Rethinking the premises underlying the right to development in African human rights jurisprudence

Abstract The current rate of planetary destruction, which is grounded in an understanding of development as economic growth based on environmental exploitation, has catastrophic consequences for organized human existence. The African human rights system, through the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Charter), is one of the few international legal systems which provides for an enforceable right to development and to a healthy environment. This article argues that the dichotomy set up between the right to development and the right to a healthy environment is ultimately false, because an understanding of development which does not take account of the environmental aspects is untenable in the long run. It is argued that the African Charter and its interpretation by the African Commission and the African Court have resulted in the establishment of important principles towards a revised understanding of development, not based on economic considerations, but rather as human well‐being (physical, mental, emotional and social considerations) within a healthy environment. It is further argued that important principles in African environmental ethics should be recognized in interpreting the right to development, which require that development takes place with the necessary regard and reverence for the environment.