Environmental Justice and Women as Vulnerable Group: Advocating for the Environmental Rights of Women in The Niger Delta of Nigeria (Published)
The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the Niger Delta region in the 1950’s ushered in a new era of revenue generation and brought hope of economic and infrastructural growth in the region for not only the government but also persons living within oil producing communities. Unfortunately, with the passing of time, the activities of multinational oil corporations in the Niger Delta region seem to have done more harm than good to residents in the region, with oil producing communities experiencing varying consequences arising from oil exploitation activities. Over the years’ studies have revealed that women, suffer the most from the consequences of oil exploitation in the Niger Delta region. Despite these undue consequences women in the Niger Delta region face, they are often marginalized in the fight for the protection of their environmental rights in the region due to the patriarchal nature of their society. This article therefore seeks to critically evaluate the concept of environmental justice vis-à-vis the marginalization of the environmental rights of women in the Niger Delta region. Consequently, this research revealed the role of women in the protection of the environment, their environmental rights as well as the factors affecting the protection of their environmental rights in the Niger Delta region and Nigeria at large. This study therefore recommended amongst other suggestions, that the Government should make special efforts to ensure women are represented or given an equitable amount of representatives in decision making bodies on matters concerning the protection of the environment.
Keywords: Environment, Environmental Justice, Niger-Delta, Women, environmental rights, oil exploitation
The Concept of Environmental Justice in the Nigeria Legal System (Published)
Environmental justice is a progressively advancing subject, social movement and practice, which requires fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all humans, regardless of sex, age, class, income, race, colour or nationality. Environmental Justice is geared towards the development, management, implementation and enforcement of plans, policies, laws and regulatory practices, towards the protection and management of the environment in the course of socio-economic development programmes, including projects. It also requires equitable distribution of benefits and thus indiscriminate exposure of all to environmental good and harm. It is an advancing social movement that advocates a healthy and eco-balanced environment, towards human’s wellbeing, sustainable communities and all-embracing sustainable development in the overall interest of society within the Planet (Mother Earth). The aim of the study is to examine the effectiveness of environmental Justice in Nigeria, with the view to ascertain if justice is actually done to victims of environmental degradation in Nigeria. The study found that there is need for courts to give wider interpretation to existing relevant fundamental rights to secure a healthy environment. Flowing from the above finding, the study recommends that Section 20 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should be amended to recognize the environment as legal personality with the citizens as its trustees. The study has shown that there should be an interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, policymakers, activist and civil society organization, who will work on environmental justice issues in Nigeria in fostering dialogue, sharing best practices and mobilizing collective actions, thereby enabling victims of environmental hazards get justice they deserve.
Keywords: Environmental Justice, Legal, Nigeria, System