Constitutional Environmental Protection in Brazil: A Rights-Based Approach

Abstract

Debates about the recognition of a right to the environment, in both its substantive and procedural dimensions, have evolved rapidly in many juris-dictions and within international law. The developments have followed the increasing demand for improved legal, policy and regulatory responses to the complexities of environmental problems. The search for these responses has led to the inclusion of environmental protection in vari-ous national constitutions and international documents on human rights. 1 However, it has also brought about wide-reaching academic discussion about the advantages of the recognition of a right to the environment itself 2 and on how it would be put into effect by different jurisdictions. Shelton identifies three main legal frameworks deriving from this link between human rights and environmental protection. First, environmen-tal protection would be advanced through the recognition of other human rights (a precondition to the exercise of existing rights). Second, envi-ronmental protection would be promoted through procedural guarantees (access to information and participatory rights). Third, a right to the envi-ronment to the 'human rights catalogue' would be included. 3