Humanity can no longer avoid, ignore or neglect the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on human rights, decent living conditions, economic growth and employment. Our common future is extremely dependent on whether we put health and the environment first.
This reality was recognized by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in a unanimous decision that recognized that the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a right for all and not a privilege for certain individuals. This position of the UNGA is a powerful message that there is general, worldwide support for this right, which is already recognized in 156 countries at the national and regional levels.
Resolution A/76/L.75, adopted on July 28, 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the Resolution), the General Assembly: 1) recognized the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right, 2) noted that this right is related to other rights and existing international law,
3) confirmed that the promotion of this right requires full implementation of multilateral environmental agreements based on the principles of international environmental law, 4) called on states, international organizations, enterprises and other interested parties to make political decisions, increase international cooperation, strengthen capacities and continue to share best practices in order to increase efforts towards ensuring a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for all.
The adoption of the Resolution was expected for a long time. The process that led to the adoption of this UNGA resolution began with Stockholm Declaration (1972). It was in Stockholm that the way for formation of international environmental law and national obligations in the field of environmental protection was opened. Now more than 150 national jurisdictions have enshrined its principles in their national laws.
Another step towards the Resolution was adoption of the resolution 48/13 of the UN Human Rights Council, which recognized the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in October 2021.
The adoption of these resolutions is an important achievement for protection of the human right to a healthy environment and interrelated and indivisible human rights that depend on it. Recognizing the right to a healthy environment gives all people a tool to hold their governments, major polluters and responsible parties accountable for environmental damage.
The GA is the main UN policy making body that consists of all 193 UN member states and is tasked with considering new human rights issues. UNGA resolutions often call on or require states to adopt legislative or policy measures to implement reforms in the national constitutional, legislative and political sectors.
The resolution of the UN General Assembly on the right to a healthy environment was the result of many years of advocacy and cooperation of national human rights institutes, non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples, children and youth, business structures and was supported by UN institutions. Placing human rights at the center of solutions to the planetary crisis (climate change, loss of biodiversity and natural resources and pollution) is important now more than ever and is a necessary condition for achieving Sustainable development goals (hereinafter – SDGs).
As Inger Andersen stated: “The recognition of the right to a healthy environment is a message to one billion children at extremely high risk of the impacts of a changed climate: a healthy environment is your right.”
Although there is no universally accepted definition of the right to a healthy environment, this right generally includes substantive and procedural elements. The substantive elements include clean air that is safe for human health; a safe and stable climate; access to clean drinking water that is safe for human health; healthy and sustainably produced food; non-toxic environments in which to live, work, study and play; healthy and rich biodiversity. The procedural elements include access to information, the right to participate in decision-making, and access to justice and effective remedies, including the secure exercise of these rights free from reprisals and retaliation. Realizing the right to a healthy environment also requires international cooperation, solidarity and equality in environmental action, including resource mobilization, as well as recognition of extraterritorial jurisdiction over human rights harms caused by environmental degradation.
In the past, recognition by the General Assembly of this or another human right contributed to the adoption by states of measures to ensure their implementation. Thus, the Resolution is expected to have many catalytic effects:
Increasing understanding of how environmental degradation threatens realization of all human rights and how the exercise of human rights contributes to better environmental protection.
Increasing legal recognition of this right in countries that do not yet recognize this right. For example, it can be a starting point for constitutional and/or legislative reforms to recognize the right to a safe environment.
Increasing awareness of the need to solve the problem of environmental degradation at the global level.
Strengthen implementation and enforcement processes in countries where the right is already recognized.
Increasing opportunities for subjects of rights and responsibilities of subjects of duties regarding respect, protection and fulfillment of the right to a clean environment.
Strengthening mechanisms for guaranteeing protection of human rights defenders in the field of environment.
Strengthening the responsibility of the private sector in terms of respect for the human right to a clean environment.
Strengthening the integrated response to the triple planetary crisis by states and the UN system.
Support for free and active participation of the public and residents of affected settlements in matters related to the right to a clean and healthy environment.
Thus, the recognition of this right by the UN General Assembly can be defined as a tool designed to bring about real changes that are beneficial to people and humanity as a whole.
In light of the adoption of the Resolution and assessment of its potential consequences, it is worth mentioning that already in September 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in its “Recommendation on Human Rights and the Protections of the Environment” included the following proposals for its member states: to consider recognizing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment at the national level “as a human right that is important for the enjoyment of human rights and is related to other rights and existing international law” and to consider the development of additional protocols to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and European Social Charter, to formally introduce the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment into these international instruments “based on the terminology used by the United Nations”. This was the result of the relevant Recommendation issued by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, especially regarding the need to include this “right of the new generation” in the European system of human rights. Recently, in May 2023, members of the Council of Europe gathered at Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. The summit ended with a Reykjavik Declaration, in which the member states expressed their commitment to strengthen the Council of Europe in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law and to develop tools for solving new challenges in the fields of technology and the environment.
Adopted in Reykjavík Environmental Supplement defines the Council of Europe’s approach to environmental protection and confirms that human rights and the environment are interconnected, and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an integral part of human rights in the understanding of current and future generations. The document contains a commitment to strengthen the work of the Council of Europe in the area of human rights in environmental aspects based on the recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and calls on member states that have not yet done so to actively consider the possibility of recognizing this right at the national level and ” to complete the work of the Council of Europe as soon as possible on the discussion of the need and possibility of a new instrument or instruments in the field of human rights and the environment”, although the document does not create a clear obligation to develop a new additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights.
The consequences of the adoption of the Resolution are also observed at the national level, including countries that until now were against the recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment at the UN. For example, in Canada amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1999, previously passed by the Senate and House of Commons, received royal assent on June 13, 2023. With these amendments, the Law for the first time recognizes the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for every individual and the corresponding duty of the state to protect it.
Thus, a key achievement of the recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council is the creation of conditions for other parts of the UN system, regional human rights systems and individual states (even those that were previously skeptical about this right) to implement and develop such right. The ability to inspire, even if not obligate (General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions are not legally binding), other parts of the international system to change course or take significant steps forward is an important and often underestimated strength of the United Nations and its resolutions.
