Realizing The Right To A Clean, Healthy And Sustainable Environment
Kariuki Muigua
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Abstract: This scholarly paper by Kariuki Muigua examines the recognition and enforcement of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a fundamental human right in global, regional, and Kenyan contexts. It explores debates surrounding whether this right should be anthropocentric or ecocentric, and presents procedural (access to information, participation, and justice) and substantive (clean air, water, biodiversity, etc.) elements. Drawing from international conventions, Kenya?s Constitution, and EMCA 1999, the paper traces legal foundations while critically highlighting challenges to realization?namely climate change, unsustainable resource use, pollution, and poverty. The author proposes policy, legal, and institutional reforms that embrace both human-centered and ecological perspectives to anchor this right within Kenya?s sustainable development agenda. The piece advocates for collective action and global alignment with the UNGA resolution declaring this right.