The aim of the round table „Human Rights in the Area of Enviroment and Sustainable Development“ was to, for the first time, define the agenda of Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in B&H regarding enviromental issues and to use the „legal vacuum“ in order to install some of the machineries and economic activities that represent threat to healthy enviroment in general.
„What we are being offered is a false dilemma – development or enviroment protection. The truth is that development can and does go with enviroment protection and with universally accepted principles.“, said Srdjan Dizdarevic, the president of Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in B&H.
The highest act of the country, the Constitution of B&H guarantees to every citizen in B&H right to health and life in healthy enviroment. The Constitution also integrated Universal declaration on human rights making it obligatory for B&H state, although the Universal declaration is a mere recommendation and does not impose any obligations to countries. Act 10th of the Constitution also regulates participation of public and access to information relating to enviromental issues.
„We have high level of coherence between laws in Federation of B&H and Republic of Srpska regarding enviroment and all European standards are already integrated in all existing entity laws. The legal projection is thus, not a problem. Its implementation however, is. Our weaknesses are: qualitative engagement of public and its enviromental awareness, non-existence of economic instruments for enviromental protection and adequate usage of natural resources and unfortunately, unorganized civil sector, non-governmental organizations that are dealing with enviromental issues. All this, besides adequate legal framework, is also needed to make the whole process of enviroment protection successful.“, said Mehmed Cero, minister assistant in Federal Ministry of Physical Planning and Environment of B&H.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing with wild deponies, storages of trash, deforestation, violation of protected enviromental areas and national parks, non-existence of preventive measures to protect pollution of groundwater etc.
After defining the key issues, the recommendations of the round table participants were made for:
1. B&H authorities on all levels to:
a) respect the right of every individual to a healthy enviroment;
b) respect the right of access to information in the area of enviroment, so every citizen could be aware of the risks regarding his health and the health of others;
c) create legal frame which would secure high level of enviroment protection, including the adoption of Law on enviroment protection in B&H which will refer to the highest international standards in this area;
d) establish measures for prevention of enviromental pollution;
e) ensure coherence between development and usage of natural resources in order to make the development sustainable;
f) ensure application of existing laws in B&H in the area of enviroment.
2. Mass media and civil society actors, especially non-governmental organizations and members of academic community, to actively and continually engage in informing the public about enviromental issues in order to actively involve it in the creation of enviromental policy and protection of human enviroment.
Round table is just the beginning of Helsinki Committee’s engagement in enviromental issues of B&H.
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