Right to Development, Sustainable Development and the Environment

In its report, Our Common Future, the World Commission on Environment and Development analysed the crises besetting the planet. It emphasised the interaction between the economy and the environment at the national and international levels and provided a new understanding of
the imperative of sustainable development.

The interrelationship between development and the environment is no longer challenged. Awareness of the global character of environmental problems that create hazards for the planet, threaten the living conditions of human beings, and impair their fundamental rights and basic needs has made possible a consensus on the concept of sustainable and environmentally sound development. This was consolidated by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro into an ambitious programme of action —Agenda 21, and clarified by a Declaration of 27 principles on Environment and Development, adopted at the Conference.

The Stockholm Declaration of 1972 had already affirmed the inextricable link that exists between environment and civil and political rights, such as the right to freedom, equality and dignity, and also between environment and economic rights, with reference to the right to live under adequate conditions, and in an environment that permits a life of well-being and dignity.

Underlying the links between the right to development, which is recognized as a human right by several international instruments and defined as such by the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development, and the environment is the notion of the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights whether civil, political, economic, social or cultural. Indeed, the claim to the right to a satisfactory environment cannot be separated from the claim to the right to development in its individual and collective aspects as well as in its national and international dimensions.

In this context, the issue of poverty and underdevelopment is one of the concepts of the right to
development conceived as a human right, and of the right to environment perceived in all its dimensions including the human aspects of the right to sustainable and sound development. Poverty has adverse effects. It causes serious damage to the environment and consequently impedes the realisation of the right to development and other fundamental rights of individuals, groups and peoples.

This cause-and-effect relationship has been analysed and demonstrated both at the Rio Earth Summit and at subsequent fora devoted to the issues of development and social progress. Poverty causes degradation of the environment, and a degraded environment exacerbates the problems related to underdevelopment. Thus, poverty has a direct impact on the enjoyment, realisation and improvement of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Furthermore, poor populations, the underprivileged, minority groups, and indigenous peoples are the most affected since they are more vulnerable and less protected from ecological risks and environmental degradation.

Poverty leads to marginalisation. This places victims in a vicious circle that reduces the chances of economic, social and cultural integration and paves the way for violations of other fundamental human rights, assaults on life and health, degradation of living conditions, unemployment, illiteracy, non-participation in decision making, emigration, exodus, resettlement and forced evictions, discrimination, exclusion, racist xenophobia, arbitrary detention, precarious living conditions, prostitution, drugs consumption, poor housing, etc.

The consensus which was realised with respect to the concept of the right to development conceived as a human right and the concept of sustainable and environmentally sound development, has permitted the reconciliation of the three generations of human rights which are regarded as interdependent and indivisible.

In this context, external and internal factors that may constitute serious impediments to the achievement of sustainable development are taken into account. In contrast, the Declaration on the Right to Development passes over external elements such as, unfavourable international conditions, the need to establish a new international economic order and promote the realisation of the right of peoples to self-determination to enable them to exercise their inalienable right to full sovereignty over all their natural resources. Principle 23 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states that “[t]he environment and natural resources of people under oppression, domination and occupation shall be respected”, while the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) has repeatedly called for the protection of the human and natural resources of the territories under colonial domination, emphasising that “...the natural resources are the heritage of the indigenous populations of the colonial and Non-Self-Governing Territories.” Furthermore, recent discussions and studies have underlined the phenomena of population transfer and implantation of settlers and settlements which deny the right to selfdetermination, generate further violations of the principles of international law and human rights and cause adverse consequences on the environment. In some situations, these practices may amount to genocide.

The structure of international relations and more particularly the burden of debt and the impact of structural adjustment measures on the least favoured categories are not omitted in the debate related to the right to development and environment. It is widely recognized that certain international policies in the field of investment, trade, finance and aid may have adverse effects on the environment, development and human rights.

It is important to note that the Agenda 21 program has launched a global partnership on a new and equitable basis. The Earth Summit recognized the importance of achieving durable solutions to the debt problem while agreeing that the implementation of the Agenda 21 programs requires
provision of substantial new and additional financial resources to developing countries. The idea of partnership, initiated in Rio de Janeiro, is also based on the notion of participatory democracy at all levels, locally, nationally and internationally.