The Right to a Healthy Environment: The Need for a Well Systemized Legal Framework by Maryam Lawal W

Abstract

In spite of the increasing awareness for the protection of the environment, in several parts of Africa particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty and limited resources have been factors militating against environmental protection efforts in the region. Poverty is connected to the environment in multifaceted ways as the United Nations has recognized it at many of its conferences as an obstacle to progressive development. Poverty has influenced the average African’s preference for wellbeing over the environment. This has exceedingly impaired the advancement of environmental rights. However, guarding the environment can still be achieved where there is a well systemized legal framework for environmental protection. The author argues that in as much as the right to a healthy environment is a right inclined to preserve the ecosystem and earth, this right is dependent on the protection of other substantive rights, specifically the right to life. The author seeks to address and question the effectiveness of existing legal frameworks put in place to safeguard the environment against the general protection of Human Rights as a backdrop, employing Nigeria as a case in point.

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