Articulating the Basis for Promoting Environmental Justice in Central and Eastern Europe

The need for better environmental protection, human rights, and health has been widely asserted. Poorer and minority communities, namely those with the least economic and political participation capacity and targets of discrimination, benefit the least and take on more than their fair share of the burdens accruing from industrialized society. In the last five years, environmental justice has gained specific attention in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Research and advocacy are growing, and affirming the need for environmental justice in Europe, especially amongst the Roma. In this article, we introduce briefly some of the emerging findings on the status of environmental justice in CEE and summarize a general framework for asserting environmental justice in Europe.