Environmental Protection Policies and Human Rights in Pakistan: Theory and Practice

Abstract

Environmental protection policies devised to reduce the negative impacts of climate change often create hurdles for human rights protection. These policies clash with the basic rights of vulnerable communities living in resource-dependent regions like marginalized or indigenous communities, who are unable to sustain their livelihood because of these restrictions. Besides that, their right to land, property, or culture is often compromised because of these factors. This research aims to explore these tensions in Pakistan by analyzing cases of green policy exploitation and the socio-economic impacts of climate actions. The study will focus on the exploitation of the environment for profit generation by multi-national corporations, ignoring of environmental regulation standards, and its impacts on local communities. The study will focus on the emerging concepts of environmental justice and sustainable development to understand the future prospects of climate governance. The study will provide solutions to integrate human rights protection within the domain of environmental standards and vice versa.