The Interconnection between Environmental Protection and Human Rights
The issues of environmental protection and human rights are closely interconnected yet mutually responsive. This is because both of these are intended to serve the humanity. This is because safe and healthy environment is one of the most important pre-condition of enjoying human rights. This connection between these two essential elements, have three chief approaches which have been recognized in different international as well as regional instruments as well as resolutions of subsidiary organizations of the United Nations. In addition to this, the decisions of the international conferences along with the judicial pronouncements of the tribunals have considered the human rights strategies as effective means for achieving the goals of the environmental protection. Despite the fact that there is intense linking between the environmental protection and human rights, most of the organizations have pointed out the problems of human right violations and environmental degradation are also interrelated.
The environmentalists have focused primarily on the natural resources conservation without speaking the human influences of environmental misuses. The state of natural inequity has been established by most of the human centric activities like urbanization, industrialization and the huge exploitation of the natural resources that damage the environmental elements. This has led to the serious repercussions affecting the nature in a large scale such as drought, global warming, flood, migration, environmental refugees, health issues and most importantly the ozone layer depletion. These issues not only becoming the environmental factors but molding other essential factors like political, economic and social factors that needs proper integration of all the three approaches so that these issues can be handled more holistically. The chief aim of this piece is the investigation three specific approaches for examining whether the human rights law command must subsume environmental law regime or whether the latter needs to subsume the former or whether both these legal regimes must be existent separately, with a mutual interaction.
The method of linking the issue like human rights with environment has created a rights based tactic for the environmental protection. This keeps the people damaged by the environmental degradation in the center. Articulating the important rights of the people in respect to the environment has created opportunities for securing these rights through the human rights agencies in the international forum and the national boards. In this regard, the influence made by the national judiciaries for the protection of the environment then provide remedies to victims of the environmental harms by relating the rights based approach for environmental protection can be an example for the law makers. This will help to lay a framework where human rights can successfully contribute in the process of shielding the environment in one hand and the survival of humanity.
Three Approaches to Examining the Connections
As Boyle has pointed out in his book that the relationship between environmental protection and human rights in the international law is very complicated to subscribe. A new approach for codifying and developing international law was initiated by UNHRC in the year 2011. Based on this, the author has explored three possibilities in his article. First of all, the as the Rio Declaration of 1992 on the environment and overall development have focused on the procedural rights to be most essential environmental addition to the human rights. Therefore, any types of amendment or policy making associated with human rights procedure need to consult and abide by this development of UNHRC. Secondly the author has pointed out that a declaration and protocol can be apt mechanism for the articulation of some of the most controversial notion of human rights to desired atmosphere. Thirdly, the issues of the extra-territorial application of the prevailing human rights treaties to the transboundary pollution along with global climate change have not yet been resolved. Therefore, the chief concern and recommendation of the authors can be fully supportive where he states that the responses of the human rights law need to be in the international terms. This needs to mitigate the threat to global climate as well as environment which is the common concern for humanity.
The idea of incorporating the environmental protection and human rights have a vital impact but have many barriers to reach. More than 2 million people annually die and billions of people fall diseases due to various types of pollution. The environment degradation, water shortage, natural disasters, fisheries depletion, declination of ecosystem are the consequences of excessive deforestation, disposal of toxic, dangerous products and wastes and most importantly unsafe or unwise management of the natural resources. The people in the urban areas are not directly affected by these actions but the aboriginal people or the communities who completely depend upon the nature and forests, face the direct blow. They are the chief people to get affected by the degradation of ecosystem as they rely on balanced ecosystem for their livelihood. The issue of climate change has been exacerbating many negative impacts of the environmental degradation directly on the human health and their wellbeing. In the least few decades the situation has become more grave and causing new problem of extreme weather events and in case of spread of vector borne disease. These aspects clearly disclose the connection between the enjoyment of human rights to its fullest and environmental effects.
A Rights-Based Approach to Environmental Protection
According to Alan Boyle, the UN treaty bodies and the human rights courts have developed three theoretical approaches. These three most discussed approaches for examining the connections between environmental protection as well as human rights are as followed. first, the human rights regulation, institutions as well as processes may be invoked to assert the right to have a clean environment. The second approach aims to leverage the environmental laws institutions, concepts and the processes focusing on the protection of the human rights that cannot be achieved if there are no presence of clean as well as healthy surroundings or environment. The third approach can be the interfusion of these environmental laws with human rights. This particular approach gradually leads to the sustainable development that considers the need of catering both the present as well as the future generations.
