Cross-National Environmental Injustice and Human Rights Issues

This article focuses on the issues of environmental injustice and human rights violations across nations. Using existing documents, the patterns of the transnational toxic waste trade and natural resource exploitation and the bases of global environmental injustice are explored. The dependency/world-system perspective on toxic waste exports and imports and the environmental justice framework are used to analyze transnational toxic waste dumping schemes and resource exploitation in underdeveloped nations. With an emphasis on the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, available evidence suggests that environmental activists, powerless indigenous subpopulations, and other minorities face the danger of environmental injustice and human rights abuse, especially under authoritarian regimes. The need for stronger international norms protecting human rights to a safe and sound environment is emphasized, and it is argued that environmental injustice needs to be included as a component of human rights protocols. Policy implications of theoretical analyses are offered.