Section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 Everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being; and to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that prevent pollution and ecological degradation; promote conservation; and secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development.

Exercising Environmental Rights

Exercising Environmental Rights is a programme of legal services to be available to environmental civil society organisations and communities to support the assertion of environmental rights in prioritised cases, including:

  • high quality legal advice on rights and remedies available in terms of environmental law;
  • the pre-litigious assertion of rights, negotiation and dispute resolution; and
  • effective and streamlined reporting of non-compliance to competent authorities.

In prioritised cases (see below), the Centre will also assist clients with the institution of legal proceedings as a last resort where all other options have been exhausted.

With the assistance of an expert reference group, a set of criteria was developed to assist the Centre in selecting priority cases on which to spend its limited resources. These criteria can be downloaded here.

Please note that one of those selection criteria is whether the Centre has funding available or can access funding to cover the costs of the case. This means that, for any particular case (assuming that the case meets all the other criteria), the Centre and the organisation that brings the case to the Centre will have to raise funds to cover the legal costs involved.

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