EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF SOCIAL RIGHTS COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DES DROITS SOCIAUX 26 July 2011 Case Document No 1 International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) v. Greece Complaint No 72/2011 COMPLAINT Registered at Secretariat on 8 July 2011 TO THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF SOCIAL RIGHTS Council of Europe, Strasbourg F r a n c e COLLECTIVE COMPLAINT lodged in accordance with the Additional Protocol of 1995 providing for a system of collective complaints and with Rules 23 and 24 of the Committee’s Rules of Procedure International Federation for Human rights (Hellenic League of Human Rights) v. Greece 8 July 2011 1 Contents I. The Parties 3 II. The main issue 4 III. Admissibility requirements 5 a. Jurisdiction ratione personae 5 b. Jurisdiction ratione temporis 6 IV. Statement of the facts 7 a. The legal framework for discharging liquid industrial waste into the River Asopos and the groundwater in the region of Oinofyta 8 b. National case-law on industrial waste 14 c. The presence of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in the surface water of the Asopos and in the groundwater around Oinofyta 19 d. Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)): a highly toxic molecule for living organisms 24 e. Food safety issues 32 f. Applicable measures? 36 V. The violations of the Charter on which the complaint is based 39 a. Central government’s responsibility 41 b. The responsibility of the (former) Prefecture of Boeotia 45 c. The responsibility of the Municipality of Oinofyta 46 d. Conclusions 49 VI. Conclusion 50 VII. Declaration and signature 51 VIII. Appendices 52 - 3 - Ι. THE PARTIES Α. The complainant organisation International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its national section, the Hellenic League of Human Rights represented by Souhayr Belhassen President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) 17, passage de la main d’or, 75011 Paris Telephone + 33 1 43 55 25 18 Fax + 33 1 43 55 18 80 and Konstantinos TSITSELIKIS President of the Hellenic League of Human Rights assisted by Yannis KTISTAKIS Lawyer, Athens, Lecturer in Public International Law at the Democritus University of Thrace and Aliki TERZIS Legal specialist 12, Rue Valaoritou, 10671 Athens, Greece Telephone: + 30/210 3618966 Fax: + 30/210 3634437 e-mail: [email protected] Β. The high contracting party Hellenic Republic (Greece) - - 4 - II. THE MAIN ISSUE The main subject of this complaint is the harmful impact of large- scale environmental pollution on the health of people living in the catchment area of the River Asopos and near the industrial area of Oinofyta, 50 km north of Athens. It also relates to the fact that the Greek state has not taken enough steps to eliminate or reduce these harmful effects and ensure that people can fully enjoy their right to protection of health. - - 5 - ΙII. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS a. Jurisdiction ratione personae 1. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is an organisation whose aim is to ensure that the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are properly implemented and that unfair laws are abolished. One of its major concerns is the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health and a healthy environment. 2. In accordance with Article 4 of the Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter providing for a system of collective complaints, which was ratified by Greece on 18 June 1998 and came into effect with regard to Greece on 1 August 1998, the complaint is lodged in writing and relates to Article 11 of the European Social Charter, which was accepted by Greece on 6 June 1984, when it ratified the Charter. 3. In accordance also with Articles 1 b) and 3 of the Protocol, the FIDH is an international non-governmental organisation which holds consultative status with the Council of Europe. The FIDH is entitled to take part in collective complaint procedures and is currently registered for the period from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2014 on the list of INGOs authorised to lodge collective complaints. 4. The complaint lodged on behalf of the FIDH is signed by its President, who, according to the organisation's statutes, represents it in all aspects of - - 6 - civil life and has full power to do so. Consequently, the condition set by Rule 20 of the Committee’s Rules of Procedure is satisfied. b. Jurisdiction ratione temporis 5. Since the Asopos was recognised as a receptacle for liquid industrial waste, the region’s environmental deterioration has continued without interruption. As a result the population groups concerned have been exposed to the polluted water in the river for several decades. For some people the effects of the long term exposure to pollution emerged straight away whereas for others it arose several years after exposure. Greece has been bound by the provisions of the European Social Charter concerning the right to protection of health since July 1984 and signed the Additional Protocol providing for a system of collective complaints in 1998. As the Committee has already stated, in the event of a continuing violation, it is competent to consider facts prior to the entry into force of the collective complaints system. More specifically, it has held that “there may be a breach of the obligation to prevent damage arising from … pollution for as long as the pollution continues and the breach may even be progressively compounded if sufficient measures are not taken to put an end to it”1. Consequently, the Committee is competent to examine this complaint. 