Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T06:11:41.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Framing Environmental Human Rights in the Anthropocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2023

By
Michelle Scobie
Edited by
Walter F. Baber  and
James R. May
Walter F. Baber
Affiliation:
California State University, Long Beach
James R. May
Affiliation:
Widener University, Delaware Law School
Get access

Summary

One of the defining characteristics of the Anthropocene, characterised by a new and destructive human–nature relationship, is that for the first time in humanity’s history, the access to a clean and healthy environment is uncertain for large groups of persons and ecosystems. This transformational shift in humankind’s relationship to nature was the catalyst for a debate between scholars, policy-makers and environmental and human rights activists on whether there is a right to the environment and who would be the right and duty holders. To the extent that the intrinsic value and agency of nature is recognised, there is also the related question of the rights of nature, or the right of the environment not to suffer the effects of the Anthropocene.

Type
Chapter
Information
Environmental Human Rights in the Anthropocene
Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges
 , pp. 9 - 30
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abate, R.S. (2019). Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Aczel, M.R. (2020). Public Opposition to Shale Gas Extraction in Algeria: Potential Application of France’s “Duty of Care Act”. The Extractive Industries and Society 7(4), pp. 1360–8. doi: 10.1016/j.exis.2020.09.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aguila, Y. (2020). A Global Pact for the Environment: The Logical Outcome of Fifty Years of International Environmental Law. Sustainability 12(14), p. 17. doi: 10.3390/su12145636.Google Scholar
Alston, P. (1982). A Third Generation of Solidarity Rights: Progressive Development or Obfuscation of International Human Rights Law? Netherlands International Law Review 29(3), pp. 307–22.Google Scholar
Alston, P. (2017). Conjuring up New Human Rights: A Proposal for Quality Control. American Journal of International Law 78(3), pp. 607–21. doi: 10.2307/2202599.Google Scholar
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (2012). ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, edited by Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).Google Scholar
Baber, W.F. and Bartlett, R.V. (2019) A Rights Foundation for Ecological Democracy. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 22(1), pp. 72–83. doi: 10.1080/1523908x.2019.1566059.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, J. (2001). Greening Liberal Democracy: Practice, Theory and Political Economy. In Barry, J. and Wissenburg, M., eds., Sustaining Liberal Democracy: Ecological Challenges and Opportunities. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 59–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, A.M. and Ellis, E.C. (2018). The Anthropocene Divide: Obscuring Understanding of Social–Environmental Change. Current Anthropology 59(2), pp. 209–27. doi: 10.1086/697198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, D.R. (2011). The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions, Human Rights, and the Environment. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, D. (2018). Recognizing the Rights of Nature: Lofty Rhetoric or Legal Revolution? Natural Resources & Environment 32(4), pp. 13–17.Google Scholar
Boyle, A. (1996). The Role of International Human Rights Law in the Protection of the Environment. In Boyle, A. and Anderson, M., eds., Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 43–65.Google Scholar
Boyle, A. (2012). Human Rights and the Environment: Where Next? European Journal of International Law 23(3), pp. 613–42. doi: 10.1093/ejil/chs054.Google Scholar
Bruch, C., Egorova, A, Meehan, K., and Bugaighis, Y. (2018). Natural Resources, Power Sharing, and Peacebuilding in Postconflict Constitutions. In Daly, E. and May, J.R., eds., Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism: Current Global Challenges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 100–26.Google Scholar
Byers, M., Franks, K., and Gage, A. (2017). The Internationalization of Climate Damages Litigation. Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy 7, pp. 264–319.Google Scholar
