The Earth Council's environmental ombudsman function (ECO) is expected to address controversies having a transnational dimension, which involve human rights, environmental protection and economic development, and for which there are no other adequate means of redress or remedy. Until the proposed Earth Charter is promulgated, the ECO will need to refer to relevant normative standards to perform its mission. This paper provides an overview of existing and emerging legal norms which are relevant to the ECO's investigative and adjudicative/mediative functions. The paper has identified, on a preliminary basis, international rights, principles and other norms which are developing human rights, environmental protection and development objectives. In addition to offering an overview of key components of the emerging international law of sustainable development, this paper also is written to provide the ECO with a normative reference tool for subsequent research and analysis.

Human rights, environmental protection, and economic development are now increasingly viewed as complementary rather than as unrelated or opposing phenomena. Previous approaches in each of these three disciplines tended to view each category as separate, and at times even anti-thetical, to realization of the objectives of the others. For example, until very recently, human rights instruments in general accorded minimal attention to the environmental aspects of their subject matter. The current evolving consensus is that achievement of the objectives in each area is linked to achievements in the other areas. This realization results from a growing awareness of the inadequacies of previous efforts to deal with them separately. Recent scholarship is providing new insights into their systemic inter-relationships.

There is not only greater realization of the multi-dimensional nature of many conflicts, but also current realities demonstrate that global human demographic and consumption patterns place unprecedented demands on utilization of remaining ecosystems and their components. Often areas that are slated for industrial, agricultural or resource extraction are also especially important for conservation of biological diversity and are inhabited by indigenous and other long-term occupant communities. In these and other situations, development initiatives can have catastrophic impacts on the quality of environmental resources and on the lives of persons and communities. Those who are negatively affected are often from politically or economically marginalized populations. The ECO will be charged with investigating and mediating the land and resource access, occupational health and individual and group rights conflicts arising out of these types of circumstances.

The paper has identified important existing and emerging international legal rights and principles for invocation by the ECO, including permanent sovereignty over natural resources, the right to development, the right to environment, and the right to participation. Each of these rights and principles contains a rich array of components. In particular the right to development is elaborated by correlative rights: to an adequate standard of living, to cultural integrity, to education and access to adequate information. Each of these inform and support the right to development, and additionally each is arguably an international human right on its own account.

Within this framework, the paper has described the emergence of a "tri-partite" and holistic approach in international law as demonstrated by new and evolving international human rights such as the right to development and the right to environment. This multi-dimensional approach integrates human development, economic development and environmental stewardship components under the umbrella of the nascent body of international law in the field of sustainable development.

The paper has adopted a policy science approach toward understanding law and its function as a process of decision-making in conformity with the expectations of appropriateness by those who are politically relevant. In viewing law as an ever changing normative system reflecting values in a social process for making decisions, policy science is an appropriate methodology for identifying and appraising existing and emerging normative standards and laws, and for evaluating trends in international law. These include the appearance of guidelines, recommendations and other "non- enforceable" texts, so-called soft-law, which play a significant role in the development of contemporary international law. In this context, the paper has also sought to identify broad constituencies of actors, both state and non-state, which shape international law and global society.

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For more information, contact: Owen J. Lynch (olynch@ciel.org).