The first approach which focuses on the human rights laws to assert the rights for getting clean environment, leads to adopt a right based approach to the environmental protection with emphasizing on the rights to clean environment where the laws must be guaranteeing the protection of life as well as personal liberty. In addition to this, the slow poisoning resulted by the environmental pollution as well as spoliation may be treated as the amounting to violation of the rights. On the basis of this particular approach, the United Nations suggests the nations to include the duty for enduring the level of the environment protection mandatory to allow the complete exercise of the protected rights.
The second approach aims to discuss the environmental laws as the process of leveraging the methods of better protection of the human rights. No human rights can be attained without having clean and health environment hence the regulations that refer to the environmental protection ca be used for asserting the protection of these human rights. In this instance, the incident of Bhopal Gas Tragedy where more than 25000 people died due to industrial pollution the court had imposed the criminal case on the industry responsible for this huge environmental ramifications. In relations to this, the dimensions discussed by the United Nations’ suggestion can be referred.
To Allan Boyle third approach could be the interfusion of the environmental laws and the human rights. This movement towards gaining sustainable development. This contemplates the needs of the present as well as the future generations and to immediate proceed in that direction. Aarhus Convention recognizes the significance of public participation in the environmental decision-making process, access to special information along with access to justice based on which the aim of interrelating the human rights and environmental protection will be achieved.
Leveraging Environmental Laws for Human Rights Protection
The United Nations Division of Environmental Law and Conventions have focused on the three main dimensions in this aspect of interrelation and environment and human rights.
- The environment is the pre-requisite for enjoying the human rights effectively. Hence the policies must imply the human rights responsibilities of the nations must include the obligations of taking necessary initiatives for environmental protection to permit the full application of the protected rights.
- Definite human rights, more particularly, the access to information, access to justice and contribution in the decision making process in the environmental matters needs to be implemented to ensure environmental protection. The main focus will be the implication of human rights in order to protect the environment.
- It is the rights of human that they must enjoy healthy, safe and an environment which is ecologically balanced though this dimension has been highly debated.
The Stockholm declaration shows the interconnection between the human rights and environmental issues was quite prominent in the United Nation’s efforts for addressing the environmental problems. These past focus had been however faded away when the international communities started to tackle these specific environmental issues. This was excise they had more focus on the policies and legal instruments both in the national as well as the international levels. These communities target the environmental issues which were emerging but these initiatives could not serve the human rights dimension. After these processes failed to serve the issue of sustainable development where both the humans as well as the elements of entire ecosystem will be benefitted. However, several UN bodies tried to achieve this goals and finally the Commission of Human Rights by the regulation 2005/ 60 had requested the high commissioner of UN along with the UNEP, UNDP and other relevant agencies or bodies to mandate and approve work programs for initiating policies catering the human rights and environment. These committees resolute to continue to coordinate their efforts in the activities associated with the human rights and the environmental issues to poverty eradication, disaster prevention, post-conflict environmental assessment and their rehabilitation, post-disaster assessment and their rehabilitation. These issues are take into deliberation in their relevant findings as well as recommendation to avoid the duplication. This reformation process aimed to mandate the integration of human rights in all the works of the organizations. In a chains of resolutions, the United Nations Human Rights Council along with United Nations Commission on Human Rights have sought attention to perfect connection between the safe as well as healthy environment and proper enjoyment of human rights.
The chief purpose of these environmental laws are the protection of the environmental protection. Most of the initiatives of these laws focus on the protection of the elements of the ecosystems that are flora and fauna and the conservation of the diversity of these species. As discussed before, the international environment law is the youngest of all the international laws. The initiative to create the legal and effective system that ends with providing protection of the human beings from the natural disaster. This however, originated from the issues such as pollution of the atmosphere, seas or other waters, the loss of birds, animals and plants species, the harm of nuclear power and corresponding social, environmental and health problems.
