Victims of environmental crime

The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy Victims of Environmental Crime – Mapping the Issues This research report was made possible by the funding and support received from the Law Foundation of British Columbia, the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, and the Department of Justice Canada. [...] Before analyzing the range and type of victims and their access to justice issues, this Part of the paper provides a brief overview of the international and national legal frameworks, illustrating the complexity of the systems in which victims must operate. [...] The treaty recognises the importance of three pillars – access to information, public participation and access to justice – to contribute to the protection of the right of every person of present and future generations to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being.14 “The public concerned” has a broad meaning to include the public affected or likely to be affected by, or h [...] This too could be said for the principle of intergenerational equity, which requires the present generation to ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment are maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations and for the concept of sustainable development, which means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future gen [...] Risk assessment underpins environmental regulations and standards both at the general level of statutory provisions and policies (the “acceptable” cancer risk from dioxin levels) and at the level of the particular (the permitting of effluent concentrations at a particular facility).75 The public is generally not involved in the weighing of risks of industry activity against the projected costs of