Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
| ISBN-13 | 9780198267898 |
| Open Library | OL21081163W |
| Total publications | 15 |
| Coverage period | 1998 - 1998 |
| Language | EN |
This collection of essays explores links between the environment and human rights, and responds to the growing debate among activists, lawyers, academics and policy-makers on the legal status of environmental rights in both international and domestic law, and on the proposals for a human right to a satisfactory environment. The collection is an original and timely contribution to the existing literature on this subject, and offers a sustained analysis which addresses both the conceptual and practical problems of environmental rights. The conceptual dimensions are particularly rich, raising fundamental questions concerning the human/environment relationship as well as more general issues regarding the form, content and limitations of international and domestic human rights law. The first part of the book deals mainly with the protection of the environment in international human rights law and EC law, while part two concentrates on problems and experience in developing countries, some of which have already incorporated environmental rights and international constitutional law and from which a growing jurisprudence has emerged. This is where at present human rights approaches seem to be of greatest value. Each chapter is written by an author well qualified in the field. The volume will have a wide appeal to anyone interested in environmental law and human rights.
Environmental Rights in Existing Human Rights Treaties
The aim of this chapter is modest and straightforward: to see to what extent environmental rights are found in existing human rights treaties. It is thus concerned only with lex lata, and not as in earlier chapters with lex ferenda. By ‘environmental rights’ I mean broadly the right, whether of individuals or a group, to a decent environment; and, more specifically, such rights as the right to be free from excessive pollution of the land. water o…
Environmental Protection and Human Rights
To speak of a right to a healthy environment as a collective right, or to say that as part of their basic human rights individuals have certain entitlements in relation to the environment, is to use the language of rights to further particular objectives which the speaker thinks are important. In this respect discussion of ‘environmental rights’ is no different from the contemporary debate over abortion, self-determination, euthanasia, the rights…
Social Justice and the Judicial Enforcement of Environmental Rights and Duties
Environmental rights and duties are rapidly maturing into a standard feature of national constitutions.’ Considerable attention has been devoted to the theory of environmental rights and to the most apt constitutional formulation of such rights. The growing international body of case law on environmental rights has, however, created a need-and opportunity-for critical inquiry at a more prosaic level.
Islam And Judicial Activism
Pakistan only recently began to develop a judicially recognized right to a clean environment. In two cases the Supreme Court of Pakistan has held that the constitutionally guaranteed right to life1 includes the right to live in a clean environment.2 Both judgments arise from so-called ·public interest litigation’, i.e., legal action for the enforcement of constitutionally guaranteed rights involving questions pertaining to public interest. Simila…
Practical Human Rights, NGOs and the Environment in Malaysia
Malaysia exhibits most of the environmental problems which are typical of many of the developing countries. They include over-logging of primary forest resulting in the destruction of wildlife, soil erosion, and the displacement of native populations (especially in Sarawak, but also in Sabah, Pahang, and elsewhere); air and water pollution from industry and traffic, especially in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and its urban surrounds/ and …
Indigenous Peoples, Environmental Degradation, and Human Rights
The negative impacts of oil development operations in the rain forest on the Amazonian indigenous peoples of Ecuador, and on the Huaorani in particular, constitute a dramatic but clarifying example of the direct relationship between environmental degradation and human rights violations. From a legal perspective, examining the Huaorani case is an excellent exercise. It helps identify some of the most relevant means for protecting human rights and …
Environmental Rights and the New South African Constitution
The 27th of April 1994 was a historic day in South Africa with the adoption of its first democratic Constitution. It is a complex and lengthy document-the result of long and protracted negotiations at Kempton Park, Johannesburg where it was agreed that this would be an interim constitution in place for five years during which time a final constitution would be drafted. The new Constitution marks a departure from the Westminster model of parliamen…
Access to Environmental Justice and Procedural Rights in International Institutions
The recent increased part1c1pat10n of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in international institutions and agreements has focused attention on the extent to which procedural rights can be used within the international context to pursue substantive environmental protection goals. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 recognized that the scope and nature of the problems to be addresse…
Constitutional Environmental Rights m Brazil
In 1988, an intensive world-wide campaign was orchestrated by the international media concerning the deforestation of the Amazon region. Although internal mobilization in Brazil was less significant, the conservationist organizations already existing in the country managed to take advantage of the situation to increase the degree of social awareness not only of the question of the Amazon, but also of environmental issues in Brazil more generally.…
Environmental Rights in the European Union-Participatory Democracy or Democratic Deficit?
