ABSTRACT
Every state, as well as the United Nations (UNEP), should establish and operate adequate monitoring and early-warning systems to detect hazards or threats before they actually occur. 3. States which obtain information about the possible emergence of an environmental hazard to life in another State should inform the State at risk or at least alert UNEP on an urgent basis. 4. The right to life, as an imperative norm, takes priority above economic considerations and should, in all circumstances, be accorded priority. 5. States and other responsible entities (corporations or individuals) may be criminally or civilly responsible under international law for causing serious environmental hazards posing grave risks to life. This responsibility is a strict one, and should arise irrespective of whether the act or omission in question is deliberate, reckless or negligent. 6. Adequate avenues of recourse should be provided to individuals and groups at national, regional or international levels, to seek protection against serious environmental hazards to life. The establishment of such avenues of recourse is essential for dealing with such risks before they actually
181. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes that to achieve the full realization of the right to health it is necessary to ensure the improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene. As noted by the Special Rapporteur in her 1992 progress report, the implementation of the right to health contained in the 1961 European Social Charter has led the Committee of Independent Experts to take into account measures to prevent, limit or control pollution. 96/
182. Indigenous peoples have alleged in international forums violations of their right to health as a result of environmental destruction. 97/ In one key case, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that the right to health and well-being of indigenous peoples had been violated as a result of the negative environmental effects and dissemination of disease that followed from road construction in the rainforest. 98/
183. International environmental law instruments have frequently referred to the negative effects on health of environmental pollution. Many of these instruments define pollution as the introduction by man of substances or energy into the environment resulting in such
and Cultural Rights include in their reports to the committee information on measures concerning environmental planning and health in housing and human settlements. 109/
199. The right to adequate housing also includes the obligation to avoid forced evictions, a practice that constitutes a gross violation of human rights. 110/ [...] Of particular concern is the fact that States often fail to comply with their obligation not to carry out or advocate forced or arbitrary evictions of persons or groups. Forced evictions should take place only when conservation and rehabilitation are not feasible and suitable relocation measures are undertaken. Where forced evictions cannot be avoided, the affected persons have a right to just compensation.
