2. the right to a clean and healthy
environment
Whether in cities, forests, farmlands or
villages, people's environments may be
degraded through air and water pollution,
noise, ecosystem deterioration and reduced
biological diversity. A emerging category
of ‘environmental rights' requires
governments to set environmental standards
in order to protect people's surroundings.
In 1972, the Stockholm Declaration set out
the right to life “in an environment of a
quality that permits a life of dignity and
well-being,” and this right has since been
enshrined in a number of other legal
conventions. >An unhealthy environment
inevitably impacts the health of the people
living within it. In Cura çao , decades of
pollution from the operations of the Shell
corporation have fouled the air and
burdened people with a host of health
problems. In the Ukraine , local people
have battled a car battery factory that has
caused high levels of pollution and
illnesses. In the United Kingdom , people
are suffering from health problems related
to night flights in and out of Heathrow
airport.
In South Korea , activists have waged a
long battle to preserve the Saemangeum
wetlands, an important feeding stop for
migrating birds that the government hopes
to reclaim for industrial and agricultural
purposes. In Colombia , the ongoing aerial
fumigation of coca and other crops has
devastated the health of the ecosystems and
people living beneath this toxic spray.
These campaigns to protect the health of
people and the environment are all
important contributions to the struggle to
have environmental rights recognized and
enforced.
