Appraisal of Rights to Healthful Environment Under the Nigeria Constitution 1999 as Amended
Abstract
This paper examines the rights to healthful environment under the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended. Human lives depended on the environment for survival; unfortunately, there are activities such as pollutions on the ecosystem which negatively impacts on the citizens’ lives, hence the need for the protection of the rights of the citizens to a clean and safe environment. Though effort tends to have been made to protect citizens’ rights to healthy environment in the Nigeria’s constitution, however, it’s not adequate as it did not expressly made it a basic right being contained in chapter 11 which are not justiciable. The constitutional provisions are vague and subjected to difficult interpretations by courts and some other shortfalls inherent in it, thereby adversely affecting citizens’ rights to effectively seek redress on their healthful environmental injustice. This paper therefore focuses on the legal framework of the Nigeria’s constitution 1999 on citizens’ access to rights to healthful environment, its adequacies and the challenges of achieving effective access to environmental justice. The paper uses doctrinal methodology which embraces books, articles, statutes and legislations in the discussion. It recommends an overhaul of the Nigeria constitution to expressly include right to healthful environment in the constitution and make environmental justice a basic fundamental human right for easy enforcement by citizens.in order to meet global best practices.
Keywords
Healthful EnvironmentAccess to justiceConstitutionEnvironmental RightsEnvironmental Justice
References
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