Justice environnementale and peuples autochtones: Les possibilités and les limites de la jurisprudence de la cour interaméricaine des droits de l'homme

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the notion of environmental justice, through the decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concerning the interpretation and application of the rights to life and property for the resolution of litigations involving indigenous peoples .indigenous peoples, whose ancestral territories abound with natural resources coveted for their market value, must cope with the negative environmental, social and cultural impacts of extractive activities. In such circumstances, and in the absence of effective and accessible remedies through national law, some of these peoples have, over the course of the past decade, mobilized the Inter-American human rights system as a potential vector of environmental rights and justice. Our analysis leads us to conclude that the large and liberal interpretation by the Inter-American Court of the fundamental rights and freedoms consecrated by the American Convention on Human Rights is likely to contribute, subject to its effectiveness, to increased environmental justice for indigenous peoples. This is the case in particular for the assertion of the right to a “dignified life” (“vida digna”), as well as for the recognition of the collective right to property of indigenous peoples. However, this jurisprudence, which recognizes under certain conditions the precedence of economic development over the right to property of Aboriginal populations, does not allow to call into question more radically the economic and political dynamics from which emanate the contemporary environmental crisis and the inequalities surrounding environmental degradation. In order to promote environmental justice, interpretation and application of human rights should take into account in an even bolder way the interdependent relationships uniting human beings, their societies and the environment.