Special Excerpt of Environmental Policy and Law about Human Rights and the Environment

Online, December 17, 2009 (Newswire.com) - December 14, 2009, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - IOS Press announces the publication of a special excerpt of Environmental Policy and Law. This unique excerpt calls attention to the important topic of human rights and the environment.

The fact that governments will meet in Copenhagen in December 2009 at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP-15) for negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has rendered the discussions on human rights and the environment in the context of law and policy both relevant and timely. Up to now, the area has suffered from a lack of clear and consistent thinking, according to a special issue of Environmental Policy and Law (volume 39, issue 6).

"The adoption of the Tehran Declaration on Human Rights and the Environment 2009 will, it is hoped, encourage representatives of the Parties at Copenhagen to give significant emphasis and importance to the human rights and environmental nexus during their negotiations," say Janet Blake and Ben Boer in the issue.

The International Conference on Human Rights and the Environment took place in Tehran in May 2009 and resulted in a document, entitled the Tehran Declaration on Human Rights and the Environment. The conference was conceived initially as a forum for some leading international experts in the field to further explore the question of human rights and the environment in the context of law and policy, and has shown that concerns about the environment are not, as much legal literature in the field would suggest, confined to the developed countries of the 'West', but are shared across cultures and countries at different levels of development.

The relationship between human societies and the physical environment is seen as a complex one built up over millennia of mutual impacts and interactions. This, then, suggests that environmental protection extends beyond the regulation of human activities, management and conservation to encouraging those cultural practices and ways of life of human societies that are generally beneficial to the environment thus introducing a human rights dimension to environmental protection.

# # #

You can access the excerpt article free of costs through this link: http://www.iospress.nl/pressreleases/excerpteplcop15.pdf

About Environmental Policy and Law
This international journal is created to encourage the exchange of information and experience on all legal, administrative and policy matters relevant to the human and natural environment in its widest sense: air, water and soil pollution as well as waste management; the conservation of flora and fauna; protected areas and land-use control; development and conservation of the world's non-renewable resources; in short, all aspects included in the concept of sustainable development. For more than two decades Environmental Policy and Law has assumed the role of the leading international forum for policy and legal matters relevant to this field.

Environmental Policy and Law is divided into sections for easy accessibility. These sections cover the activities of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, other international developments, regional activities within the framework of European Union, AU, ASEAN, etc., and developments at the national level from all over the world. An important and distinctive feature is the publication of selected documents appearing with the minimum of delay, which are not easily accessible, such as the resolutions from non-public meetings of parliamentarians, guidelines or draft conventions not yet published or newly concluded agreements. Environmental Policy and Law fills a gap left by other publications.

Subscribers are politicians, government officials at the highest level of decision-making, academics, scientists, practicing lawyers, firms, and private persons wishing to keep up to date on contemporary policies and practices.
The journal is published by IOS Press (www.iospress.nl).

About IOS Press
Commencing its publishing activities in 1987, IOS Press serves the information needs of scientific and medical communities worldwide. IOS Press now (co-)publishes over 100 international journals and about 130 book titles each year on subjects ranging from computer sciences and mathematics to medicine and the natural sciences.

IOS Press continues its rapid growth, embracing new technologies for the timely dissemination of information. All journals are available electronically and an e-book platform was launched in 2005.

Headquartered in Amsterdam with satellite offices in the USA, Germany, India and China, IOS Press has established several strategic co-publishing initiatives. Notable acquisitions included Delft University Press in 2005 and Millpress Science Publishers in 2008.