Recognizing the Right to a Healthy Environment
A healthy environment is essential for human life and dignity. A great majority of States have already established the right to a healthy environment, through their Constitutions and laws. This right has also been recognized by regional human rights frameworks, which have developed a growing jurisprudence to ensure the protection of this right.
In 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment released the Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment to the Human Rights Council. He demonstrated that there was already widespread acceptance of the right to a healthy environment across the globe. As the leading United Nations’ body for the protection and promotion of human rights, the Human Rights Council has a unique responsibility to address the threats that environmental degradation poses to human rights globally. Thus, it is now time that the United Nations, through the Human Rights Council, officially recognizes the right to a healthy environment through a resolution.
In 2020, members of the Human Rights and Climate Change Working Group and other partner organizations launched a global campaign to call upon Members of the Human Rights Council to formalize the recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. They released an open letter signed by more than 1000 civil society and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, and launched a dedicated website (http://healthyenvironmentisaright.org/).
Articles
Human Rights Watch (HRW), The Case for a Right to a Healthy Environment (2018)