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This chapter explores the intersection of human rights and environmental issues in the African extractive sector, focusing on environmental restorative justice as a means to address the negative impacts on both fronts. It dwells on reparations/compensation for the harm caused, and restoring ecosystems and communities to their pre-extractive state as a significant means to fully address human and environmental rights violations. The chapter highlights how extractive activities often infringe on human rights, such as the right to a clean and healthy environment, land and livelihood, and cultural identity and self-determination. Drawing on the principle of restorative justice, the chapter proposes that efforts on restoring the environment aims to protect and promote the enjoyment of human rights in the extractive sector. Current rules on international environmental law, the law on foreign investment, and most national legislations on environmental issues attach vagueness around the implementation of environmental regulations on extractive activities in most local communities. The ‘vagueness’ question can be gleaned from the absence of explicit legal provisions imposing environmental obligations on transnational corporations engaged in the extraction of natural resources which are in most cases, embedded in local communities. Therefore, reparations and compensation for the harm caused, as well as the restoration of ecosystems and communities to their pre-extractive state is a holistic approach to addressing human rights and environmental concerns. While acknowledging challenges in applying environmental restorative justice as a sustainable legal tool for improving host communities’ rights, the chapter emphasises the importance of legal and policy reforms that integrate human rights and environmental considerations into the extractive sector. It suggests that environmental restorative justice highlights the need for meaningful consultation and negotiation with affected communities, through the establishment of grievance mechanisms that promote transparency and restore the environment.

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Transnational Corporations and Accountability for Environmental Harm in the African Extractive Sector: The Case for Environmental Restorative Justice

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Chidinma Therese Odaghara

摘要

This chapter explores the intersection of human rights and environmental issues in the African extractive sector, focusing on environmental restorative justice as a means to address the negative impacts on both fronts. It dwells on reparations/compensation for the harm caused, and restoring ecosystems and communities to their pre-extractive state as a significant means to fully address human and environmental rights violations. The chapter highlights how extractive activities often infringe on human rights, such as the right to a clean and healthy environment, land and livelihood, and cultural identity and self-determination. Drawing on the principle of restorative justice, the chapter proposes that efforts on restoring the environment aims to protect and promote the enjoyment of human rights in the extractive sector. Current rules on international environmental law, the law on foreign investment, and most national legislations on environmental issues attach vagueness around the implementation of environmental regulations on extractive activities in most local communities. The ‘vagueness’ question can be gleaned from the absence of explicit legal provisions imposing environmental obligations on transnational corporations engaged in the extraction of natural resources which are in most cases, embedded in local communities. Therefore, reparations and compensation for the harm caused, as well as the restoration of ecosystems and communities to their pre-extractive state is a holistic approach to addressing human rights and environmental concerns. While acknowledging challenges in applying environmental restorative justice as a sustainable legal tool for improving host communities’ rights, the chapter emphasises the importance of legal and policy reforms that integrate human rights and environmental considerations into the extractive sector. It suggests that environmental restorative justice highlights the need for meaningful consultation and negotiation with affected communities, through the establishment of grievance mechanisms that promote transparency and restore the environment.