As approximately 2.6 billion people are without access to basic sanitation, the recognition of a human right to sanitation represents an important development in international human rights law. The right, derived from Article 11 (the right to an adequate living) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, has been framed as the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation. However, what has been largely absent in both the emergence of the right to sanitation in various international law instruments, as well as the conceptualization of it over the last decade, is a consideration of the impact of inadequate sanitation on the natural environment and the associated infringement of environmental rights. This article problematizes the scant acknowledgement of environmental considerations in the framing of the right to sanitation and argues that a multifaceted approach to the right to sanitation must integrate environmental concerns.

Within the human rights arena, water and sanitation are very often presented as linked together. This article examines the historical roots of this linkage as well as its manifestation at both the international and domestic level in countries that have formally recognized a right to water and sanitation. The analysis leads to a conclusion that a continuation of the linkage is not historically warranted, nor does it offer clear advantages for realization of a right to water or a right to sanitation.

No abstract

The most vocal and forceful opposition to new development has arisen in the mining sector with controversy surrounding the mining of Xolobeni, along the Wild Coast after the Department of Minerals and Energy, now the Department of Mining, granted an Australian company mining rights to a portion of land situated in a highly sensitive coastal marine area. See for example Van der Merwe 2008 www.miningweekly.com 3 Quite a number of challenges relate to filling stations. They include BP Southern

This article seeks to analyse good governance decision-making in the environmental context through an understanding and interpretation of the relationship between good environmental governance (evidenced inter alia by decision-making by public authorities) and sustainable development in South Africa.  It critically assesses recent case law in an attempt to understand the way in which our courts are evaluating authorities’ environmental decisions.  In reaching its objectives, this article considers also how environmental decisions are made in the first place and asks the question: what are the value choices underlying government’s decisions and what role does sustainable development play in informing decisions for good environmental governance.