Human Rights Law - Protection of the Environment and Environmental Essay

Human Rights Law - Protection of the Environment and Environmental Rights through Criminal Law - Essay Example Environmental pollution has been an issue of concern over the recent years. History has been a crucial witness to many deliberate acts aimed at destroying the natural environment so as to achieve strategic objectives (Vanderheiden, 2012). Accidental causes also have a fair portion of the blame for environmental pollution. In recent years there have been very serious accidents resulting in massive environmental damage. (Dinar, 2011). A negotiation drafted to serve as a General Assembly Resolution on the protection of the environment is the first step of a solution process to mitigate serious environmental damage regardless of whether it is deliberate or accidental. The resolution determinates the jus puniendi of the States and acts as a harmonizing mechanism of the environmental criminal law of the States (Chowdhury, 2010). Discussion Member States of the General Assembly are responsible for coming up with a resolution, calling for the protection of the environment through internation al criminal law. This resolution aims at discouraging acts causing or likely to cause environmental damage. ... ‘Unlawful’ means infringing a law or a decision taken by a competent authority that aims to prevent environmental damage (Davis, 2007). The resolution is open to signature for both the developing and the developed countries and shall enter into force immediately after the Member States have expressed their consent to be bound by it. Though the resolution is aimed at protecting the environment through international criminal law, it should not affect the rights and undertakings derived from international multilateral conventions concerning special matters (Castree, 2005). According to Ultima Ratio Principle and criminal law intervention, criminal law is the last legal weapon capable of defending the interests of the society. In the preamble, the ultima ratio criminal law principle claims that, while the prevention of the impairment of the environment must be achieved through other measures, international criminal law has an important part to play in protecting the environm ent (Kutz, 2005). International criminal law plays a crucial role as it controls small-scale, large-scale and individual polluters. It helps to prevent further environmental destruction, and avoids over burdening of civil and administrative law with criminal provisions. Its responsibility provides an added incentive for individuals to refrain from conduct that may be harmful to the environment by emphasizing its culpable character and by allowing more stringent enforcement measures to be imposed (Cocks, 2009). Individual states should be responsible for the protection of the environment even though the resolution is agreed at in a convention. A state cannot plead provisions or deficiencies of its own law in answer to a claim against it for any