Constitutional Right to a Healthy Environment and Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection in Nigeria: Gbemre v. Shell Revisited

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing practice of incorporating the right to a healthy/clean environment into national constitutions. This practice can be found in various parts of the world. Importantly, the judiciary in many countries has not only enforced such a right but has increasingly tended to interpret other constitutionally guaranteed human rights, especially the right to life, to include the right to a healthy/clean environment. In Nigeria, there are various environmental concerns which raise the question of environmental protection. This article seeks to consider recent developments in Nigeria in relation to the constitutional right to a healthy/clean environment – more specifically, the adoption of the human rights approaches to environmental protection by a Nigerian Federal High Court judge in deciding a case of alleged environmental damage.