INTRODUCTION
Environmental law & human rights are mutually related, both being concerned with the protection of people by acknowledging and asserting basic rights. The interdependence between these two disciplines has been recognized by the different international and national associations as well as governments all over the world. Hence, human rights and environmental issues are key factors that are vital for the achievement of a good standard of living. It is a fundamental human right of every person and based on the previous case courts have expanded right to life to include right to a clean & healthy environment, thus closing gap between environmental law & human rights.
This interconnectivity can be seen regarding results of international meetings, conferences, summits, & decisions of different tribunals, which increasingly refer to human rights as means to protect environmental rights or as legal ground to give rise to obligations towards the environment. But, for all this, most states and International organizations provide human rights and environmentalism as two quite independent categories of issues. This disconnection does not take into account the actual impacts of industrialization, urbanization, globalization and exploitation of natural resources to disrupt the natural order to create some of the most catastrophic environmental problems such as; climate change, global warming, loss of bio-diversity, health complications and depleting of the ozone layer.
These environmental issues entail the ecological problems but they influence various economic, political and social sectors of the country. Human rights and environmental law have facilitated the rights-based approach in handling environmental issues. The actual and complex decision-making processes imply that the government, firms, civil society, and other related actors need to come to a consensus in order to make the policies respond to the world’s most significant environmental problems. Thus, the sustainability of the environment is tied directly to how human beings manage the rights and responsibilities of the environment.
Various global organizations have repeatedly acknowledged the fact that any person has right to clean environment. However, counter-part of this obligation or rather responsibility by the humans towards the environment, as more than mere entities to be utilized. It is the famous principle of right and duty where if there is a right, there is also a duty that comes with it. As seen with the previous research, socio-economic development relies greatly on a sound and healthy environment. Thus, environmental protection has been recognized as a significant problem since Stockholm Conference on Human Environment in 1972. Stockholm Declaration outlined main environmental issues and relationship between these issues and human rights, stressing state’s obligation to guarantee minimum level of the human rights & environmental protection to ensure enjoyment of right to life.
To overcome these problems, there is a need to enact effective environmental laws that would facilitate conservation of resources in the environment. Such laws need to be formulated in a way that will counter any negative impacts of industrial and economical activities and thus retain the environment for the generations to come. Thus, we not only respect and defend human rights but also guarantee existence of a balanced and healthy environment that is equally vital in the wellbeing of mankind.