Caldwell, L.K. and Weiland, P.S. (1996). International Environmental Policy: From the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Conca, K. (2015). An Unfinished Foundation: The United Nations and Global Environmental Governance. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (2017). Opinión Consultiva – medio ambiente y derechos humanos (obligaciones estatales en relación con el medio ambiente en el marco de la protección y garantía de los derechos a la vida y a la integridad personal – interpretación y alcance de los Artículos 4.1 y 5.1, en relación con los Artículos 1.1 y 2 de la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos). Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.Google Scholar
Daly, E. (2012). Constitutional Protection for Environmental Rights: The Benefits of Environmental Process. International Journal of Peace Studies 17(2), pp. 71–80.Google Scholar
Daly, E. (2018). Environmental Constitutionalism in Defense of Nature. Wake Forest Law Review 53(4), p. 667.Google Scholar
Davis, J., Moulton, A.A., Van Sant, L., and Williams, B. (2019). Anthropocene, Capitalocene, … Plantationocene?: A Manifesto for Ecological Justice in an Age of Global Crises. Geography Compass 13(5), N.PAG-N.PAG. doi: 10.1111/gec3.12438.Google Scholar
Davis, N.R. and Schaeffer, J. (2019). Troubling Troubled Waters in Elementary Science Education: Politics, Ethics & Black Children’s Conceptions of Water [Justice] in the Era of Flint. Cognition and Instruction 37(3), pp. 367–89. doi: 10.1080/07370008.2019.1624548.Google Scholar
Denedo, M., Thomson, I., and Yonekura, A. (2019). Ecological Damage, Human Rights and Oil: Local Advocacy NGOs Dialogic Action and Alternative Accounting Practices. Accounting Forum 43(1), pp. 85–112. doi: 10.1080/01559982.2019.1589904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
du Plessis, A. (2018). The Promise of “Well-being” in Section 24 of the Constitution of South Africa. South African Journal on Human Rights 34(2), pp. 191–208. doi: 10.1080/02587203.2018.1475116.Google Scholar
Ensor, J. and Hoddy, E. (2021). Securing the Social Foundation: A Rights-based Approach to Planetary Boundaries. Earth System Governance 7, p. 100086. doi: 10.1016/j.esg.2020.100086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faturoti, B., Agbaitoro, G., and Onya, O. (2019). Environmental Protection in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry and Jonah Gbemre v. Shell PDC Nigeria Limited: Let the Plunder Continue? African Journal of International and Comparative Law 27(2), pp. 225–45. doi: 10.3366/ajicl.2019.0270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitz-Henry, E. 2020. Conjuring the Past: Slow Violence and the Temporalities of Environmental Rights Tribunals. Geoforum 108, pp. 259–66. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.09.001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, A.J. and Spencer, D. (2020). Governmentality and Environmental Rights: Regulatory Failure and the Volkswagen Emissions Fraud Case. Critical Criminology 28(1), pp. 43–63. doi: 10.1007/s10612-020-09499-0.Google Scholar
Galaz, V., Biermann, F., Folke, C., Nilsson, M., and Olsson, P. (2012). Global Environmental Governance and Planetary Boundaries: An Introduction. Ecological Economics 81, pp. 1–3. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.02.023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellers, J.C. (2017). The Global Emergence of Constitutional Environmental Rights. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellers, J.C. and Jeffords, C. (2018). Toward Environmental Democracy? Procedural Environmental Rights and Environmental Justice. Global Environmental Politics 18(1), pp. 99–121. doi: 10.1162/GLEP_a_00445.Google Scholar
Giunta, A. (2019). Looking Back to Move Forward: The Status of Environmental Rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The International Journal of Human Rights 23(1–2), pp. 149–73. doi: 10.1080/13642987.2019.1572874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grugel, J. and Fontana, L.B. (2018). Human Rights and the Pink Tide in Latin America: Which Rights Matter? Development and Change 50(3), pp. 707–34. doi: 10.1111/dech.12418.Google Scholar
