Engendering the Legal Framework for Environmentally Sustainable Development: Some Reflections

Abstract

The idea of “sustainable development” was first recognized in 1972 at the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm. The Conference did not make reference to the concept explicitly but recognized that the concepts of “sustainability” and “development” that were previously addressed separately could be addressed together to create more benefits. The Conference recognised the importance of environmental management for the purposes of sustainable development. In the years that followed the 1972 conference, terms such as “environment and development,” “development without destruction,” “eco-development,” and “environmentally sound development” became common in publications and the works of the United Nations. This article examines the international legal framework on sustainable development and evaluates the extent to which these laws ensure environmentally sustainable development. The article argues that although the legal framework on environmentally sustainable development is quite extensive and steps are being made to engender them, there is still need to move beyond formal equality and substantive equality to transformative equality. The paper draws on feminist perspectives and calls for engendering the legal framework so as to make environmental sustainability a reality.