Role of civil society groups and individual activists in environmental litigation

 

Role of civil society groups and individual activists in environmental litigation

This article identifies five major roles that civil society plays in global environmental governance: (1) collecting, disseminating, and analyzing information; (2) providing input to agenda-setting and policy development processes; (3) performing operational functions; (4) assessing environmental conditions and monitoring compliance with environmental agreements; and (5) advocating environmental justice. Several environmental case studies from Indian context, TRAFFIC, and IUCN – illustrate the success civil society group have in expanding to these roles. This paper deals on development of global environmental governance with respect to the expansion of civil society and individual activists in the international arena. Further, paper explores the roles of civil society groups in the effective environment litigation with the case studies from India, Canada and other countries where applicable.

Designing governance structures that draw these groups in global environment problem solving and decisions making is still a complex challenge. Civil society participation also requires significant commitment and substantial financial resources to carry by the national governments.

Finally, it all boils down to who decides the global agenda of environmental problem solving and who would be the major stakeholder that would influence the decision making. These agenda also decides the fate of the country as strong environmental measure could hinder the process of industrialization and globalization in developing countries. The factor of “POWER” also comes into play while filtering the environmental issues that could be the major agenda for the developing countries. Although, civil societies in developing countries plays a bigger role in negotiating the agenda with the developed countries, the windows of opportunity for the developing countries to put their agenda in the forefront discussion in the international summit would take longer time than desired.

Key words: #Civil Society, #Decision making, #Global Environmental governance, #Participation, #Policymaking.