By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA
IT is the duty of the courts to ensure that persons found wanting of polluting the environment pay for the damages caused, Chief Justice Irene Mambilima has said.
Ms Justice Mambilima noted that some statutes impose ridiculously low fines and sentences, which has made it easier for offenders to pay the fine and continue to degrade the environment.
She said it was evident world over that environmental justice was crucial to ending environmental degradation.
She said this in a speech read for her by Constitutional Court judge, Annie Sitali, at the training of trainers’ validation workshop at Twangale Park in Lusaka.
The two-day workshop is sponsored by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
Ms Justice Mambilima said that global support for sustainable development was anchored on the tenets in principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development which among others advocated for effective access to environmental justice.
Constitutional Court judge, Mungeni Mulenga, who is chairperson of the advisory committee on training and continued education, said that the training of judges would enhance environmental justice in the country.
