Establishing procedures for legal redress for environmental harm

Improving legal remedies for environmental damage

Description

Establishing procedures for legal redress for environmental harm involves creating clear, accessible mechanisms for individuals, communities, and organizations to seek justice and compensation when environmental damage occurs. This strategy ensures accountability by enabling affected parties to file complaints, pursue litigation, and obtain remedies such as restoration, compensation, or injunctions. It addresses gaps in enforcement, deters future violations, and empowers stakeholders to protect environmental rights through transparent, fair, and effective legal processes.

Context

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Wastes and Their Disposal requires signatories to take "appropriate measures in national law and also to impose sanctions". Other conventions, such as the Convention of the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), provide for sanctions against signatories that do not abide by the obligation in CITES.