The promotion of environmental justice through the lens of civil-based environmental governance in South Africa

Abstract

Civil society has a significant role to play in promoting environmental justice, particularly through the lens of civil-based environmental governance. Civil-based instruments such as public participation, access to information, and access to justice may provide remedies for past inequalities and lead to outcomes that are more just by recognising all members of society and thereby empowering them to participate in environmental governance. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to argue that procedural environmental justice is promoted through the use of these civil-based instruments, as the public is recognised as an important stakeholder within the environmental governance regime while being given the opportunity to participate in environmental decision-making, enforcement and compliance. This will be done by establishing a link between the environmental right enshrined in the Constitution and environmental justice, determining whether or not civil-based instruments have been applied in the context of the environmental right, and establishing the extent to which this application of civil-based instruments has promoted environmental justice. Keywords: environmental justice, civil-based instruments, public participation, access to information, access to justice, environmental right, civil society