Handl, G. (1992). Human Rights and Protection of the Environment: A Mildly Revisionist View. In Trindade, A.A., ed., Human Rights, Sustainable Development and the Environment. San Jose de Costa Rica and Brasilia: Interamericano de Derechos Humanos/Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, pp. 117–42.Google Scholar
Hemming, S., Rigney, D., Bignall, S, Berg, S, and Rigney, G. (2019). Indigenous Nation Building for Environmental Futures: Murrundi Flows through Ngarrindjeri Country. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management 26(3), pp. 216–35. doi: 10.1080/14486563.2019.1651227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idemudia, U., Kwakyewah, C., and Muthuri, J. (2020). Mining, the Environment, and Human Rights in Ghana: An Area of Limited Statehood Perspective. Business Strategy and the Environment 29(7), pp. 2919–26. doi: 10.1002/bse.2581.Google Scholar
International Bar Association (2014). Climate Change Justice and Human Rights Task Force Report. Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disruption.Google Scholar
Kaya, R. (2019). Environmental Vulnerability, Age and the Promises of Anti-age Discrimination Law. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 28(2), pp. 162–74. doi: 10.1111/reel.12279.Google Scholar
Knox, J.H. (2009). Linking Human Rights and Climate Change at the United Nations. Harvard Environmental Law Review 33, p. 477.Google Scholar
Knox, J.H. (2017). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Biodiversity Report. United Nations Human Rights Council, A/HRC/34/49.Google Scholar
Knox, J. (2018). Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment. United Nations Human Rights Special Procedures.Google Scholar
Knox, J.H. (2019). The Global Pact for the Environment: At the Crossroads of Human Rights and the Environment. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 28(1), pp. 40–7. doi: 10.1111/reel.12287.Google Scholar
Knox, J.H. (2020). Constructing the Human Right to a Healthy Environment. In MacCoun, R.J., ed., Annual Review of Law and Social Science. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews, pp. 79–95.Google Scholar
Kotzé, L.J. and French, D. (2018). A Critique of the Global Pact for the Environment: A Stillborn Initiative or the Foundation for Lex Anthropocenae? International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 18(6), pp. 811–38. doi: 10.1007/s10784-018-9417-x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotzé, L.J. and Calzadilla, P. Villavicencio (2017). Somewhere between Rhetoric and Reality: Environmental Constitutionalism and the Rights of Nature in Ecuador. Transnational Environmental Law 6(3), pp. 401–33. doi: 10.1017/s2047102517000061.Google Scholar
Lalander, R. and Lembke, M. (2018). The Andean Catch-22: Ethnicity, Class and Resource Governance in Bolivia and Ecuador. Globalizations 15(5), pp. 636–54. doi: 10.1080/14747731.2018.1453189.Google Scholar
Leach, M., Raworth, K., and Rockström, J. (2013). Between Social and Planetary Boundaries: Navigating Pathways in the Safe and Just Space for Humanity. In ISSC/UNESCO World Social Science Report 2013: Changing Global Environments. OECD Publishing and UNESCO Publishing.Google Scholar
Leach, M., Reyers, B, Bai, X., Brondizio, E.S., Cook, C., Díaz, S., Espindola, G., Scobie, M., Stafford-Smith, M., and Subramanian, S.M. (2018). Equity and Sustainability in the Anthropocene: A Social–Ecological Systems Perspective on their Intertwined Futures. Global Sustainability 1, pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1017/sus.2018.12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
League of Arab States (2004). Arab Charter on Human Rights, edited by League of Arab States.Google Scholar
Makuch, K.E., Zaman, S, and Aczel, M.R. (2019). Tomorrow’s Stewards: The Case for a Unified International Framework on the Environmental Rights of Children. Health and Human Rights 21(1), pp. 203–14.Google ScholarPubMed
Marchegiani, P., Morgera, E. and Parks, L. (2019). Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Natural Resources in Argentina: The Challenges of Impact Assessment, Consent and Fair and Equitable Benefit-sharing in Cases of Lithium Mining. The International Journal of Human Rights 24(2–3), pp. 224–40. doi: 10.1080/13642987.2019.1677617.Google Scholar
Marks, S.P. (1980). Emerging Human Rights: A New Generation for the 1980s. Rutgers Law Review 33(2), pp. 435–53.Google Scholar
