Tag: environmental law

The Right to a Clean and Healthy Environment in Africa through the Lens of Regional Integration

Introduction The UN General Assembly on 28th July, 2022 adopted a landmark resolution recognizing and making a declaration that the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a human right.[1] This right is opportune at a time when globally, pollution kills 9 million people a year with Africa accounting for the largest percentage…

Need to give more importance to climate justice than to net zero targets

OPINION Prof. Dr Phillipe Cullet 31 March 2022 COP26 specifically recognized the importance of the concept of climate justice in the preamble to the Glasgow Climate Pact. Yet, the main focus of policymakers remains on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as reflected in the call to reach net zero by mid-century. On the…

Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Consultation and Participation in the Inter-American and African human rights system

In the last two years, we have found ourselves confronted with a series of global crises that seem to have pushed the pressing issues of environmental protection and climate change to the side. But wrongly so. On the one hand, the progression of the climate crisis requires immediate responses and cannot be put on hold…

Plastic Waste and Waste Disposal – Current Issues of Global Environmental Change

ANALYSIS Julia Reiher 25 March 2022 Alarming pictures of burning landfills at the margins of our cities or dying marine species in large garbage swirls come to mind when thinking of the effects of plastic waste. Humans as well as animals are confronted with the omnipresent hazards of single-use plastic every single day: „There are…

Hands-on Deck in Climate Change Action

ANALYSIS Gift Mauluka 04 March 2022 During the recent Conference of Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow, the High-Level Climate Champions formally reported to the parties on the progress made by non-state actors towards the climate action. They stressed that actions by individual actors will not yield to the reduction of the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions…

Human Rights are Inherent to Every Human, or are They?

ANALYSIS Gift Mauluka 28 January 2022 Climate change has many impacts on children’s rights. In many cases of extreme vulnerability, such as situations of child labour, those impacts are even more profound. This blog piece attempts to unpack the connections between child labour and climate change. Having established these connections, I then look at the…