Legal problems of the existence of "sacrifice" zones as an indicator of environmental injustice

Abstract

In order to ensure proper implementation of the principle of environmental justice, which is based on guaranteeing the realization of citizens’ right to an environment safe for life and health, it is necessary to identify all possible environmental risks that block the achievement of such a goal. The system of identifying the most environmentally dangerous enterprises and measures to ensure their environmental safety, introduced by domestic legislation, is considered insufficient in the framework of ensuring environmental justice, since it does not guarantee overcoming the ecological risk of technogenically polluted territories, and therefore makes it impossible to realize the constitutional right of citizens to an environment safe for life and health. This is evidenced by the movement initiated in foreign practice in order to recognize territories that are artificially overloaded as “sacrifice” zones.
 It was found that such zones are considered as: areas whose residents are exposed to a higher level of influence due to the neighborhood with environmentally hazardous objects; part of the legacy of environmental racism and environmental injustice; areas of mass diseases caused by consumption of polluted environment; moral stains of the nation. Therefore, in “sacrifice” zones it is not possible to guarantee the right to an environment safe for life and health, since the concept of “environment” in this case is not considered in the sense of “primordial nature”, but as “the cheapest possible”. In this case, both human life and natural resources are considered “disposable” and cannot be passed on to future generations.
 Taking into account the outlined circumstances, a scientific conclusion was formed in which it was noted that the main direction of overcoming such negative factors as the imbalance of environmental risks on the territory of Ukraine is the need for full-scale greening of material production, and at the intermediate stage - the provision of social payments to residents of “sacrifice” zones for the purpose of conditionally guaranteeing environmental justice and compensation for environmental damage caused to the health and life of people in technogenically polluted territories.