How Do Environmental Issues Threaten Basic Human Rights? The Case of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in Ukraine

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the link between environmental issues and human rights. It investigates whether environmental dangers and degradation constitutes a violation of these rights. The concept of a right to life is central to debates concerning issues of increasing environmental hazards and degradation. Environmental hazards are at the root of human rights violations and represent a major threat to people's lives as well as to the sustenance of the next generation. The right to life can be denied by events and issues with environmental consequences, such as death caused by polluted air or acute exposure to radioactivity. To reach a conclusion the study focuses on the environmental effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 on five fundamental human rights: the right to life, a safe environment, health, clean water and food. The study concludes that the direct environmental results of the Chernobyl accident has threatened fundamental human rights in the regions of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and that a clean environment is requisite for the enjoyment of human rights.

Keywords

• Human Rights; Human Rights Violation; Environmental Issues; the Chernobyl Accident

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