bound by its jurisdiction ...... particularly the United States of America.
And the Israeli Political Leadership, if it continues to mandate
the current barbaric military campaign in Palestine beyond 1st July
2002, should be the first group of people tried before the Court.
International
Criminal Court (ICC) - From 1st January 2004
May 2002 - Do Jenin and Bethlehem finally demonstrate that Israel
is, regrettably, just another seedy little fascist state propped up
by the USA ?
March 2006
Harvard University (USA) - John F Kennedy School of Government
Faculty Research Working Paper RWP 06-011
by John J Mearsheimer & Stephen Walt
The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy
Click to Download PDF
(PDF File, 1.34Mb)
Without further delay, the present structure and legal framework of
the United Nations must be revised and updated to meet the changed circumstances
of the 21st Century. Perhaps the ICC will become the vehicle
for this necessary change ?
- Agreed
international limits must be placed on the meaning of 'self-defence'
;
- Membership
of the Security Council, and veto procedures there, must be
re-examined ;
- Both strategic
and tactical use of nuclear weapons must finally be banned ;
- The use
of depleted Uranium (and any other radioactive materials) in
the final make-up of armaments, large or small, must be banned.
|
End of September 2002 - Before world events spiral ever downwards,
out of control, we now cry out for Regime Change in the USA and
Israel !!!
November
2002
Executive
Summary of Amnesty International Report
Israel
& the Occupied Territories
Shielded from Scrutiny :
Israeli Defence Force Violations in Jenin & Nablus
Click
Here to Download PDF
(PDF File, 96kb)
Jenin 2002
2003
- As a New Year dawns and we wonder if George W Bush and his
Merry Band of Cold War Warriors will also order an invasion of
North Corea ...... we remember a previous time in the United States,
and previous wars :
"
If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is
wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black
babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and
make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America
to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then
it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our
own people right here in this country."
From
a speech by Malcolm X, November 1963, New York City.
Beginning
of February 2003 - Selection of Judges to sit on the International
Criminal Court has commenced. Members of the Israeli
Government and Senior Officers in the Israeli Defence Forces should
begin to exercise care when travelling abroad. Ariel Sharon would
definitely be wise to avoid Belgium !
2002 / 2003
Iraqi Crisis - For those intent on executing and directly /
indirectly supporting a Fundamentalist 'Western' Crusade against the
Regime and the Peoples of Iraq, please examine the following .....
United
Nations & International Law
and
4644th Meeting - 8th November 2002
United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1441 (2002)
This Resolution does not authorize military
action against Iraq.
The Preamble to the Resolution, however, does state :
' Reaffirming the commitment of all (UN) Member
States to the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Iraq, Kuwait, and the neighbouring States,
...'
Click
Here to Download PDF
(PDF File, 58kb)
We are exhausted
by the deception, spin, propaganda and lies of the USA and Great Britain,
supported by Australia, Spain, Italy and Japan. Unilateral
Military Action, i.e. without a United Nations mandate, will
be judged a Crime of Aggression and a Crime against Peace. Meanwhile,
the background antics of Israel remain to be exposed. Surely it
can't be true that Israeli military / intelligence personnel are openly
operating within Iraq ?
The use of bullying
and bribery to force through a 2nd UN Security Council Resolution
authorizing military action by the Coalition 'of the Immoral' is unacceptable.
Inappropriate interference
by the USA in the work of the UNMOVIC & IAEA Inspectors
is unacceptable.
Thursday,
27th March 2003 - Without any Mandate from the United
Nations, the US and British Invasion of Iraq commenced in the early
hours of Thursday, 20th March 2003.
A week after hostilities
commenced, we can now clearly witness the First Barbarian Fundamentalist
Crusade of the 21st Century - the so-called 'Information Age'.
Under International
Law, we charge the Governments of the United States, Great Britain,
Australia and Israel with War Crimes ...... and Crimes
against Humanity and the Environment.
In the European
Union, we ask the Governments of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark and
Ireland to define precisely what you understand by 'Democracy'. Does
it really mean 'government in opposition to the will of the majority
of your citizens' ? Do you even know how to spell the word 'Accountability'
?
We ask the Institutions
of the European Union, and the Greek EU Presidency ...... why are you
standing idle while the EU Treaties and the Peoples of Europe are being
betrayed ?
And which countries
are next on the Hit List of George W. Bush, and the
American Enterprise Institute in Washington ?
Iraq - 20th
May 2004 [At the same time as
the Rafah Atrocities in Occupied Palestine.]
Behold
... the Corruption and Barbarity of Untrammelled Power ...
United
States Department of the Army
February 2004
- Report by Antonio M. Taguba, MG, USA
Iraq
- Investigation into the 800th Military Police Brigade's
Detention & Internment Operations
from 1st November 2003 to Present (February 2004)
Click
Here to Download PDF
(PDF File, 3.29Mb)
50 Page Report
begins on Page 11.
Annexes 1-106 are missing.
Note the limited period to be investigated.
6th December 2006
The Iraq Study Group Report
4 Organizing Sponsors:
US Baker Institute for Public Policy ;
United States Institute of Peace ;
US Center for Strategic & International Studies ;
US Center for the Study of the Presidency.
Click Here to Download PDF
(PDF File, 1.8Mb)
Meanwhile ...
The
Israeli Defence Forces (and the Sharon Government)
continue to commit War Crimes,
and the re-construction of the 1940's Warsaw Ghetto Wall
progresses,
in Occupied Palestine.
Reminding us of its past criminal activities in the North of
Ireland during the 1970's,
the British Army is behaving true to form again in
Iraq.
Much
more than a President died in Dallas, on 22nd November 1963 .....
John
F Kennedy & Two Short Extracts from
His Speech Prepared for Delivery at the Trade Mart in Dallas
"
In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations
and irritations, America's leadership must be guided by the lights of
learning and reason
or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with
the possible will gain
the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions
to every world problem. "
" We in this country, in this generation, are - by destiny rather
than choice - the watchmen
on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may
be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our
strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time
and for all time the ancient vision of 'peace on earth, good will toward
men'. "
Iran - January 2006
Far from learning the lessons of Iraq ...... that nasty Fundamentalist Band of Cold War Warriors has now focused its attentions on Iran.
So before the situation becomes serious (again !), let us examine the relevant International Legislation :
1968 UN IAEA Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
[ Entered into Force 5th March 1970 Reviewed 1995 & 2000 ]
Click Here to Download PDF
(PDF File, 25kb)
Direct Link to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna
Please
contact us with your
opinion.
PACE
!
More WebSites
of Interest :
Art,
Architecture & Music
Books & Communications Media
Building Construction
|
" why do we not wander through
our streets and towns weeping with shame over such wastelands
of ugliness ! let us at least understand this
: the grey, empty, obtuse stupidities in which we live
and work will bear humiliating evidence to posterity of the
spiritual abyss into which our generation has slid. "
walter gropius
|
)