It might have been thought. at the signing of the original Treaty of Rome in 1957. that the new European Economic Community as it then was, would be an unpromi ing forum for the protection of environmental rights. The EEC Treaty. as originally drafted. contained no provisions. explicit or otherwise, regarding the environment. nor any reference to human rights. These factor . however, have not deterred the European Union (EUJ. as it has now become…
Individual Rights to Environmental Protection in India
Probably more than any other jurisdiction on Earth, the Republic of India has fostered an extensive and innovative jurisprudence on environmental rights. Fifteen years after the onset of public interest litigation, it is now common for lawyers representing environmental claims to tum in the first instance to the terminology of rights rather than the more traditional rules of tort and crime. Not only has the Supreme Court ruled that every individu…
Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection
The late twentieth century has witnessed an unprecedented increase in legal claims for both human rights and environmental goods. Never before have so many people raised so many demands relating to such a wide range of environmental and human matters. And never before have legal remedies stood so squarely in the centre of wider social movements for human and environmental protection. It is likely that legal historians writing in the twenty-first …
Life, The Universe and Everything
In Chapter 3 we saw that one critique of a human rights approach to environmental protection is its anthropocentricity; that a human right to a clean, healthy, or decent environment ignores the rights of animals and nature. There are two distinctive strands to such criticisms, broadly identified as deep ecology or environmentalism, and animal rights.4 Within each strand different motivations and philosophies are at work, ranging from a religious …
The Role of International Human Rights Law m the Protection of the Environment
What role should international human rights law play in the protection of the environment? At Stockholm in 1972 the UN Conference on the Human Environment declared that ‘Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being’. Twenty years later, at the Rio Conference on Environment and Development, this initial emphasis on a human rights pers…
Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection
This collection of essays explores links between the environment and human rights, and responds to the growing debate among activists, lawyers, academics and policy-makers on the legal status of environmental rights in both international and domestic law, and on the proposals for a human right to a satisfactory environment. The collection is an original and timely contribution to the existing literature on this subject, and offers a sustained ana…
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Environmental Rights in Existing Human Rights Treaties
The aim of this chapter is modest and straightforward: to see to what extent environmental rights are found in existing human rights treaties. It is thus concerned only with lex lata, and not as in earlier chapters with lex ferenda. By ‘environmental rights’ I mean broadly the right, whether of individuals or a group, to a decent environment; and, more specifically, such rights as the right to be free from excessive pollution of the land. water o…
Environmental Protection and Human Rights
To speak of a right to a healthy environment as a collective right, or to say that as part of their basic human rights individuals have certain entitlements in relation to the environment, is to use the language of rights to further particular objectives which the speaker thinks are important. In this respect discussion of ‘environmental rights’ is no different from the contemporary debate over abortion, self-determination, euthanasia, the rights…
Social Justice and the Judicial Enforcement of Environmental Rights and Duties
Environmental rights and duties are rapidly maturing into a standard feature of national constitutions.’ Considerable attention has been devoted to the theory of environmental rights and to the most apt constitutional formulation of such rights. The growing international body of case law on environmental rights has, however, created a need-and opportunity-for critical inquiry at a more prosaic level.
