ABSTRACT
The existence of a legal right to a clean environment is the subject of familiar controversy. This is the case even in relation to adults, and the initial suspicion must thus be that it will be at least (if not more so) as difficult to demonstrate the existence of this right as it pertains to children. In discussing this matter in the context of Nigerian law, this chapter will focus on two things. First, the status of international law on the matter within the Nigerian legal system will be analysed. In doing this, the intention is not to attempt to answer the question whether an international legal right to a clean environment exists in substance; that issue, as has been mentioned, has been dealt with exhaustively in the literature.2 The debates surrounding the suitability of a human rights approach as a method of deriving the right to a clean environment and, more specifically, the extent to which other human rights can be interpreted as providing for a right to a clean environment, will not be analysed here.3