Interfusing Human Rights and Environmental Laws towards Sustainable Development
A huge number of environmentalists suggest that the aim of these environmental laws is quire eco-centric. In other words, the environmental issues and the preservation of ecosystem earth are in the forefront rather than the focus on the environment through the perspective of human rights. Obligations as well as duties are imposed on the governments, private companies and the individual human beings and groups to reach these goals of environmental sustainability. Here the international treaties like The Antarctica Treaty, the World Heritage Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the World Charter for Nature can be named as the examples. All of these treaties exclusively do not exist aiming to the benefit of the human beings however mandate that the humans need to protect the environment from excessive exploitation of the natural wealth. Nonetheless, this is not envisioned to debate whether environmental law is solely ecocentric but need to focus on the scrutinizing process whether the human right to have a clean as well as healthy environment can be demanded from the positive international law models. Hence, another set of critics have ascribed the anthropocentric approach. Here they state that the environmental protection is chiefly justified as the means of shielding humans rather than as an end itself is taken for granted. Many environmentalists along with animal protectionists have criticized the anthropocentric approach claiming humans to be in the center of natural degradation.
Therefore, the concept of intermingling the human rights and environment protection in one particular law may be followed. The law must follow the policies of ecological governance are the most important approach where the human rights to clean and healthy environment can be achieved though sustainable development. This can be a powerful technique for imagining as well as implementing this new system of ecological government which serves both the ends. However, the process of advancing this vision may require a huge support from the international agencies and the member nations. The aim is to go beyond the conventional identifications of the international law as well as the method it is formulated along with enforced the formal laws of the State based organizations.
The third approach of interconnecting human rights law in the international perspectives and environmental law must continue to grow. This is because these two approaches are independent yet very closely connected fields whilst borrowing the appropriate concepts. As the humans completely depends upon the environment therefore, their rights to enjoy a clean and healthy environment is mandatory. In this context the efforts to motivate the nations are necessary. For instance, in the countries where the separate rights to environment are not framed in the clear terms or never exist, the prevailing human right provisions concerning the right to life as well as human dignity may be invoked. Despite the fact there are numerous barriers to convince the related national bodies and the communities of the states. These policies will be focused on the basis of the right to enjoy a decent life. this is because, this can be protected only with the presence of its concomitant right to have a clean and healthy environment. Conversely, the human rights based approach may potentially lead to the anthropocentric approach which is mentioned and discussed before in detail in order to the aim of environment protection. Including the environmental laws into the human rights can effectively make the environment as well as its element and diversity the function of fulfilling the human needs as well as human rights rather than as the issue which deserves the protection in and of itself. On the contrary separate presence of the environmental as well as the human rights institutions contained by some multilevel governance structures has some huge advantages. These environmental and human rights institutions may join the forces for some specific overlying objectives. The initiatives that points out the coming together of (OHCHR) and The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) aiming to report jointly on the human rights along with environmental protection are laudable. This helps both the institutions in number of ways for instance to identify their common ground which they may cover together and definitely strengthen each of the advocacy platforms.
The UN Efforts to Address Environmental Problems and Human Rights Dimensions
Taking the human rights approach to the environmental protection is however advantageous. This is due to the fact that this reinforces the concepts of the states’ mutual goals along with the thoughtful ramifications which each of these two perspectives may have on the other. The function of framing this relationship in the terms of irreconcilable tension between the developmental prerogatives as well as the environmental prerogatives stalls progress to ensure the environment protection. It can be achieved both at the international level as well as in the national level. In the international level, this particular approach can be achieved by pitching the developed countries versus the developing countries in the international environmental negotiations. At the national level it can be achieved by making the environment protection acquiescent to the developmental priorities.
In implementing these rules effectively, the international as well as the national agencies or institutions need to begin to form a wholly new architecture which will be associated with of their laws as well as policies. These initiatives will however gradually allow the societies and the communities all over the world to alter their ascendency of all types of the human activities and most importantly the economic ones. This new species of law will draw upon a well-established legal principle of the nations. The idea of compiling environment protection in the human rights can serve as a holistic as well as integrated platform for the new model of law along with policy that can help to secure the cleanest, healthiest, biodiverse as well as sustainable environment. The basic goal of this approach is to move toward new kinds of social performs, material provisioning as well as the environmental stewardship in a way to spring more substantive meanings to the issues of human rights. This particular approach may be the only way for bringing the law of the humankind into a greater alliance with the edicts of nature.
Therefore, it can be concluded that as the human beings are completely dependent upon the environment, they are the prime responsible entities to provide protection. This is because the environment issues can affect the human rights and to enjoy perfect human rights, the care for nature is necessary. It is hence imperative that the developing concerns along with environmental concerns cannot be seen as the conflicting matters but all actors need to realise the needs to assimilate them aiming to make the aspects of sustainable development a actuality. By having more clear legal provisions along with institutions and practices which can refer to this particular issue directly as well as in the binding manner. This is because it can help the human society in achieving sustainable development.
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