The
Human rights jurisprudence increasingly incorporates the rights of nature as
part of the right to a healthy environment. This right highlight the link
between human well-being and the rest of the natural world, emphasizing the
intrinsic reciprocity among all these elements. The complementarity of human
rights and the rights of nature is also reflected in the efforts of Indigenous
environmental and human rights defenders, who connect cultural rights with a
relational approach to nature. This approach fosters the emergence of a legal
perspective that considers the natural world as an interconnected system,
composed of diverse life forms in dynamic relationships with one another,
encompassing the biosphere as a whole—both human and non-human.
People whose health or livelihood is threatened by exposure to
hazardous waste or the pollution of streams and rivers, depletion of ground
water level, often have no recourse under international environmental laws. In
addition, people harmed by environmental degradation are often ethnic minority
groups, indigenous people, who are marginalized within their own countries and
effectively excluded from political participation or redress under national
laws. Linking human rights with the environment creates a rights-based approach
to environmental protection that places the people harmed by environmental
degradation at its center. Articulating the fundamental rights of people with
respect to the environment creates the opportunity to secure those rights
through human rights bodies in an international forum as well as the national
tribunals. In this regard, the contribution made by the Indian judiciary in the
development of environmental jurisprudence for remedies provide to the victims
of environmental harm by applying the right based approach to environmental
protection is a clear example of how the framework of human rights can
contribute in the protection of fauna and flora and the very existence of the
humanity.
