Mapping tools to exercise the right to a healthy environment
Chiara Costanzo
Na
Chiara Costanzo holds a PhD in Human Rights awarded by the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG); she holds a LLM in International Human Rights Law awarded by the same university. Her areas of interest are: development cooperation, sustainable development, environment and human rights. She has worked for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome (2008), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Amman, Jordan (2009), as well as for the Italian Cooperation in Asmara, Eritrea (2011), as Programme Officer. In 2010, she was Public Participation Program Assistant at the Centro de Incidencia Ambiental (CIAM) in Panama, an institution devoted to natural resources protection through the exercise of access rights. She currently collaborates with Asistencia Legal por los Derechos Humanos, A. C., in Mexico City, an NGO devoted to human rights protection and legal aid of persons deprived of liberty.
Abstract
This paper explores the use of mapping tools in the field of human rights and specifically the exercise of the right to a healthy environment (RHE). It does so employing a constructivist and hybrid research methodology that... [ view full abstract ]
This paper explores the use of mapping tools in the field of human rights and specifically the exercise of the right to a healthy environment (RHE).
It does so employing a constructivist and hybrid research methodology that brings together several approaches to RHE and reconciling environmental protection and sustainable development in a pragmatic manner.
Maps are being used for the purpose of environmental rights advocacy to recognize critical overlapping that exacerbate socio-environmental conflicts and human rights violations.
Contemporary debates on environmental rights include access to information, public participation and access to justice in decision making. The right to participation, or ‘meaningful participation’ identified as being core to the RHE, can promote rights interdependence, transparency and accountability as well as just distribution of benefits and burdens. Georeferenced maps can be used to layer social, economic, environmental and legal data to visualize conflicts, facilitate the identification of an extended ‘concerned public’ and identify opportunities for deepening participation. Offering insights of rights based approaches to environmental issues, maps can provide a visual platform to design innovative policies that address human rights, environment and sustainability concerns.
Recently completed doctoral research on the RHE recognized the role of two environmental law principles – the precautionary principle and the common but differentiated responsibility principle - to inform human rights practices related to the environment. Mapping tools might support the precautionary character of RHE, bridging human rights issues with environmental protection and sustainable development concerns.
Authors
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Chiara Costanzo
(Na)
Topic Area
Choose your Organised Session from the list below: Environmental regulation and governance
Session
OS-2D » Environmental Goverance (15:30 - Monday, 15th August, Anderson Theatre)
