In a powerful and far-reaching interview, a group of Fair Start Movement (FSM) activists sits down with Xraised to confront how current global systems undermine true justice, ignore the most vulnerable populations—especially in Africa and other marginalized regions—and perpetuate ecological destruction.

FSM activists are now filing a pivotal petition to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), urging it to take decisive rights-based action to address corporate fraud and maximize accurate climate reparations, environmental justice, and intergenerational equity specifically for African communities. It highlights the systemic harms caused by current global standards that undervalue the lives of children of color, particularly in the Global South, and seeks binding accountability from corporations perpetuating environmental and social injustices.

Inequity by Design: Suffering and Injustice is Increasing Exponentially

It has been normalized that companies and other entities deliberately externalize ethical and legal costs of social and ecological harm as part of a business strategy and model — called “permissible harm thresholds.” Companies discount the value of others’ lives, rights, or futures when they calculate that externalizing harm is more profitable than internalizing responsibility. This functions as a shadow discount rate — applied not to money, but to the moral and legal weight of harm.

Litigation risk, reputational damage, or regulatory capture are factored in as acceptable trade-offs. These choices are often guided by assessments of enforceability, public pressure, and regulatory weakness, not actual ethical standards. For example, a vertically integrated dairy conglomerate may not pay for the water pollution it causes, leaving costs to fall on public health systems and local governments. It may not price in the antibiotic resistance its practices accelerate, deferring costs onto future public health infrastructure, and uses subsidies that disadvantage small producers, harming fair market competition. These factors are treated as legal risk mitigation rather than moral failure, shaping business models as much as any Discounted Cash Flow projection.

A Deliberate, Systemic Moral Failure

Business models that include “permissive harm,” “discount rates,” and similar engineered adjustments constitute equity, reparations, and impact fraud. They conceal responsibility for climate and related crises, infant mortality, and the violation of children’s fundamental rights — including the systemic devaluation of children of color and the harm done to their life chances and legal protections. Impacted rights can include democratic voting rights or the right to ensure governance derives from empowerment of constituents.

A New Standard of Legitimacy: Starting at Birth

The activists argue that the root of systemic injustice lies in what Carter Dillard, a leading FSM voice, terms the “widely contested standard” or “equity fraud” — a framework that justifies entitlements and government authority without first securing the birthrights of children. Rather than measuring justice from high levels of permissible harm that protect elite interests, FSM proposes an equity-based metric that starts from zero, evaluating the harm inflicted on the most vulnerable — particularly infants and nonhuman animals — from the moment they enter the world.

“Legitimacy and equity start with fully measuring the harm,” says Dillard. “This is not charity or investment, but reparations. It’s about telling the truth from the beginning — from birth.”

Exposing Flaws in Power Structures

The interview highlights how unjust standards are embedded in laws, definitions of fraud, enforcement methods, and misleading cost-benefit analyses — all of which FSM argues are preempted by international law. As Dillard explains in his essay for CounterPunch, global systems often sidestep the real source of power — the act of constituting authority through relational equity at birth. This insight is not just philosophical; it is a practical blueprint for justice that challenges governments, academics, and philanthropists to shift from performative reforms to structural accountability.

If cost/benefit assessments do not start from zero, elevating infants and animals above the threshold of intergenerational justice, they risk engaging in performative work rather than meaningful change.

From Charity to Reparations: Empowering Through Birth

FSM’s approach conditions all forms of authority and wealth on measurable empowerment of children at birth. This involves building systems where entitlements are derived not from exploitation, but from ensuring fertility delay, parental readiness, fair resource distribution, and geographic justice. This vision moves beyond traditional social justice models and calls for a transformative restructuring of how legitimacy is defined.

“We’re not just talking about improving a broken system,” Dillard notes. “We’re talking about legitimizing the very foundations of society.” The Fair Start Movement offers a proactive disclosure and compensation framework that places children’s sovereignty at the center of national sovereignty.

Linking Animal Rights, Racial Justice, and Ecological Survival

FSM insists that true animal liberation and racial justice cannot exist independently. Most activists, they argue, unintentionally perpetuate injustice by working downstream — addressing symptoms rather than root causes. Using flawed standards undermines both animal and human rights and often benefits elites at the expense of those activists claim to protect.

“Most animal rights activists didn’t choose animals over racial justice,” the FSM team explains. “They were misled into serving neither.” This critique urges advocates to align methods with moral goals, moving beyond token campaigns to build truly equitable systems.