1 Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights (MFHR) v. Greece, Complaint No. 30/2005, decision on the merits, §193. - - 7 - ΙV. STATEMENT OF THE FACTS 6. The Asopos (or Asopus) is a river in Boeotia (Voiotia), which rises on Mount Kithairon to the south-east of Thebes and crosses Boeotia from west to east. It passes to the north of the ancient city of Plataea then of Parnitha and Attica before flowing into the Euboean Gulf at Chalkoutsi in eastern Attica. At 80 km long, it is the second longest river in Boeotia. It has several tributaries including the Thermidonas, the Spilia, the Patitsiona and the Bithiako. It is also called the Oropos or Vourienis. Asopos river2. 7. In Greek mythology, Asopos was a river god. The River Asopos in Boeotia is often confused in legends with the river of the same name in 2 Dr Yorgos Chatzinikolaou. Culprit wanted for two environmental crimes: Asopos River and Lake Coronia. In: The Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament. Unsustainable water and industrial waste management in Greece: The cases of Asopos River Basin, Lake Koronia and Korinthiakos Gulf, 15 April 2009, Brussels (Appendix 1). - - 8 - Phleiasia and Sikyonia. Depending on which author one believes3, Asopos was the son of Poseidon and Pero, Zeus and Eurynome or Oceanus and Tethys. Rivers including the Asopos figured prominently among the divinities worshiped by the Greeks. People believed that rivers were the first kings of the flood plains or even the fathers of the peoples living on their banks. According to the accounts of Pausanias, the Plataians regarded Asopos as their first king, who gave his name to the river. Water courses were worshiped both as beneficial forces of nature and sources of life, both literally and metaphorically, in keeping with the belief that they impregnated young women who would come to bathe in the river at dawn. a. The legal framework for discharging liquid industrial waste into the River Asopos and the groundwater in the region of Oinofyta 8. Situated in the Asopos valley is the industrial area of Oinofyta. This area has grown up in a haphazard manner as industries began to establish themselves there from 1968 onwards without the Greek authorities conducting any prior planning or introducing any regional development measures. In other words, until now this has been an informal, unplanned industrial area of 39 000 sq. m4. At the time the two reasons which prompted the industries to settle in Oinofyta were its location only a few hundred metres from the boundary of the region of Attica5 and right next to the major national road link between Athens and Thessaloniki (only fifty kilometres away from Athens) and the fact that the Asopos River could be used as a free natural receptacle for waste, which would then flow down to the sea. That is what happened. In 1969 the river Asopos was officially 3 Theoi Greek Mythology. Asopos (on line). Available on http://www.theoi.com/Potamos/PotamosAsopos.html (consulted on 7 September 2010). 4 Statements by the Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change of 8 February 2010. See below, paragraph 14. 5 The government at the time of the colonels' dictatorship in Greece had announced industrial decentralisation, forcing industries to move away from Attica. - - 9 - designated in a ministerial decision as a “site for the discharge of treated industrial waste”6. Ten years later, in 1979, a further joint prefectural decision was issued, again naming the Asopos River as a “site for the discharge of treated industrial waste”7. Clearly, as the number of industrial plants s in Oinofyta rose (there are now over a thousand8), the more serious the waste problem became. However, the authorities failed to organise the Oinofyta industrial area, establish environmental standards or regulate the discharge of liquid waste. When the Environmental Protection Act (No. 1650/1986)9 was adopted, setting out industries’ environmental obligations for the first time, the authorities avoided the issue of the unregulated dumping of liquid industrial waste. They even continued to grant licences to industry on the basis of a health regulation of 1965 which authorised the surface or underground dumping of industrial waste after minor chemical treatment and with outdated limits on the levels of dangerous substances that such waste could contain10.