Protection of environmental assets in urban Africa: Regional and Sub-Regional Human Rights and Practical Environmental Protection Mechanisms (original) (raw)
Related papers
South African Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 2015
The relationship between environmental protection and human rights is challenging. As a regional response, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) embodies three approaches on how human rights can protect the environment and vice versa. Also, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commision) complemented by the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) allows actio popularis and offers jurisprudence in support of these approaches. Thus far, in the working of the African Commission on the above approaches, environmental protection is limited to the context of victims and findings of human rights violations. This is inadequate in that while ensuring human rights, it subordinates the responsibility towards environmental protection. While this inadequacy reflects the ‘instrumental’ and ‘intrinsic’ distinction in the anthropocentric/ecocentric debate about the environment, it is not certain whether, and if so, how this debate may shape the interpretation of the African Charter by the African Commission and the African Court. This article examines the basis and how anthropocentricism/ecocentricism debate may shape the African Commission and the African Court in interpreting or applying the African Charter and its rule on actio popularis towards protecting the environment for its intrinsic worth.
2020
This article examines both regional and domestic legal framework as well as the existence of some critical provisions governing best practices for sustainable development in the sphere of oil industry in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta region. It is sad to note the quantum of pollution of the environment corollary to oil exploitation by multinational co-operations controlling exclusively upstream oil production in most of the African states with particular reference to Nigeria. Having identified the complex nature of interaction between the host communities and the Nigerian state, and strong human rights implications bordering on right to life, privacy, right to healthy environment, and right of self–determination, the authors argue that the impact of pollution on swathes of farmlands, creeks, fish-ponds, communal rivers and other sources of portable water to the host communities-constitutes an infraction of their environmental rights. The need for protection against enviro...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
This research is chosen to address the need to manage issues of environmental degradation and human rights abuses and violations by the multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Nigeria leading to the people living in the locality to suffer the consequences. If the assertion that health is wealth has a philosophical basis, there is the need to look at the human rights dimension to environmental degradation. This research discusses how environmental degradation affects the enjoyment of guaranteed rights. The regulatory frameworks on environment and MNCs in Nigeria have proven to be inadequate and ineffective in the protection of the rights of the victims of environmental degradation. A research is therefore proposed to investigate and analyze the problems of the existing legal framework on environment and MNCs in Nigeria. This analysis would assist in the research as to whether human rights offer a better remedies and solution to the victims of environmental degradation in Nigeria and safeguard the interest of the future generations and a future sustainable development.
The idea that environmental issues should be addressed from a human rights lens has increasingly come to be accepted and enforced in many parts of world in recent times. In some jurisdictions, a mere greening of already guaranteed rights has occurred, whilst in some other cases, a bolder approach of including an explicit right to a healthy environment in the applicable human rights instruments or national constitutions has been pursued. Drawing on relevant examples and case-studies from around the world, this dissertation advocates the need for the Nigerian government to adopt these forward-looking practices, technically described as ‘human rights approaches to environmental protection’, in order to effectively respond to the much discussed environmental challenges in its Niger Delta. Put broadly, the dissertation seeks to question the legal arrangements in Nigeria which have been used so far in dealing with the environmental concerns in the Niger Delta and makes an argued case that the rights-based approaches to environmental protection should be embraced and implemented, in keeping with the growing trend globally, in order to find workable solutions to the deplorable environmental conditions in that region of the country. It recommends, amongst other things, that there is a pressing need to include an unqualified constitutional right to a healthy environment in the catalogue of rights guaranteed under the Nigerian constitution.
Human Rights in relation to Environmental Protection (A Global Issue)
Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided. Human rights and environmental law have in common that they are both seen as a challenge to, or limitation on, the traditional understanding of state sovereignty as independence and autonomy. Despite their separate initial stages, it has become more and more acknowledged over the years that human rights and the environment are inherently interlinked. The present paper discusses about the correlation of human rights with environmental harms, climatic phenomena, environmental change etc. It finally concludes with supporting remedies for propounding human rights towards sustainable environmental growth.
Exploring Human Rights and Environmental Law: A Case Analysis of SERAC v Nigeria
THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS ACTION CENTER AND THE CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS v. NIGERIA, 2024
This paper discusses the landmark case of Social and Economic Rights Action Center and the Center for Economic and Social Rights v. Nigeria (Communication No. 155/96) before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Through a comprehensive analysis, the paper examines the violations of Articles 12, 16, and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, focusing on the right to health, the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health, and the right to a general satisfactory environment. Furthermore, the paper explores the principle of progressive realization of economic, social, and cultural rights, highlighting the state's obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil these rights. It also delves into the principles of international environmental law, including the Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and the Precautionary Principle, and their implications for environmental protection and human rights. Moreover, the recent recognition of the right to a healthy and sustainable environment by the United Nations General Assembly is examined in the context of the SERAC v Nigeria case, elucidating its potential impact on promoting human rights and environmental conservation. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of upholding human rights and environmental standards, particularly in the face of environmental degradation and its adverse effects on vulnerable communities.
2016
The crux of this article is to reanalyze environmental rights in Nigeria from the perspective of the question whether or not environmental degradation is a violation of human rights in Nigeria. In tackling this vexed question, the article first considers and analyzes the legal framework for the protection of environmental rights from the perspective of International Bill of Rights in the universal system, provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its domesticated version and provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended)(1999 Constitution) as they relate to environmental protection and fundamental human rights along with views of scholars on the subject matter. The article also considers Case Law in other jurisdictions with a view to buttressing the fact that environmental rights actually exist in Nigeria either as a fusion of rights or separate rights; the consequence of which environmental degradation constitutes viola...