Environmental Rights In Ethiopia: Shifting From Theory To Practical Realization

Abstract

Influenced by developments in the international environmental rights law,
most African countries now incorporate in their Constitutions or other major
legal documents environmental rights for their citizens. The 1995 Federal
Constitution of Ethiopia, its environmental policy, and all subsequent legislation
also incorporate environmental rights that are in the major international
environmental law conventions. These rights include the right to a clean and
healthy environment, the right to access justice, as well as the right to
information and public participation. However, the environmental rights that
are included in the country’s Constitution, policies and laws are simply
rhetorical. For example, in Addis Ababa, the country’s capital, residents suffer
from such horrendous odour oozing out of the putrefaction of the environment.
Consequently, children and even adults are affected by various diseases such
as respiratory and skin infections. Some residents even abandon their homes,
not being able to resist the pollution of their environment. The government’s
lack of human resource capacity and appropriate technology to promote a
healthy and safe environment; its preference of economic growth over
environmental protection; environmental corruption; and poor responsiveness
of the public, the policy makers, the executive, as well as the judicial organs
such as the police and the court to environmental rights, are among the
major causes of poor implementation. The article examines how environmental
rights could be given due attention as an extension of basic human rights and
as a tool for sustainable economic development.