ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to discuss the nature and extent of claims to universal environmental human rights made by Non-governmental Organization (NGO) in the environmental and human rights movements. The recognition of environmental human rights by NGOs demonstrated above is of limited significance by itself. Campaigns focusing on the structural recognition of environmental human rights may appear more abstract and less productive than campaigns focusing on specific instances of violations of environmental human rights. Exemplifying human rights campaigns directed against toxic pollution, Wisconsin's Environmental Decade has run campaigns demanding environmental protection as a human right on the issues of children's safety, reducing pesticide usage, breast cancer and mercury contamination of the environment. Moving from the conceptual to the practical findings of the questionnaire, evidence demonstrating widespread recognition of environmental human rights as a tactical instrument to prioritize social and environmental values was the key finding.
