HUMAN RIGHTS FOR HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
Human Rights cut across almost every section which is related
or affects livelihood and quality of people’s living conditions.
All human rights are inseparable, whether they are civil and political
rights, such as the right to life and freedom of speech, economic,
social and cultural rights, such as education and social security and
other rights related to basic human needs such as food, shelter and
health care. Improvement and realization of one right facilitates
advancement of the others and equally the denial of one right adversely
affects the others.
HOSSEIN FADAEI, UNEP
The Human Rights declaration is a manifest where all these rights and their explicit or inexplicit linkages are defined and recognized. Many of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have significant environmental dimensions, including the right to life, right to health, right to safe and healthy working conditions, and the right to adequate housing and food. The Declaration affirms that “every one is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration can be fully realized.” It is evident that a healthful environment is an essential prerequisite for such a social and international order. The Stockholm Declaration on human environment which is also a land mark in establishment of many international environmental agreements and institutions, affirms that “Both aspects of man’s environment, the natural and the manmade, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights – even the right to life itself ”, and states in its first principle 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, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.”
These are the foundations for application of human rights in protection of environment and equally the role of environment in realization of human rights. The environmental dimension of human rights include not only protections such as the right to life, health, traditional livelihood, and culture, but also encompass the right to access to information about the environment; the right to express opinions about environmental issues; the right to environmental education; the right to associate peacefully with others for the purpose of protecting the environment; the right to participate in decisions affecting the environment; and the right to administrative or judicial redress for violations of protected rights. These fundamental freedoms anchor the full realization of all human rights in an open and just society. It is only by focusing on what decisions were made, who had access to information about them, and who took part in the decision, that the conditions under which environmental damage occurs can be better understood and assessed. It is only when the people who are directly affected by environmental degradation and destruction have a voice in what manner environmentally significant actions are taken, is lasting environmental protection possible. The potential of human rights cannot be fully realized within a degraded or polluted environment. The fundamental right to life can be denied by deaths caused by acute exposure to radioactivity or contaminated drinking water. It can be denied by exposure to toxic chemicals through careless hazardous waste disposal or industrial practices. It can also be denied by the marginalization of farmers and the poor through soil depletion and deforestation.
A Human Rights-based Approach
to the protection of environment
Responding to the international human rights
and environmental law, countries have included and adopted environmental provisions
within their national constitutions and
other legal frameworks. Of the 192 nations in
the world, there are now 109 national constitutions
that mention the protection of the
environment or natural resources. One hundred
of them recognize the right to a clean
and healthy environment and/or the state’s
obligation to prevent environmental harm.
Fifty-three constitutions explicitly recognize
the right to a clean and healthy environment,
and ninety-two make it the duty of the national
government to prevent harm to the
environment. At the regional and international
level there exist over 350 multilateral
treaties and 1000 bilateral treaties on environmental
and sustainability issues. These
have developed from national concerns and
inter-state working but have now developed
in a global dimension. Despite all these
mechanisms in place, the international community
is still witnessing a continued degradation
of environment exemplified by the climate
change phenomena, conflicts over
shared natural resources within and between
countries and unsustainable patterns of production
and consumption.
Today the global community is becoming more than ever convinced that objectives of human rights, environmental protection and economic development are complementary and not as opposing disciplines. A human rights-based approach could be an innovative approach in supporting and advancing the international environmental law to better address our environmental challenges. The aim here is not to define a substantive right to clean environment where divergent views are held among jurists and academics and conflict of interest between developed and developing countries, but to deepen our understanding on the role of human rights principles and a rights-based approach in advancing environmental protection, human security and sustainable development.
The literature on “human rights” in the area of environment indicate at least three different types of rights: right to a clean and safe environment; right to protect the environment; procedural rights to information, justice and public participation in decision-making and in the context of sustainable development, to these three must be added, the right to development. A rights-based approach to environmental protection is conceivable in the following forms:
- The first principle in arguing a rights-based approach to sustainable development holds that the last thirty years has seen a rapid growth in the development of international environmental regulations, as people and governments have come to realize the immense transboundary nature and adverse effects of environmental changes which threaten the planet and the future of mankind. As the right to a safe environment is implicit in the work of numerous multilateral and bilateral treaties on environmental and sustainability issues it should also be implicit in guaranteeing the effective implementation and enforcement of these agreements through developing appropriate mechanisms. Therefore it is been perceived that successful implementation of such environmental instruments guarantees the respect and protection of Human Rights.
- Regardless of the legal parameters of human rights and environmental rights, a right based approach can be applied to develop environmental culture, ethics, values and morale based on human rights principles. As such the most efficient way to affect the human unsustainable behavior towards his living environment is not always through legally binding instruments rather through soft laws, awareness raising, education and development of an environmental morale whereby the people protect their environment in respecting their own rights and those of their future generations.
- From a sustainable development perspective, human rights and sustainable development are reinforcing as they both provide a holistic approach to political, economic, social and cultural development. The human right to development recognizes the human as the central subject of the development and human rights principals show us what development should strive to achieve. A right-based approach in achieving sustainable development begins with the objective of ensuring equity and a decent standard of life for all persons. With this as a starting point, we can then examine growth-led development and hope for better equity, lower poverty rates, and improved standards of living. Human right acts as a framework to guide development agendas. The wide acceptance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, provides one of the most universal and multicultural agreements upon which to define development objectives. Especially if we get away from seeing human rights as merely civil and political, and begin to focus on economic, social and cultural rights, we can easily ground our development agenda in the basic provision and protection of human rights.
