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Environmental Justice

Environmental justice has often been defined with reference to the right to a safe, healthy, productive, and sustainable environment for all, where “environment” is considered in its totality, including ecological (biological), physical (natural and created by human labour), social, political, aesthetic, and economic conditions. The term implies that environmental “injustice” exists and highlights the need for socio-political initiatives to address these problems.

Environmental justice has an economic aspect that is clear from the fact that it must be achieved in the context of environmentally sustainable economic activity and from international instruments such as the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration, in which the second and third sentences of Paragraph 6 state:

Equitable social development that recognises empowering the poor to utilise environmental resources sustainably is a necessary foundation for sustainable development. We also recognise that broad-based and sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development is necessary to sustain social development and social justice.

For environmental justice to be attained, five basic principles should be adhered to: 

• A disproportionate burden of protecting the environment should not be borne by any particular group, especially not vulnerable populations;

• The benefits of environmental protection, such as clean water and clean air, should be equally available to all;

• There should be transparency and the opportunity for meaningful public participation in decision-making;

• Everyone should have access to effective remedies for violations of environmental rights, and laws should be enforced irrespective of the political or economic power of wrongdoers; and,

• A level of environmental protection adequate to sustain human health and well-being, and ecosystem equilibrium should be achieved and maintained.

To this end, the Copenhagen Declaration created a framework for action to:

1. Place people at the centre of development and direct our economies to meet human needs more effectively;

2. Fulfil our responsibility for present and future generations by ensuring equity among generations and protecting the integrity and sustainable use of our environment;

3. Recognise that, while social development is a national responsibility, it cannot be successfully achieved without the collective commitment and efforts of the international community;

4. Integrate economic, cultural and social policies so that they become mutually supportive, and acknowledge the interdependence of public and private spheres of activity;

5. Recognise that the achievement of sustained social development requires sound, broadly based economic policies;

6. Promote democracy, human dignity, social justice and solidarity at the national, regional and international levels; ensure tolerance, non-violence, pluralism and non-discrimination, with full respect for diversity within and among societies;

7. Promote the equitable distribution of income and greater access to resources through equity and equality of opportunity for all;

8. Recognise the family as the basic unit of society, and acknowledge that it plays a key role in social development and as such should be strengthened, with attention to the rights, capabilities and responsibilities of its members. In different cultural, political and social systems various forms of family exist. It is entitled to receive comprehensive protection and support;

9. Ensure that disadvantaged and vulnerable persons and groups are included in social development, and that society acknowledges and responds to the consequences of disability by securing the legal rights of the individual and by making the physical and social environment accessible;

10. Promote universal respect for, and observance and protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, including the right to development; promote the effective exercise of rights and the discharge of responsibilities at all levels of society; promote equality and equity between women and men; protect the rights of children and youth; and promote the strengthening of social integration and civil society;

11. Reaffirm the right of self-determination of all peoples, in particular of peoples under colonial or other forms of alien domination or foreign occupation, and the importance of the effective realisation of this right, as enunciated, inter alia, in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action 3/ adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights;

12. Support progress and security for people and communities whereby every member of society is enabled to satisfy his or her basic human needs and to realise his or her personal dignity, safety and creativity;

13. Recognise and support indigenous people in their pursuit of economic and social development, with full respect for their identity, traditions, forms of social organisation and cultural values;

14. Underline the importance of transparent and accountable governance and administration in all public and private national and international institutions;

15. Recognise that empowering people, particularly women, to strengthen their own capacities is a main objective of development and its principal resource. Empowerment requires the full participation of people in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of decisions determining the functioning and well-being of our societies;

16. Assert the universality of social development and outline a new and strengthened approach to social development, with a renewed impetus for international cooperation and partnership;

17. Improve the possibility of older persons achieving a better life;

18. Recognise that the new information technologies and new approaches to access to and use of technologies by people living in poverty can help in fulfilling social development goals; and therefore recognise the need to facilitate access to such technologies;

19. Strengthen policies and programmes that improve, ensure and broaden the participation of women in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life, as equal partners, and improve their access to all resources needed for the full exercise of their fundamental rights;

20. Create the political, legal, material and social conditions that allow for the voluntary repatriation of refugees in safety and dignity to their countries of origin, and the voluntary and safe return of internally displaced persons to their places of origin and their smooth reintegration into their societies;

21. Emphasise the importance of the return of all prisoners of war, persons missing in action and hostages to their families, in accordance with international conventions, in order to reach full social development.

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