Mavrommati, G., Rogers, S., Howarth, R.B., Borsuk, M.E., and Iles, A. (2020). Representing Future Generations in the Deliberative Valuation of Ecosystem Services. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 8: p. 14. doi: 10.1525/elementa.417.Google Scholar
May, J.R, and Daly, E. (2015). Global Environmental Constitutionalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Meadows, J., Annandale, M., and Ota, L. (2019). Indigenous Peoples’ Participation in Sustainability Standards for Extractives. Land Use Policy 88. doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, M.W. and Schroering, C. (2020). Refiguring the Plantationocene. Journal of World-Systems Research 26(2), pp. 400–15. doi: 10.5195/jwsr.2020.983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nixon, R. (2016). The Anthropocene and Environmental Justice. In Newell, L. and Wehner, K., eds., Curating the Future: Museums, Communities and Climate Change. London: Routledge, pp. 47–55.Google Scholar
Nolan, J. (2018). Hardening Soft Law: Are the Emerging Corporate Social Disclosure and Due Diligence Laws Capable of Generating Substantive Compliance with Human Rights Norms? Revista de Direito Internacional 15(2). doi: 10.5102/rdi.v15i2.5355.Google Scholar
O’Gorman, R. (2017). Environmental Constitutionalism: A Comparative Study. Transnational Environmental Law 6(3), pp. 435–62. doi: 10.1017/s2047102517000231.Google Scholar
Okewu, E., Misra, S., Sanz, L.F., Maskeliunas, R., and Damasevicius, R. (2018). An e-Environment System for Socio-economic Sustainability and National Security. Problemy Ekorozwoju 13(1), pp. 121–32.Google Scholar
Olmos Giupponi, B. (2019). Fostering Environmental Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Analysis of the Regional Agreement on Environmental Access Rights. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 28(2), pp. 136–51. doi: 10.1111/reel.12274.Google Scholar
Orellana, M. (2018). Quality Control of the Right to a Healthy Environment. In Knox, J.H. and Pejan, R., eds., The Human Right to a Healthy Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 169–88.Google Scholar
Organization of American States (1999). Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“Protocol of San Salvador”). In 16 November 1999, A-52, edited by Organization of American States.Google Scholar
Papantoniou, A. (2018). Advisory Opinion on the Environment and Human Rights. American Journal of International Law 112(3), pp. 460–6. doi: 10.1017/ajil.2018.54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, J. and Lin, J. (2019). Transnational Climate Litigation: The Contribution of the Global South. American Journal of International Law 113(4), pp. 679–726. doi: 10.1017/ajil.2019.48.Google Scholar
Pellegrini, L., Arsel, M., Orta-Martínez, M., and Mena, C.F. (2020). International Investment Agreements, Human Rights, and Environmental Justice: The Texaco/Chevron Case From the Ecuadorian Amazon. Journal of International Economic Law 23(2), pp. 455–68. doi: 10.1093/jiel/jgaa016.Google Scholar
Peters, B. (2018). Unpacking the Diversity of Procedural Environmental Rights: The European Convention on Human Rights and the Aarhus Convention. Journal of Environmental Law 30(1), pp. 1–27. doi: 10.1093/jel/eqx023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raftopoulos, M. and Morley, J. (2020). Ecocide in the Amazon: The Contested Politics of Environmental Rights in Brazil. The International Journal of Human Rights 24(10), pp. 1616–41. doi: 10.1080/13642987.2020.1746648.Google Scholar
Recio, M.E. (2018). Latin America and the Caribbean Region. Current Developments in Carbon & Climate Law Review 12(2), pp. 162–4. doi: 10.21552/cclr/2018/2/11.Google Scholar
Redgwell, C. (1996). Life, the Universe and Everything: A Critique of Anthropocentric Rights. In Boyle, A. and Anderson, M, eds., Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 71–88.Google Scholar
Reynolds, J.L. (2019). An Economic Analysis of International Environmental Rights. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 19(6), pp. 557–75. doi: 10.1007/s10784-019-09454-7.Google Scholar
Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone et al., K. (2009). Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity. Ecology and Society 14(2), pp. 1–33.Google Scholar
