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commercial bank loans. was greater than all ODA that year. Since 1983 as indebtedness worsened, commercial bank lending to developing cuuntries has declined.[1]
79. Efforts are being made to stimulate private investment. These efforts should be, geared to supporting sustainable development. The industrial and financial corporations making such investments, and the export credit, investment insurance, and other programmes that facilitate them, should incorporate sustainable development criteria into their policies.
5. Providing the Legal Means
80. National and international law has traditionally lagged behind events. Today, legal regimes are being rapidly outdistanced by the accelerating pace and expanding scale of impacts on the environmental base of development. Human laws must be reformulated to keep human activities in harmony with the unchanging and universal laws of nature. There is an urgent need:
- to recognize and respect the reciprocal rights and responsibilities of individuals and states regarding sustainable development,
- to establish and apply new norms for state and interstate behaviour to achieve sustainable development,
- to strengthen and extend the application of existing laws and international agreements in support of sustainable development, and
- to reinforce existing methods and develop new procedures for avoiding and resolving environmental disputes.
5.1 Recognizing. Rights and Responsibilities
81. Principle 1 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration said that 'Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, on an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being'.[2] It further proclaimed the solemn responsibility of government to protect and improve the environment for both present and future generations. After the Stockholm Conference, several states recognized in their Constitutions or laws the right to an adequate environment and the obligation of the state to protect that environment.
82. Recognition by states of their responsibility to ensure an adequate environment for present as well as future generations is an important step towards sustainable development. However, progress ill also be facilitated by recognition of, for example, the tight of individuals to know and have access to current information on the state of the, environment and natural resources, the right to be consulted and to participate in decision making on activities likely to have a significant effect on the environment, and the right to legal remedies and redress to those whose health or environment has been or may be seriously affected,
- ↑ See P.S. Thachr 'International Institutional Support: The International System, Funding and Technical Assistance', paper presented to the World Conservation Strategy Conference, Ottawa, Canada, June 1986.
- ↑ United Nations, Report of the United Nations conference Human Environment, document A/Conf.48/14/Rev l, Chapter 1 (New York: 1972).
