No abstract

Human rights and the environment are linked with each other in two ways. Firstly, the environment is seen as pre-condition of the realization of human rights. Because human beings are dependent on the environment. We all meet our basic needs including air, water and food from nature. Individuals cannot exist without the mother earth. For this reason, human rights may not be enjoyed at the absence of a clean environment. Secondly, human rights can be an effective way to achieve environmental safety. These two linkages are united under the umbrella of environmental human rights. Environmental human rights are the rights of people to protect the environment for the sake of human beings. There have been numerous studies investigating the scope and types of environmental human rights. However, how the linkage between human rights and the environment has been evolved has not been discussed sufficiently so far. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore how environmental human rights have been developed over history. This research finds that environmental human rights have been developed by international environmental law more than international human rights law.

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.

Environmental human rights (EHRs) have been referenced by different groups, particularly scholars, activists, NGOs and international organizations (e.g. the United Nations) since their recognition at the international level by the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, which proclaimed that "Both aspects of man's environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights the right to life itself". This clearly implies that there is a direct connection between a safe environment and the enjoyment of human rights, which is the core argument of EHRs, but the term is still currently vague and unclear, as the literature does not provide any single, explicit definition, and which has thus been interpreted in different ways by different scholars depending on their values and priorities. Another indeterminate point is related to the types of environmental human rights. It is still somewhat unclear to, or under debate by, scholars as to what types of environmental human rights there actually are, or should be, and how they are linked to each other. There is no recognition of environmental human rights by hard law at the international level, but there are many countries' 38

While there are legal regulations prohibiting smoking in indoor areas in Turkey, there is none for outdoor areas. Many non-smokers are exposed to environmental tobacco smoking against their will in Turkey. Numerous research efforts have documented the fact that environmental tobacco smoke poses risks to human health because it pollutes the environment by releasing dangerous chemicals into the air that non-smokers breathe. This means that tobacco smoking poses risks to a safe environment and people’s lives. People have a right to the environment, as guaranteed by the Turkish Constitution. Since Stockholm Declaration, many countries have recognized that people have a right to a safe environment or that a safe environment is essential to the enjoyment of human rights, including Turkey. However, how non-smokers perceive of the impacts of environmental tobacco smoke on the enjoyment of the right to the environment enshrined within the Turkish legal system has not been studied to date. Accordingly, this research aims to explore how issues relating to environmental tobacco smoke can be approached from an environmental human rights perspective. To achieve this purpose, a qualitative case study was conducted in Istanbul. The results of this analysis show that non-smokers do not enjoy the right to the clean environment guaranteed by the Turkish Constitution due to the ETS.