Whiplash and Backlash - Reflections on a Human Rights Approach to Environmental Protection

Abstract

In 1989, in collaboration with Alexandre Kiss on the book International Environmental Law, 1 I began to examine the links between environmental protection and international human rights law.By this point, some other scholars and activists had already observed the importance of implementing each of these two bodies of law in order to realize the aims of the other one.Principle 1 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration both reflected this observation and stimulated further discussion, with its affirmation of the "fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being," a recognition that a certain environmental quality is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of internationally-guaranteed rights and freedoms.2 At first glance, the attention given to human rights at the Stockholm Conference may seem somewhat surprising; even more so, the proposal of the United States delegation to recognize the right to a safe and healthy environment as a human right.3 Human rights may have been firmly established as a matter of international concern by this point, but environmental protection was relatively new in both domestic and international law.As a result, global human rights instruments contain very few and only brief references to the environment.4 No

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