Islam And Judicial Activism
Pakistan only recently began to develop a judicially recognized right to a clean environment. In two cases the Supreme Court of Pakistan has held that the constitutionally guaranteed right to life1 includes the right to live in a clean environment.2 Both judgments arise from so-called ·public interest litigation’, i.e., legal action for the enforcement of constitutionally guaranteed rights involving questions pertaining to public interest. Simila…
Practical Human Rights, NGOs and the Environment in Malaysia
Malaysia exhibits most of the environmental problems which are typical of many of the developing countries. They include over-logging of primary forest resulting in the destruction of wildlife, soil erosion, and the displacement of native populations (especially in Sarawak, but also in Sabah, Pahang, and elsewhere); air and water pollution from industry and traffic, especially in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and its urban surrounds/ and …
Indigenous Peoples, Environmental Degradation, and Human Rights
The negative impacts of oil development operations in the rain forest on the Amazonian indigenous peoples of Ecuador, and on the Huaorani in particular, constitute a dramatic but clarifying example of the direct relationship between environmental degradation and human rights violations. From a legal perspective, examining the Huaorani case is an excellent exercise. It helps identify some of the most relevant means for protecting human rights and …
Environmental Rights and the New South African Constitution
The 27th of April 1994 was a historic day in South Africa with the adoption of its first democratic Constitution. It is a complex and lengthy document-the result of long and protracted negotiations at Kempton Park, Johannesburg where it was agreed that this would be an interim constitution in place for five years during which time a final constitution would be drafted. The new Constitution marks a departure from the Westminster model of parliamen…
Access to Environmental Justice and Procedural Rights in International Institutions
The recent increased part1c1pat10n of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in international institutions and agreements has focused attention on the extent to which procedural rights can be used within the international context to pursue substantive environmental protection goals. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 recognized that the scope and nature of the problems to be addresse…
Constitutional Environmental Rights m Brazil
In 1988, an intensive world-wide campaign was orchestrated by the international media concerning the deforestation of the Amazon region. Although internal mobilization in Brazil was less significant, the conservationist organizations already existing in the country managed to take advantage of the situation to increase the degree of social awareness not only of the question of the Amazon, but also of environmental issues in Brazil more generally.…
Environmental Rights in the European Union-Participatory Democracy or Democratic Deficit?
It might have been thought. at the signing of the original Treaty of Rome in 1957. that the new European Economic Community as it then was, would be an unpromi ing forum for the protection of environmental rights. The EEC Treaty. as originally drafted. contained no provisions. explicit or otherwise, regarding the environment. nor any reference to human rights. These factor . however, have not deterred the European Union (EUJ. as it has now become…
Individual Rights to Environmental Protection in India
Probably more than any other jurisdiction on Earth, the Republic of India has fostered an extensive and innovative jurisprudence on environmental rights. Fifteen years after the onset of public interest litigation, it is now common for lawyers representing environmental claims to tum in the first instance to the terminology of rights rather than the more traditional rules of tort and crime. Not only has the Supreme Court ruled that every individu…
Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection
The late twentieth century has witnessed an unprecedented increase in legal claims for both human rights and environmental goods. Never before have so many people raised so many demands relating to such a wide range of environmental and human matters. And never before have legal remedies stood so squarely in the centre of wider social movements for human and environmental protection. It is likely that legal historians writing in the twenty-first …
Life, The Universe and Everything
In Chapter 3 we saw that one critique of a human rights approach to environmental protection is its anthropocentricity; that a human right to a clean, healthy, or decent environment ignores the rights of animals and nature. There are two distinctive strands to such criticisms, broadly identified as deep ecology or environmentalism, and animal rights.4 Within each strand different motivations and philosophies are at work, ranging from a religious …
The Role of International Human Rights Law m the Protection of the Environment
What role should international human rights law play in the protection of the environment? At Stockholm in 1972 the UN Conference on the Human Environment declared that ‘Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being’. Twenty years later, at the Rio Conference on Environment and Development, this initial emphasis on a human rights pers…
Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection
This collection of essays explores links between the environment and human rights, and responds to the growing debate among activists, lawyers, academics and policy-makers on the legal status of environmental rights in both international and domestic law, and on the proposals for a human right to a satisfactory environment. The collection is an original and timely contribution to the existing literature on this subject, and offers a sustained ana…