About the PhD Project
Humanity faces a dual challenge, of multidimensional poverty, hunger, and other forms of deprivation of dignity suffered by millions of people, along with an ecological crisis, summarized by the United Nations as the triple planetary crises of pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, illustrating the limits of the carrying capacity of the planet that we rely on for development and well-being. In practice, development, and environmental and human rights protection often come into conflict with each other. On the African continent, development projects often take the form of overexploitation of the natural wealth and resources such as minerals, oil, fisheries and forests, and are associated with environmental pollution, labour exploitation, insufficient beneficiation and community displacement.
A right to sustainable development (RtSD) is explicitly recognised in the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol), has been recognised by different actors to be crystallising also at the global level, and has been advocated for by different supporters of this right. Nevertheless, uncertainty remains as to what it really entails or should entail. It is hypothesised that the recognition and realisation of a RtSD may contribute to empowering people impacted by development projects to be able to live a life of well-being within the carrying capacity of the environment.
Is there an emerging right to sustainable development?
Contributing to pressing global academic and policy debates about the respective roles and inter-relationship between sustainable development and human rights, this study aims to answer the questions whether there is an emerging RtSD and if so, to assess how such a right may be justified and operationalised.
In answering the first question, on the extent of the emergence of a RtSD, and the nature and content of the right, the study draws on the theory regarding the emergence of international law norms, and new human rights in particular. It asks whether a RtSD has emerged as an idea in academic literature and civil society activities, the extent of its emergence in international law practice at the global level, and at the African regional and national levels. It takes account of the politically contested nature of new or emerging rights.
In relation to the second question, the study provides a critical assessment of the RtSD as it is emerging, and considering how such a right should be conceptualized and operationalized to be effective and make a meaningful contribution to existing rights, and in the efforts of aligning human rights with planetary boundaries. It is concerned with theoretical justifications for a RtSD (legal, moral, instrumental), the place of the RtSD among existing rights, and the potential impact of a RtSD in concrete case studies.
Participants
Assessor:
- Sam Adelman, Professor – University of Warwick
Supervisors:
- Gentian Zyberi, Professor – Norwegian Centre for Human Rights
- Peris Jones, Professor – Norwegian Centre for Human Rights