Pursuing the Right for Today, Securing the Environment for Tomorrow

Abstract

The article is set within the context of the emerging discourse on environmental security and sustainable development. It seeks to inject a new paradigm into the discourse by demonstrating how a human rights based approach could aid the advancement of the agenda of environmental security and protection, while at the same time generating impetus for international human rights law to widen its purview of focus, through a comprehensive examination of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The article culminates in an analysis of the raison d’être for the formal establishment of a human right to an environment in international law, and the challenges of such a project, if undertaken.