Healthy Environment as a Human Right: Building Capacities and Enforcing Strategies to Provide Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

Dr. Vesna Stefanovska

Introduction

On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) with 161 votes in favor and only 8 abstentions, adopted the historic resolution recognizing access to a healthy environment as a universal human right. The Resolution, although not binding, calls on states to step up efforts to ensure their people have access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The Resolution reaffirms that international cooperation has an essential role in assisting developing countries - including highly indebted poor countries, least developed countries as well as the middle-income countries facing specific challenges - and in strengthening their human, institutional and technological capacities. Moreover, the Resolution recognizes that while the implications of environmental damage are felt by all individuals, the consequences are felt most acutely by women and those segments of the population that are already in vulnerable situations. This includes indigenous peoples, children, older persons, and persons with disabilities. In this post, I argue that the recognition of the right to a healthy environment as a human right is the first concrete step towards its implementation in practice. A combination of several approaches (led by the human rights-based approach) as well as serious dedication of all duty-bearers will contribute towards effective realization of this right worldwide. 

The Right to a Healthy Environment – The Path Towards International Acknowledgement

Although international human rights law does not guarantee the right to a clean and safe environment, many international instruments have included or indirectly endorsed such environmental protection. For example, the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its Article 12 provides the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and calls on state parties to improve all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene. The 1972 Stockholm Declaration on human environment was the first international document to recognize the link between human rights and the environment stating that “both aspects of man’s environment, the natural and the man-made, are essential to his well-being and to the enjoyment of basic human rights”. Similar statements were given with the Vienna Declaration at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 identified a number of links between health, environment and human rights. Principle 1 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in 1992, emphasizes that human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development and that they are entitled to a healthy and productive life. Agenda 21, adopted by the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 also recalls in its Preamble that integration of environment and development concerns greater attention which  will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs such as improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer and more prosperous future because no nation can achieve this on its own, but together in a global partnership for sustainable development. Further, the Aarhus Convention recognizes that every person has the right to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being, and the duty, both individually and in association with others, to protect and improve the environment for the benefit of present and future generations. Moreover, in Article 1 it guarantees the rights of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters.

The first concrete steps towards recognition of the importance of healthy environment and taking joint actions by all states were undertaken with the Paris Climate Agreements in 2015 where states committed to take actions to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights. Finally, on 8 October 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) declared with Resolution 48/13 that having a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right, with 43 votes in favor and only 4 abstentions. This UNHRC resolution follows upon similar legal reforms on national and international levels and opened the possibility for adoption of the historic UNGA resolution recognizing access to a healthy environment as a universal human right.

Undoubtedly, the path of acknowledgment has been long, but from today’s perspectives it shows that the postulates of the recognition of the right to a healthy environment as a human right have been set several decades ago. More importantly, back then, the political, environmental, social, and economic preconditions were different from those today, but still, the idea has been recognized and endorsed.

Human Rights-Based Approach to Healthy Environment

The human rights-based approach to healthy environment aims to ensure that development programmes and projects are designed to improve human well-being. In this specific matter, the first step of the human rights-based approach is to identify the right-holders and duty-bearers. Within the past decade this process has been finalized throughout the commitments given with the Paris Climate Agreement, but also during the process of development. Now, implementation should be undertaken, because the right to a healthy environment affects many other fundamental human rights such as the right to life, right to clean water and air, right to food etc. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the recognition of the right to a healthy environment at the global level will support efforts to address environmental crises in a more coordinated, effective and non-discriminatory manner, help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, provide stronger protection of rights and of the people defending the environment, and help create a world where people can live in harmony with nature.

The human rights-based approach has several implications for health development, as environmental human rights are both substantive and procedural. Substantive (pp.13), as they provide rights to different aspects of a healthy and safe environment. Procedural (pp.14), for they ensure the public’s access to environmental decision-making and to judicial review of environmental decisions.

The United Nations has also drafted a common understanding on the content of the human rights-based approach to development among UN Agencies. According to the document, “[a]ll programmes of development co-operation, policies and technical assistance should further the realization of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments”. The document states that development cooperation should increase the capacity of “duty-bearers” to meet their obligations and the ability of “rights-holders” to claim their rights.

Having in mind the above mentioned, a human rights-based approach is crucial in mapping the spheres where the right to a healthy environment can be incorporated. This approach intends to address the necessity of incorporation of the right to a healthy environment in many laws to provide for better enjoyment. Moreover, the human rights-based approach can contribute towards minimizing the differences between developed countries and those developing. These two categories can also assist poor countries in providing clean water, air, food and cutting carbon emissions to achieve a mutually healthy environment. This is necessary because the poorer countries face greater risk from climate changes and are not able to provide for a healthy environment. At the same time, they lack financial support which is crucial in diminishing the negative effects from the climate change. The newly adopted Resolution unites developed, developing and poor countries in the same battle for providing the right to a healthy environment and urges international community in supporting environmental sustainability through joint efforts.

Concluding Remarks

Many rights have been proclaimed as human rights, but that has not prevented states from violating them or neglecting their importance for the community as a whole. Bearing in mind that this UN Resolution is not binding for states, it provides an opportunity for international organizations, governments, and people to unite themselves and to strive towards providing healthy environment. However, this process is going forward on a path full of challenges. Indeed, these challenges are complex and diverse. From one side, there is climate change which threatens the enjoyment of a wide range of human rights including the right to a healthy environment, together with the environmental pollution, global warming, destroying forests and carbon emissions. From the other side, there are substantive and procedural issues - such as the ineffectiveness of environmental institutions, lack of political support, reluctance in adoption of binding legal instruments for enforcement of the right to a healthy environment, problems with allocation of funds, participation of all parties in the process of decision-making as well as establishing a controlling mechanism for monitoring of the implementation of this right.

The right to a healthy environment should prevail upon any difficulty to create an environment that will undoubtedly provide for enjoyment of many other fundamental rights. For this reason, states must first strengthen their environmental policies and regulations in completely inclusive processes, to incorporate the right to a healthy environment in their constitutions and where necessary to adopt laws to uphold the right to a healthy environment to its full extent, including to hold businesses, particularly extractive industries compliant, which will provide healthy environment. The newly adopted resolution leaves space for taking more ambitious, coherent, and coordinated actions to protect the environment. This could be achieved with actions by governments and other duty-bearers, affirming their accountability and public engagement.

Author:

Vesna Stefanovska holds a PhD in International Law and two master’s degrees in International and Civil Law. She works as a Program Coordinator in the Institute for Human Rights and is Associate Editor of the law journal “Legal Dialogue”, North Macedonia.