AfriForum welcomes UN special rapporteur’s findings about environmental rights
The civil rights organisation AfriForum welcomes the international awareness created by Dr Marcos Orellana, the UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, about the government’s deliberate trampling of South Africans’ right to a clean and healthy environment.
Although AfriForum was not directly involved in Orellana’s investigation about the environment, it is closely related to AfriForum’s request last month to Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, asking him to investigate the extremely poor condition of South Africa’s natural water resources and the decay of water infrastructure across the country. AfriForum believes that the current water crisis is leading to the large-scale violation of the right to access to water and sanitation in South Africa. AfriForum is still awaiting feedback but believes that the request will be positively received, because the serious water management deficiencies that AfriForum expressed concern about, are emphasised by Orellana’s investigation.
According to Marais de Vaal, AfriForum’s advisor for Environmental Affairs, the issues concerning a clean and healthy environment identified by Orellana are closely linked to the condition of South Africa’s water infrastructure and natural water resources. The same findings that were made regarding the violation of environmental rights, for example that the poor are most vulnerable to environmental challenges or that environmental offenders are not held accountable by the government, apply equally to the water crisis. For several years, AfriForum has been busy with various strategies and court applications to address pollution of the environment and water resources. Because of the government’s couldn’t care less attitude, these problems are only getting bigger – a finding supported by Orellana’s investigation.
“It is significant that Dr Orellana was shocked to see the true situation. It is high time that the international community’s misperception – that South Africa’s transition to a constitutional democracy should serve as an example for the rest of the world – is reconsidered. He has now seen firsthand that the government only makes promises about the environment on paper, while the Constitution and international agreements are trampled on,” says De Vaal.
