Protecting Environmental Human Rights

Candis Hamilton, Jamaica

Candis Hamilton is a Jamaican attorney with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Candis serves on the board of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) and is helping to develop JET’s environmental law program. The following is an excerpt from a recent paper she published about using the Inter-American system of human rights to protect the environment and human rights.

Can International Mechanisms Support Local Efforts?

by Candis Hamilton

As we face the challenges to protect our environment are we ignoring an important tool that could facilitate our local efforts? Particularly for environmental advocates in the Americas, the Inter-American system of human rights offers a fairly accessible mechanism for the protection of basic rights that can be linked to the protection of our environment.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (`Commission` or `IACHR`) was created in 1959 and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 1969 as a result of the adoption of the American Convention on Human Rights. Both bodies comprise the Inter-American system of human rights within the Organization of American States (OAS) with the mandate for the promotion and protection of human rights within this hemisphere.

There are two principal international instruments that are legally binding in the Inter-American system of human rights. These are the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the American Convention on Human Rights.

Any person or legally recognized non-governmental organization is entitled to submit a petition to the Commission and allege a violation committed by the State of one or more of the human rights established in either the American Declaration or the American Convention.

In 2001, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held in the Awas Tingni case for the first time that the right to property can go beyond the right of the individual to the framework of communal property rights. The ruling recognized the close spiritual and cultural link that indigenous peoples have to the land which the Court held falls within the protection of the right to property.

Based on that ruling, the State of Nicaragua was ordered to abstain from granting concessions, or other acts that would affect the use and enjoyment of the Awas Tingni community of their property. In essence, the environment was protected within the civil right of right to property.

This is an excerpt from the first in a series of reports on links between environmental protection and human rights. For a copy of the complete report, please visit http://www.elaw.org/resources/text.asp?id=2443.