Book Review: Human Rights Approaches to Environmental Protection
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X9600300407 |
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
IBook Reviews
Alan Boyle and Michael Anderson (eds.), Human Rights Approaches to
Environmental Protection, Clarendon Press 1996, 313 pages, hardback,
£40.
Human rights and environmental protection have kept and are keeping the international
community busy. For the past 25 years, there has been a loose international cooperation
process evaluating the usefulness of a human rights approach to environmental prob-
lems. Many entities favour linking the two more formally so that both streams of law
can 'assist' each other. At the same time, there are many opponents who do not see the
benefit of an official functional link between human rights and the environment. More-
over, there is great disagreement on the way human rights and the environment should
be connected. There are ample possibilities ranging from a substantive right to an
environment, filled in with numerous adjectives such as clean, satisfactory, healthy, to
procedural aspects of rights-based approaches. Finally there is no real consensus regard-
ing the level at which, if at all, environmental rights should be effectuated; the interna-
tional, the regional (e.g. European) or the nationalleveI. Practical aspects in particular,
such as the implementation and enforcement of environmental rights, have not yet been
brought into the spotlight a great deal.
Boyle and Anderson's book is a collection of essays that explore the linkages between
human rights and environment. It responds to the growing debate among activists,
lawyers, academics and policy-makers on the legal status of environmental rights in both
international and domestic law, and on proposals for a human right to a satisfactory
environment. It not only addresses theoretical questions concerning human rights and
the environment, but also very clearly considers them in a practical perspective, which
is something that distinguishes this book from others in its category. This book can be
said to fit into the general trend, set by the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (UNCED), where a new period in the context of environmental law
began, characterized by the term sustainability and the concept of integration as leading
motives
of
environmental policy and law, meaning in this context that environmental
concerns should be integrated into all activities. Throughout the book, influential non-
legal factors are also taken into account. To the reviewer's knowledge it is also the only
comprehensive book on environmental rights published after the Final Ksentini
Report, 42 which makes it all the more interesting to read, for it includes an assess-
ment of the Report's practical and potential consequences.
The two clearly written introductory chapters provide a basis as to what can be under-
stood by a 'right', how the aim of environmental protection is linked to human rights
concepts and how these concepts could be used subsequently. Merrills looks at the
'rights' concept from a human rights point of view and Anderson provides an overview
42. The UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities initiated
the UN study on Human Rights and Environment in 1989 and the Final Report was delivered by Mrs
Ksentini in July 1994, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/l994/9. See also: First Progress Report, UN Doc.
E/CN.4/Sub.2/199217 and Second Progress Report, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/199317.
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