بررسي اصول و مفاهيم حقوق بين الملل محيط زيست با نگاهي به توسعه پايدار

Civil-legal consideration of circumstances for exerting citizenship rights on the environment

According to the Iranian law, citizenship right is a privilege given to the countryʹs members within its borders. However, from an environmental point of view, such privilege cannot be confined to borders because environment goes beyond the countriesʹ borderlines. A person who is the agent of pollution is considered as one who is against the environmental laws. Therefore, there should be special courts in the field of environment to act as an obstacle to such offences. The review of 168 files at two branches of the environmentʹs special court revealed that 10 percent of them ended in a guilt dictum and 90 percent in a forbiddance dictum (out of 4 final dictums). As it can be seen, the percentage of forbiddance dictum is so high. On the one hand, it indicates that few crimes have been committed and on the other hand it shows that we just witness the damages inflicted upon the environment and do nothing. The important thing which should not be forgotten is that the prevention of environmental damages is much less costly than restoring it. Therefore, citizens should cooperate with the government and the government should train the citizens (because it is peopleʹs right to know). When people understand the situation, they will think about it and try to solve the problems themselves.