Sustainable Development and the Search for a Better Environment, a Better World: A Work in Progress

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION In the ever-evolving development of sustainable development(1) principles and norms, various analytical approaches have emerged, all with the aim of providing a conceptual framework which embodies the often competing issues of and national environmental protection and conservation, human rights and economic development. At the global level, the North-South(2) dynamic has been an inherent component of these scholarly, political and economic discussions, most of which have examined or sought to achieve consensus on the accommodation of what is fair, just and equitable. The task has not been an easy one, to say the least. One approach has involved the examination and development of a right to environment from a human rights perspective in an attempt to formulate further the environmental law paradigm which is now inherently interwoven with sustainable development principles. Notwithstanding this valiant and on-going attempt to integrate environmental protection objectives with human rights principles, this paper considers the extent to which the collective human right to development is found in the environmental law context of sustainable development. With the aim of continuing and expanding the discussion on sustainable development, this paper focuses on the extent to which specific human rights are integrated into three of the texts that emerged out of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, June 1992) (UNCED)(3). It is a departure from current analytical approaches which have defined the existence of environmental human rights within the context of the existing human rights regime. Specifically this paper examines some of the right to development provisions of the Rio Declaration, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These collective human rights provide another dimension to environmental protection that is at the core of sustainable development. Both the right to environment and the right to development find their bases in human rights. Both speak to human dignity and the quality of life. First, Part II of this article examines the development and existence of the right to environment. Its evolution is inherently based upon human rights principles and norms. Its current anthropocentric characterization is not without its opponents who argue in favor of a more ecocentric focus. Next, Part III explores the evolution of the right to development. As with the right to environment,(4) the right to development is inherently interwoven with human rights considerations, and is ultimately integrated into sustainable development instruments that strive to meet environmental protection and economic development objectives in a fair and equitable way. This part surveys relevant documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations' New International Economic Order (NIEO) resolutions, the Stockholm Declaration and the UNCED texts, all of which reflect the evolution of the intersection of human rights, the right to development and environmental protection. Finally, Part IV examines the common goals of environmental protection, economic development and human rights. It is precisely these linkages that provide a positive and optimistic perspective to the outcomes of UNCED and in the end, another basis for the hopeful furtherance of, and commitment to, the global equity that is the fundamental promise of sustainable development. II. ENVIRONMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RIGHT TO ENVIRONMENT A. Human Rights Linkages Although the international community has already spilled much ink and consumed forests of paper developing environmental instruments which hold substantial promise for alleviating some environmental problems, those instruments have not done enough. …