The relationship between environmental issues and human rights

Human beings have been increasingly polluting the nature and the environment day by day. The rapid growth of the world's population in the 20th and 21th century; urban sprawl and the rapid development of the technology and the industry have caused the increase of the environmental issues. The most important reason of the environmental issues is overuse and the careless use of energy sources. In particular, the overuse of fossil fuels (such as petrol and coal) leads to a lot of serious environmental issues including air pollution. The environmental issues parallelly brings plenty of social, economic and individual problems. Increasing environmental pollution threatens fundamental human rights and freedoms including the right to life. That is why; the environmental issues are not only the environmental pollutions but also a threat to the basic human rights which are protected by constitutions and international agreements. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between the environmental issues and basic rights and freedoms from human rights perspective. It will argue whether or not the damage to the environment is guilty of crimes against humanity.