THE RIGHT TO PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION MAKING IN CAMEROON: AN APPRAISAL ON THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55662/IJLDAI.2022.8601Keywords:
Environment, Environmental Rights, Environmental Democracy, Legal Framework, CameroonAbstract
It is a commonplace that environmental degradations is alarming and keeps rising at a high pace in the contemporary and digitalized world and constitutes a threat not only to human health but slowing down economic growth and development. Developing countries in general and Cameroon in particular is not freed from this global and common problem and will likely persist and even intensify unless there is a change in the political will to fully involve the population in environmental decision-making processes at every level. This therefore means that the role of the citizens in protecting the environment stretches far beyond designing effective environmental standards, since the timid and discriminate involvement of the populations in environmental decision-making process and coupled with the overall ineffective and corrupt government practices appears to undermine citizens’ involvement for critical environmental policymaking. In effect, the right to public participation in environmental decision making in Cameroon as contained in international instruments and national legislations seems to remain on papers. In this present circumstance, a much needed reform is required for a proper implementation of the right to public participation in environmental decision making process in Cameroon.
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References
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ii
Ibid
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v
Ibid
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viii
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ix
See Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration
x
Ibid, Principle 20
xi Ibid, Principle 21
xii Ibid, Principle 22
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xiv Ibid
xv Ibid
xvi See Article 45 of the 1996 Cameroon constitution DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110974553.45
xvii See Article 6 of the 1992 UNFCCC
xviii Hycinth Banseka & Laurent-Charles, Cameroon: Preparing the National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change
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xix
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An Open Access Journal from The Law Brigade (Publishing) Group 57
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS AND ALLIED ISSUES
VOLUME 8 ISSUE 6 – ISSN 2454-1273
November- December 2022
xxi Dinah Shelton, a rights-based approach to public participation and local management of natural resources,
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xxii
Ibid
xxiii
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xxiv
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xxvi
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xxviii
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xxxii
Ibid
xxxiii
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xxxv
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xxxvi
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xxxix
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xl
Ibid, Article 74
xli Ibid, Article 2(1)
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xliii
Ibid, Article 20(1)
xliv
Azaufa Takunjuh Ngundem Betaah, Eike Albrecht,& Terence Onang Egute, “The Human Right to a
Healthy Environment in Cameroon: An Environmental Constitutionalism Perspective”, Journal of International
Environmental Law and Litigation, Vol. 34,61, 2019, op.cit.pp.62-83
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