enjoyment of all human rights. The State should make sure that individuals are able to exercise their rights and freedoms, for example, by promoting tolerance, raising awareness, and even building infrastructures. 47. The last layer of obligation requires the State to fulfil the rights and freedoms it freely undertook under the various human rights regimes. It is more of a positive expectation on the part of the State to move its machinery towards the actual realisation of the rights. This is also very much intertwined with the duty to promote mentioned in the preceding paragraph. It could consist in the direct provision of 6 basic needs such as food or resources that can be used for food (direct food aid or social security). 48. Thus, States are generally burdened with the above set of duties when they commit themselves under human rights instruments. Emphasising the all embracing nature of their obligations, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights , for instance, under Article 2(1) stipulates exemplarily that States “undertake to take steps…by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures.” Depending on the type of rights under consideration, the level of emphasis in the application of these duties varies. But sometimes, the need to meaningfully enjoy some of the rights demands a concerted action from the State in terms of more than one of the said duties. Whether the government of Nigeria has, by its conduct, violated the provisions of the African Charter as claimed by the Complainants is examined here below. 49. In accordance with Article 60 and Article 61 of the African Charter, this communication is examined in the light of the provisions of the African Charter and the relevant international and regional human rights instruments and principles. The [African] Commission thanks the two human rights NGOs who brought the matter under its purview: the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (Nigeria) and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (USA). Such is a demonstration of the usefulness to the [African] Commission and individuals of actio popularis , which is wisely allowed under the African Charter. It is a matter of regret that the only written response from the Government of Nigeria is an admission of the gravamen of the complaints which is contained in a Note Verbale and which we have reproduced above at paragraph 30. In the circumstances, the [African] Commission is compelled to proceed with the examination of the matter on the basis of the uncontested allegations of the Complainants, which are consequently accepted by the [African] Commission. 50. The Complainants allege that the Nigerian Government violated the right to health and the right to clean environment as recognised under Article 16 and Article 24 of the African Charter by failing to fulfill the minimum duties required by these rights. This, the Complainants allege, the government has done by: • • • Directly participating in the contamination of air, water and soil and thereby harming the health of the Ogoni population; Failing to protect the Ogoni population from the harm caused by the NNPC Shell Consortium but instead using its security forces to facilitate the damage; Failing to provide or permit studies of potential or actual environmental and health risks caused by the oil operations. Article 16 of the African Charter reads: “(1) Every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health. (2) States Parties to the present Charter shall take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick.” Article 24 of the African Charter reads: “All peoples shall have the right to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development.” 51. These rights recognise the importance of a clean and safe environment that is closely linked to economic and social rights in so far as the environment affects the quality of life and safety of the 7 individual. As has been rightly observed by Alexander Kiss, “an environment degraded by pollution