Transcript Teaching and learning in Law – from theory to practice

Health in International Environmental Law:
Implication for Environmental Governance for
Sustainability in Developing Countries.
William Onzivu
Bradford University Law School
University of Bradford
United Kingdom
www.bradford.ac.uk/management
Health and the environment
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Health is affected by environmental conditions. These include:
Environment-related diseases, for example, diarrhoeal diseases,
due to access to unsafe water and poor sanitation
• Acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia, leading killers of
young children, associated with indoor and other air pollution.
• Chemicals pose negative health effect
• Because of this linkage, environmental governance often straddles
both the environmental and health sectors
Some theoretical and functional issues
• Cost benefit analysis in environmental regulation: Costing human health has
limitations
• The role of science in sustainability and environmental regulation: Health
regulation often focuses on evidence based decision making. For example, the
regulation of chemicals and clean water at international and domestic levels has
been strengthened by scientific evidence from the health sector.
• Both human (health) and natural capital is important for intergenerational equity
for sustainability.
• Health neither eco-centric nor anthropocentric but ......key to natural resource
protection. An ecosystem approach to human health enhances human and
environmental sustainability, e.g. Gorillas in Uganda.
• Health promotes environmental advocacy to steer policy makers for action.
Health, the 3 pillars and international
environmental (soft) law: Ambivalence
• In Stockholm Conference, 1972, Health mentioned in the context of marine
environments only. No agenda for health and environment
• Rio Declaration 1992. The three pillars including the Social pillar (Health).
Human beings are at the heart of sustainable development, entitled to be healthy
in harmony with nature(Principle 1. Agenda 21 was comprehensive on health but
no priorities or concrete mechanisms for implementation.
• WSSD 2002:The three pillars and health included. Health impacts of air
pollution, chemicals, water and sanitation, Aids, Malaria and TB included for
action. WSSD did not produce a particularly dramatic outcome--there were no
agreements that will lead to new treaties and many of the agreed targets were
derived from panoply of assorted lower profile meetings.[Rajamani,2003 Pring
and Nanda, 2003]
• No concrete implementation mechanisms or funding for health or environmental
protection.
Health, the third pillar and international
environmental law
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
• Objective to promote human health and the environment
• Bans or regulates pollutants that harm human health
• Enlists the health sector to operationalize and implement the Treaty
• However, treaty institutional mechanisms and implementation do
not fully reflect this commitment.
Health, the third pillar and international
environmental law
The Ozone Conventions
• Objective to promote human health and the environment
• Requires parties to cooperate on scientific assessments and
exchange of information on health effects of the Ozone layer.
• Requests WHO to support objectives of the Convention
• However, no follow up on implementation mechanisms as well as
decisions of the COP on health sector issues of the Convention
provided.
BASEL Convention on Trans-boundary Movement
of Waste and their disposal 1989
• Objective
the promotion of health and the
environment
• Regulates products that harm health, for example the
illegal dumping of waste in Ivory Coast.
• The institutional mechanisms and implementation
had not addressed issue of human health in a coherent
and comprehensive manner.
• Finally, in 2008, the COP adopted the Bali
Declaration on Waste Management and Human Health
BASEL Bali Declaration on Waste Management and
Human Health
• Mentions the role of health and environmental protection for
present and future generations- sustainability.
• Affirmed commitment to the Johannesburg POI on the three
pillars for SD
• Emphasized the importance of integrating health and
environmental concerns for the benefit of both in the context of
waste
• Invites the WHO world Health Assembly to consider adopting a
similar resolution
• Encouraged inter-sectoral and interagency cooperation for
waste management at global regional and international levels
The challenges of implementing sustainability
(and a fine balance of the 3 pillars): The case of
Lake Victoria Basin
• Lake Victoria Basin covers Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
• Lake Victoria basin are faces environmental health (primary healthcare), water
and sanitation challenges that undermine sustainability.
• Market oriented development frameworks: EAC squeezing out the
environmental and social pillar, despite EAC Treaty, Protocol for sustainable
development of lake Victoria. Weak governance of sustainability:
Institutional coordination by EAC of the three pillars, corruption and lack of
accountability, failure of domestic health governance, joined up thinking of
domestic institutions on health and the environment faces problems.
• Weak framework and sectoral laws on sustainable development and their
implementation. Sometimes, laws are inconsistent and contradictory: For
example, decentralized functions for environmental health in Uganda but the
Public Health Act is obsolete
• Resource limitations: Donor conditionality, competing resources for health and
the environment.
• Barriers to civil society participation
Towards achieving a fine balance of the 3
pillars: International and domestic
International: Macro and micro levels
• Reforming global environmental governance
• Institutional and procedural mechanisms in specific international regimes to
clarify implement requirements of the social pillar
Domestic: Integration both administrative and substantive
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Legal reforms
Institutional coordination: Create a centralized coordination on sustainability
Impact assessments
NGOs: strengthened frameworks
Strengthening community sustainability efforts
Conclusions
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International law has not yet found a fine balance between the 3 pillars as shown
by the case of health.
• Regional and domestic governance exacerbates this trend.
• There is need for concrete legal and institutional reforms as well as efforts to
find a fine balance between the 3 pillars, to protect the environment and human
health and achieve sustainability in developing countries.