Environmental Rights as Human Rights: A Case Study of Pakistan and Multiple Approaches towards their Recognition

Abstract

This research is intended to identify and examine the intersecting legal, social, and ethical factors integrating environmental preservation to the fundamental human rights framework. This study aims to comprehend the direct effects of environmental degradation on human rights, encompassing the rights to life, health, and dignity, while assessing the increasing acknowledgment of environmental rights as a fundamental component of international human rights law. As a result of the overwhelming number of environmental cases currently being heard in human rights tribunals, the relevance of this subject matter, as well as the vital need to debate it, led to the birth of the idea of "Greening of Human Rights." We believe that environmental law should revolve around the intergenerational equity principle, which primarily protects individual rights while also addressing collective community rights to a clean environment. This belief was formed after discussing various approaches to the right, and we believe that environmental law should be based on this principle. In order to foster development while also protecting the environment for life on earth, policymakers and lawmakers are faced with a complex challenge that requires them to strike a balance between the two types of rights, depending on the context.