Taking Action Against Corporate Abuse

FSM’s commitment to action is exemplified in its call for accountability from corporations like Coca-Cola and Fairlife. In response to revelations of cruelty and exploitation, FSM demands that these companies provide transparency about their impacts — not only on animals but on future generations and the climate. As outlined in their public statement, FSM believes that exposing and correcting these abuses is central to building a just and legitimate society.

This direct advocacy challenges government, philanthropy, and corporate actors to adopt transparent, equitable, and future-focused practices.

Fair Start: A Tool for Measuring Real Impact

The Fair Start framework is a tool that allows governments, organizations, and individuals to recalibrate their impact based on whether they measurably empower children as they enter the world. This baseline of equity, FSM argues, is the only way to ensure we’re building just systems rather than perpetuating harm under new names.

“The act of telling the truth about our starting point — admitting the use of flawed standards — is what legitimates future relations,” says Dillard. “Without that, we’re just rearranging power for our benefit.”

Foundations Must Confront Their Role in Climate Injustice

FSM also critiques philanthropic foundations for enabling environmental harm under the guise of charity. Many uphold systems of inherited privilege while claiming to support justice and sustainability. By failing to acknowledge their contributions to ecological degradation and intergenerational inequity, they perpetuate climate injustice. Real equity requires redistributing not just wealth but power, beginning by prioritizing future generations and the planet over profit and legacy.

Foundations are called upon to reevaluate their legitimacy by asking: Are we empowering future generations or simply preserving our influence? Without a true fair start, FSM contends, no philanthropic effort can be sustainable.

Empowering Children Through Birthright Equity

FSM’s insight into the intersection of climate justice and birthright equity emphasizes rethinking the global standard of freedom and its impact on vulnerable populations. They advocate for empowering individuals from birth, asserting that legitimacy of societal structures should stem from equitable treatment of all children, regardless of race or socio-economic status. The current economic model discounts future lives, perpetuating systemic inequities that benefit the wealthy few at the cost of marginalized groups.

Addressing these foundational disparities aims to foster a world where individual and political autonomy is recognized and protected from birth.

Rethinking Birthright Wealth and Systemic Exploitation

FSM points out that many today’s environmental and social issues, including the climate crisis, can be traced back to disregard for the rights of infants and animals. The absence of a rights-based framework centered on birthrights has allowed unchecked exploitation of natural resources and human capital, deeply tied to birthright wealth and privilege.

FSM urges governments, activists, and philanthropists to adopt a more inclusive, rights-based approach to policy-making, ensuring every child is born with opportunities for self-determination and political empowerment.

The Fork in the Road: Legitimacy or Collapse

The conversation concludes with a call to action: one path preserves wealth created through flawed standards, further fueling climate breakdown and social instability; the other reorients that wealth to constitute just, legitimate nations. “Children should be born as democratic ends, not economic means,” FSM emphasizes.

Next Moves: Mobilizing Legal Action for Climate Justice

Filing a Landmark Petition with the African Commission
Fair Start Movement activists are taking a bold step by filing a pivotal petition with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). This legal action demands that the Commission address corporate fraud, enforce accurate climate reparations, and uphold environmental justice and intergenerational equity throughout Africa.

Connecting Corporate Accountability and Climate Reparations
This petition complements a U.S. federal class action lawsuit against Fairlife, a Coca-Cola-owned dairy brand accused of false sustainability claims. The coalition highlights how deceptive standards allow corporations to evade liability for climate-related harms, disproportionately affecting children of color in the Global South.

Challenging the “Permissible Harm” Model
The activists argue that the current global economic model of “permissible harm” is rooted in systemic inequities—particularly white supremacy and economic exploitation—that undervalue African lives and children worldwide. These flawed standards enable corporate greenwashing and perpetuate environmental and social injustice.

Calling for Binding Accountability and Child Equity Recognition
The coalition urges the ACHPR to adopt binding accountability mechanisms and legally recognize child equity as a foundation for environmental dignity and survival. This framework prioritizes protecting African generations now and into the future.

Voices from the Movement: A Call for Justice
“We are the echoes of ancestors who dreamed of freedom despite enduring historic injustices,” said Zahara Nabakooza, Fair Start Movement Children’s Rights Lead. “Equality isn’t kindness—it’s a debt long overdue, paid only when every Black soul walks this earth unafraid, unburdened, and fully seen.”

To follow the full interview and explore more, visit the Fair Start Movement and listen to the full podcast on Spotify.

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