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Sustainable Development in International Environmental Law

bring to all peoples the benefits of development and the opportunity to
enhance the quality of life. Wrongly or heedlessly applied, the same power
can do incalculable harm to human beings and the human environment”
and “to defend and improve the human environment for present and future
generations has become and imperative goal for mankind - a goal to be
pursued together with, and in harmony with, the established and fundamental
goals of peace and of world-wide economic and social development” (Turgut
1997:702; Boyar 2020:1925); as well as highlighting the bearing capacity of the
environment in principles 2, 3, 4, 5, 13 and 14 of the Declaration, emphasizing
the necessity of respecting the rights of future generations while utilising
the environmental aspects, expressing that the development is linked with
the environment and touching upon the relation between the development
and environment from 6th to 12th principles of the Declaration (Güneş
2021:332, Skalar 2015:24). Contrary to the concern that the competitiveness
of developing countries in international trade will be negatively affected due
to high environmental standards, it was argued that their competitiveness will
increase with the Declaration (Ramlogan 2011:15-16).
Despite its significant regulations and contributions to the establishment of
international environmental law, the Stockholm Declaration is not legally binding.
The basic principles of international environmental law and policies were defined
by the Declaration in terms of its flexible legal document nature and being more
of a tool of political pressure (Cordonier Segger and Khalfan 2004:17).
Other important results of this Conference include the establishment
of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which has its own
bodies in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1972 and plays an important role in the creation
and implementation of environmental protection Decrees at the global and
regional level (Güneş 2021:332). The Mediterranean Action Plan was approved
in Barcelona in 1975 and ‘Habitat I’ was convened in Canada in 1976, which
was the first environmental conference asserting the need for international
cooperation and solving the urbanization and housing problems faced
by developing countries, especially on the topic of human settlement and
environmental connectivity. In 1980, a new strategy plan with a section titled
as ‘Towards Sustainable Development’ was published by World Conservation
Union. Along with the foundation of World Resources Institute in 1982, and
the publication of World Charter for Nature in the same year by the United
Nations General Assembly, which addresses the sustainable development
more explicitly than Stockholm Declaration (Güneş 2021:333), establishment
of World Commission on Environment and Development in 1983 to deal with
the development and environmental protection relationship (Skalar 2015:25),
World Commission on Environment and Improvement was founded in the

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