Rodriguez-Rivera, L.E. (2001). Is the Human Right to Environment Recognized under International Law? It Depends on the Source. Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy 12(1), pp. 1–46.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Rivera, L. (2018). The Human Right to Environment in the Twenty-first Century: A Case for Its Recognition and Comments on the Systemic Barriers It Encounters. American University International Law Review 34(1), pp. 143–204.Google Scholar
Sands, P. and Peel, J., with Fabra, A. and MacKenzie, R. (2012). Principles of International Environmental Law, 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sayre, N.F. (2012). The Politics of the Anthropogenic. Annual Review of Anthropology 41(1), pp. 57–70. doi: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-092611-145846.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scobie, M. (2020). International Aid, Trade and Investment and Access and Allocation. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 20(2), pp. 239–54. doi: 10.1007/s10784-020-09480-w.Google Scholar
Shelton, D. (1992). What Happened in Rio to Human Rights? Yearbook of International Environmental Law 3(1), pp. 75–93. doi: 10.1093/yiel/3.1.75.Google Scholar
Sinha, M. (2019). Land, Law and Courts in India: Tracing Land Rights Debates through Processes of Judicial Decision Making. Development and Change 50(4), pp. 1063–82. doi: 10.1111/dech.12501.Google Scholar
Smit, L., Holly, G., McCorquodale, R., and Neely, S. (2020). Human Rights Due Diligence in Global Supply Chains: Evidence of Corporate Practices to Inform a Legal Standard. The International Journal of Human Rights, 1–29. doi: 10.1080/13642987.2020.1799196.Google Scholar
Soyapi, C.B. (2019). A Multijurisdictional Assessment of the Judiciary’s Role in Advancing Environmental Protection in Africa. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 12(2), pp. 307–32. doi: 10.1007/s40803-019-00128-9.Google Scholar
Theil, S. (2020). Excavating Landmarks – Empirical Contributions to Doctrinal Analysis. Journal of Environmental Law 32(2), pp. 221–52. doi: 10.1093/jel/eqz033.Google Scholar
Thorme, M. (1990). Establishing Environment as a Human Right. Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 19(2), pp. 301–42.Google Scholar
UN General Assembly, United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, 15 December 1972, A/RES/2994.Google Scholar
Valladares, C. and Boelens, R. (2019). Mining for Mother Earth. Governmentalities, Sacred Waters and Nature’s Rights in Ecuador. Geoforum 100, pp. 68–79. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.02.009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanhala, L. (2018). Shaping the Structure of Legal Opportunities: Environmental NGOs Bringing International Environmental Procedural Rights Back Home. Law & Policy 40(1), pp. 110–27. doi: 10.1111/lapo.12093.Google Scholar
Villavicencio Calzadilla, P. and Kotzé, L.J (2018). Living in Harmony with Nature? A Critical Appraisal of the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia. Transnational Environmental Law 7(3), pp. 397–424. doi: 10.1017/s2047102518000201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weir, D., McQuillan, D., and Francis, R.A. (2019). Civilian Science: The Potential of Participatory Environmental Monitoring in Areas Affected by Armed Conflicts. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 191(10), pp. 1–17. doi: 10.1007/s10661-019-7773-9.Google Scholar
Weiss, E.B. (1990). In Fairness to Future Generations. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development 32(3), pp. 6–31. doi: 10.1080/00139157.1990.9929015.Google Scholar
Weston, B.H. (2012). The Theoretical Foundations of Intergenerational Ecological Justice: An Overview. Human Rights Quarterly 34(1), pp. 251–66. doi: 10.1353/hrq.2012.0003.Google Scholar
Weston, B.H. and Bollier, D. (2013a). Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weston, B.H. and Bollier, D. (2013b). Toward a Recalibrated Human Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment: Making the Conceptual Transition. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 4(2), pp. 116–42.Google Scholar
Williams, M. and Montes, M.F. (2017). Common but Differentiated Responsibilities: Which Way Forward? Development 59(1–2), pp. 114–20. doi: 10.1057/s41301-017-0097-6.Google Scholar
Zhai, T. and Chang, Y.-C. (2019). The Contribution of China’s Civil Law to Sustainable Development: Progress and Prospects. Sustainability 11(1), p. 19. doi: 10.3390/su11010294.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×