Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 5.0, University of Lagos (Law), course: Environmental Law II, language: English, abstract: This paper sets out to consider all the alternatives for the enforcement of the environmental right, bringing into focus the various human right instruments both at the international and regional level. The constant degradation and pollution of the environment has stimulated both at the international and national level concerns as to its effect on the natural resources, wild life and human life. It has in fact been considered as the fourth generational right in the generational matrix due to the rising global issues of conversion of natural resources and safeguard of the environment. At the international scale, the United Nation in its sustainable development growth program has incorporated these environmental issues as part of its goals; climate action (Goal 13); life below water (Goal 14); life on land (Goal 15). At the regional and national level, environmental rights have been incorporated in the African charter and the 1999 constitution of Nigeria, respectively. The vagueness of these provisions have made its realization slim in view of the difficulty the court would be faced with interpreting such provisions in line with the prevalent situations in Nigeria. This paper seeks to look at the provisions of international, regional, and national human right instruments that guarantees the right to a clean and healthy environment and how they can be applied to enforce such right in Nigeria.

This book brings together original and novel perspectives on major developments in human rights law and the environment in Africa. Focusing on African Union law, the book explores the core concepts and principles, theory and practice, accountability mechanisms and key issues challenging human rights law in the era of global environmental change. It, thus, extend the frontier of understanding in this fundamental area by building on existing scholarship on African human rights law and the protection of the environment, divulging concerns on redressing environmental and human rights protection issues in the context of economic growth and sustainable development. It further offers unique insight into the development, domestication and implementation challenges relating to human rights law and environmental governance in Africa. This long overdue interdisciplinary exploration of human rights law and the environment from an African perspective will be an indispensable reference point for academics, policymakers, practitioners and advocates of international human rights and environmental law in particular and international law, environmental politics and philosophy, and African studies in general. It is clear that there is much to do, study and share on this timely subject in the African context.

Attempts to Import Weapons

Reflecting a global trend, scores of countries have affirmed that their citizens are entitled to healthy air, water, and land and that their constitution should guarantee certain environmental rights. This book examines the increasing recognition that the environment is a proper subject for protection in constitutional texts and for vindication by constitutional courts. This phenomenon, which the authors call environmental constitutionalism, represents the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law. National apex and constitutional courts are exhibiting a growing interest in environmental rights, and as courts become more aware of what their peers are doing, this momentum is likely to increase. This book explains why such provisions came into being, how they are expressed, and the extent to which they have been, and might be, enforced judicially. It is a singular resource for evaluating the content of and hope for constitutional environmental rights.

With unique scholarly analysis and practical discussion, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the relationship between environmental protection and human rights being formalized into law in many legal systems. This book instructs on environmental techniques and procedures that assist in the protection of human rights. The text provides cogent guidance on a growing international jurisprudence on the promotion and protection of human rights in relation to the environment that has been developed by international and regional human rights bodies and tribunals. It explores a rich body of case law that continues to develop within states on the environmental dimension of the rights to life, to health, and to public participation and access to information. Five compelling contemporary case studies are included that implicate human rights and the environment, ranging from large dam projects to the creation of a new human right to a clean environment.

Constitutions can play a central role in responding to environmental challenges, such as pollution, biodiversity loss, lack of drinking water, and climate change. The vast majority of people on earth live under constitutional systems that protect the environment or recognize environmental rights. Such environmental constitutionalism, however, falls short without effective implementation by policymakers, advocates and jurists. Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism: Current Global Challenges explains and explores this 'implementation gap'. This collection is both broad and deep. While some of the essays analyze crosscutting themes, such as climate change and the need for rule of law that affect the implementation of environmental constitutionalism throughout the world, others delve deeply into geographically contextual experiences for lessons about how constitutional environmental law might be more effectively implemented. This volume informs global conversations about whether and how environmental constitutionalism can be made more effective to protect the natural environment.

A comprehensive and systematic guide to environmental rights and their relationship with standards of protection globally, nationally and locally.