Towards Addressing Climate Change Through the Human Rights to a Healthy Environment: Perspectives from South Sudan and Cameroon
摘要
South Sudan and Cameroon are disproportionately affected by climate change and its adverse consequences. Notably, there are various human rights (and climate change) treaties and resolutions that have explicitly established the link between climate change and human rights. As away of example, the right to a healthy environment is one of those rights impacted by climate change. Although the constitutions of South Sudan and Cameroon entrench the right to a healthy environment, there is no express provision in these constitutions that references climate change or the need to develop and adopt climate change legislations or policies. This chapter argues that the development and adoption of climate change legislations and policies can be actualised through the framework of the right to a healthy environment. Along this line, the chapter further proffers that the provisions on the right to a healthy environment could be progressively interpreted to provide basis for litigating climate change cases that may arise. The chapter employs doctrinal and comparative research methods to argue for the design, adoption and litigation of climate change cases by relying on the provisions that enjoin the right to a healthy environment in the constitutions of the two states of South Sudan and Cameroon.