CONVENTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PREOCCUPATIONS

A great number of the conventions referring to nature, even if they do not refer ton particular species, were limited from the point of view of geography and territories: we may give as example here a convention for the protection of flora, fauna and panoramic beauties of America, the African convention for nature and natural resources… By the Stockholm conferences, from the 5th of June 1972, we entered in a “dynamic of globalization”. Article 1 of the Declaration that followed the conference is important for the global awareness: “Human beings have the basic right for freedom, equality and conditions of a satisfying life, in an environment with a quality that allows him to live with dignity and well being. He has the solemn duty to protect and improve the environment for the present and future generations (…)”. This article proclaims a right for the environment. A new law seems to have arisen with the apparition of this convention: the right of a healthy human being and of a healthy environment. This law is bipolar because it associates the human beings to nature. Human beings have the right to live in a healthy environment and this is why he has to protect nature. This does not represent a right of the human beings from a strict point of view. This is a right that has a universal value. The right to a healthy environment can not be put in the same category as the right to live or the right to be healthy, because this right contains the latter.