Sustainable development

NITAR - course 1
Course 1 Assignment

Question 3

“Sustainable Development: Discuss the concept of sustainable development based on examples taken from international law and the national law of your country. Discuss the interrelationship between the concept of sustainable development and the instruments of international environmental law. “

Erick Eduardo GOYANO MAC-KAY

1287, Brazil

Av. Louis Casaï, 49 - Geneva, Switzerland

[e-mail]

As time passes by, natural systems degradation continues to grow, affecting drastically our ecosystem. Uncontrolled consumption and mishandling of natural resources have consequences as the collapse of the economic, social and political structure of modern society[1]. We live in a period of historic transition, in which the awareness of conflicts between human activities and the environment requires us a new perspective focusing on the ecosystems’ functioning, and on recognition that a change of values and an improvement of known and developing of new abilities to employ natural resources must be met to guarantee the preservation of the ecosystem for benefit of present and future generations.[2]

To merge economic progress with sustainable production figures as one of the greatest challenges for both domestic and international law. The concept of “sustainable development” comes to address this challenge, strengthening the respect of the Human Right of Development[3] and of a Clean and Health Environment.[4]

The sustainable development theme can be conceptually divided in three main components: environment sustainability, economic sustainability and socio-political sustainability, considering them as interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars.[5] We can find different definitions and approaches concerning the “sustainable development” in the most various environment national and international legal documents, most of them, if not all, considering the “environment protection