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Environment and Human Rights

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Development Aims and scope

Abstract

Wolfgang Sachs argues for environmental human rights as a fundamental prerequisite to end the violence of development. He outlines the numerous conflicts over natural resources in the struggle for livelihoods and argues for a transition to sustainability in the more affluent economies, in both the North and South, as a necessary condition for the safeguarding of the subsistence rights of those whose livelihood depends on direct access to nature.

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References

  • Ignatieff Michael (2001) Human Rights as Politics and as Idolatry, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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Further reading

  • Byrne, John, Leigh Glover and Cecilia Martinez (eds) (2002) Environmental Justice: Discourses in international political economy, New Brunswick: Transaction Books.

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  • Gadgil, Madhav and Ramachandra Guha (1995) Ecology and Equity: The use and abuse of nature in contemporary India, London: Routledge.

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  • Kothari, Smitu (1996) ‘Whose Nation? The Displaced as Victims of Development’, Economic and Political Weekly, 15 June.

  • Martinez-Alier, Juan (2002) The Environmentalism of the Poor: A study of ecological conflicts and valuation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

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  • Raina, Vinod et al. (1999) The Dispossessed. Victims of Development in Asia, Hong Kong: Arena Press.

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  • Sachs, Wolfgang et al. (2002) The Jo’burg Memo: Fairness in a fragile world. Memorandum for the World Summit for Sustainable Development, Berlin: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (available at www.joburgmemo.org).

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Authors
  1. Wolfgang Sachs
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Additional information

This text is a synthesis of a larger paper, entitled Environment and Human Rights, which can be downloaded at http://www.wupperinst.org/globalisation.

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Sachs, W. Environment and Human Rights. Development 47, 42–49 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100016

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100016

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