Right to a healthy environment

The right is interconnected with other health-focused human rights, such as the right to water and sanitation, right to food and right to health. The right to a healthy environment uses a human rights approach to protect environmental quality; this approach addresses the impact of environmental harm upon individual humans, as opposed to the more traditional approach of environmental regulation which focuses on impacts to other states or the environment itself. Yet another approach to environmental protection is rights of nature which tries to extend the rights enjoyed by humans and corporations to nature as well. The right includes both substantive and procedural elements.

Role of the state

The right creates an obligation of the state to regulate and enforce environmental laws, control pollution, and otherwise provide justice and protections for communities harmed by environmental problems. The right to a healthy environment has been an important right for creating environmental legal precedents for climate change litigation and other environmental issues.

Attempts to amend constitutions

An environmental rights amendment is type of amendment usually proposed to a constitution or a bill of rights. It seeks to outline and protect the environmental rights of people, such as clean water, clean air, and a stable climate.

The term is often used synonymously with the term “Green Amendment,” although Green Amendments were defined by the educational advocacy organization Green Amendments for the Generations and its founder Maya van Rossum who coined the term.

Environmental Rights Amendments and Green Amendments seek to guarantee people the right to a healthy environment. Related rights included in these proposals often include a right to a stable climate, clean air and water, environmental justice, preservation of natural, scenic, esthetic and historic values of the environment.

The right to a healthy environment can be implemented into constitutional law other ways, such as written into constitutions in their drafting, such as in Tunisia, or enforced through climate change litigation, such as in Colombia. In the United States, most advocates are focused on amending existing state constitutions or enforcing existing state constitutions, such as in Held v. Montana, where youth won a trial court judgment for enforcement the existing state constitution.

2 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

International approaches

Historically, major United Nations' human rights instruments, like the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights do not recognize the right to a healthy environment. The 1972 Stockholm Declaration recognizes the right, but is not a legally binding document. The 1992 Rio Declaration does not use the language of human rights, although it does state that individuals shall have access to information regarding environmental matters, participation in decision-making, and access to justice. The currently proposed UN resolution, the Global Pact for the Environment, if adopted, would be the first UN human rights instrument to include the right to a healthy environment.

Over 150 states in the UN have independently recognized the right in some form via legislation, litigation, constitutional law, treaty law or other legal authority. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, American Convention on Human Rights, Escazu Agreement, Arab Charter on Human Rights, and ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights each include a right to a healthy environment. Other human rights frameworks, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child refer to environmental issues as they relate to the framework's focus, in this case children's rights.

UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights and the Environment John H. Knox (2012–2018) and David R. Boyd (2018–) have made recommendations on how to formalize these rights in international law. This was endorsed by a number of committees at the UN level, as well as local legal communities such as the New York City Bar, in 2020.

The right to a healthy environment is at the core of the international approach to human rights and climate change. The effects of climate change on human rights are presented by OHCHR in a fact sheet with the most frequently asked questions on the subject.

UN Human Rights Council Resolution

In 2021 during its 48th session, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution (put forward by the core group comprising Costa Rica, Morocco, Slovenia, Switzerland and the Maldives, with Costa Rica being penholder), recognizing "The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment", marking the first time that the body declared a human right. The resolution is not legally binding, but it "invites the United Nations General Assembly to consider the matter".

UN General Assembly Resolution

In 2022 during its 76th session, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution put forward by a core group including Costa Rica, Morocco, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the Maldives once again recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Although General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, this resolution was welcomed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, multiple special rapporteurs and members of some civil society organizations.

Historical background

The concept of a human right to a healthy environment has evolved over several decades, shaped by both international initiatives and national legislation. The earliest formal recognition can be traced to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, which acknowledged that humans have a fundamental right to “freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being.” This conference laid the groundwork for integrating environmental concerns within human rights frameworks.

In the following decades, regional and national instruments began to incorporate environmental rights. For example, several African constitutions, including those of South Africa and Tunisia, explicitly recognize the right to a healthy environment. Similarly, the Aarhus Convention (1998) in Europe established procedural rights related to environmental protection, including access to information, public participation, and access to justice.

Internationally, advocacy and legal scholarship have emphasized the interconnection between environmental protection and fundamental human rights such as the right to health, food, water, and life. This culminated in the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 48/13 (2021), which recognized a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right. Subsequently, in 2022, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted a resolution recognizing the right to a healthy environment, marking a significant milestone in international law.

Today, the right to a healthy environment is increasingly referenced in climate litigation, environmental policymaking, and human rights advocacy, reflecting its growing importance in addressing global environmental challenges, from pollution and deforestation to climate change and biodiversity loss.