Abstract
It was Prof. John Knox who said, ‘The exercise of human rights helps to protect the environment, and a healthy environment helps to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights’. On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution declaring that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment. This landmark decision is the result of decades of mobilization of various stakeholders. The resolution, based on a similar text adopted in October 2021 by the Human Rights Council, called upon States, international organizations, and business enterprises to scale up efforts to ensure a healthy environment for all. Employing the doctrinal method of research, this paper explained substantive environmental rights vis-à-vis procedural rights, examined the various human rights linked to the environment and considered the loopholes in the existing legal regime. This paper concluded that environmental rights are classified as either substantive or procedural; the substantive guaranteeing the right to quality environment. Recommendations were also made on ways to better feel the impact of the myriad provisions of the law on environmental rights.
Ogwutum Chile Amarachi, pp 113 – 131
