The Right To A Healthy Environment in Nigeria: Illusion Or Reality?
The environment is essential to human survival, and its protection has increasingly been recognized as part of human rights. Across the world, international instruments such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the 2022 United Nations General Assembly resolution affirm the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. These developments reflect a growing understanding that human dignity cannot be separated from environmental quality. In Nigeria, however, the right to a healthy environment remains uncertain. Section 20 of the 1999 Constitution mandates the state to protect and improve the environment and safeguard land, air, water, forests, and wildlife. In addition, laws such as the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency Act and the Environmental Impact Assessment Act seek to regulate environmental practices. Despite this legal framework, persiste nt problems such as oil ...