ABSTRACT
In a 2009 report, the OHCHR stated that it was unclear whether the effects of environmental harm could be qualified as human rights violations in a strict legal sense. OHCHR cited challenges of causation, attribution, and future harm. The jurisprudence of human rights treaty bodies, especially in Africa, has given greater content to the obligations of states to exercise due diligence and take measures to respect, protect, and fulfil the human rights of those within the states’ territory and jurisdiction. But there remain challenges: what constitutes a duty of care to avoid a reasonably foreseeable risk of injury or damage to the person or property of another? Who has standing to bring a complaint, and who is responsible for the harm caused? What harms are justiciable? Finally, what remedies are available and appropriate?
