conditions may be affected adversely by environmental factors such as exposure to hazardous or toxic substances or working conditions. 28 The Right to Property Though article 17 the UDHR provides that everyone has a right to own property and that no one shall be deprived of their property without compensation, ICESCR and ICCPR do not provide an individual or private right to property. 29 Nevertheless, regional instruments do provide rights to ownership or enjoyment of property. The Inter-American Court for Human Rights has stated that the granting of logging concessions on traditional Indigenous lands (which led to environmental degradation and pollution) violated the right to property in the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.30 Displaced Peoples Significant concerns arise in relation to the protection of people displaced due to environmental factors; in particular people who are: • • part of large scale internal displacement or forced across national boundaries and unable to return, or rendered stateless as a result of rising sea levels. For those internally displaced as a result of environmental factors, existing protection under applicable human rights instruments still apply and may be utilised to address environmental concerns. This approach has been reinforced in more recent developments, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (‘OCHA’) Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement 1998. For those externally displaced, the UN Human Rights Committee (‘UNHRC’) in General Comment 31 indicates that State Parties to the ICCPR are under an obligation not to extradite, deport, expel or otherwise remove a person from their territory where there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm either in the country to which removal is contemplated or in any country to which the person may be subsequently removed. 31 In the same General Comment, the UNHRC states that the enjoyment of ICCPR rights is not limited to citizens of States Parties but must also be available to all individuals, regardless of nationality or statelessness, such as asylum seekers, refugees, migrant workers and other persons, who may find themselves in the territory or subject to the jurisdiction, power or effective control of the State Party. 32 Procedural Rights Procedural rights are fundamental to the ability of people to protect themselves from environmental harms. The three component rights that assist affected persons in this regard are: • • • the right to access to information; the right to participate in decision-making; and the right to access to justice or remedies. 28 Committee on Economic and Social Rights, Committee on Economic and Social Rights Takes up Report of Cyprus, UN Doc HR/ESC/98/28 (1998) <http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/269317572467906E802566C1003DF573?opendocument> at 30 August 2007; Philippe Sands, Principles of International Environmental Law (2nd ed, 2003) 638. For a list of all ILO Conventions relating to workplace safety see <http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/subjlst.htm> at 11 September 2007. 29 Asia Pacific Forum, above n 41. 30 Ibid 42. 31 Human Rights Committee, General Comment 31: Nature of the General Legal Obligation on States Parties to the Covenant, UN Doc CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.13 (2004) [12]. 32 Ibid [10]. - 14 -