On 28 July 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution recognizing the human right to a healthy environment. The resolution, which followed the recognition of the right by the Human Rights Council (HRC) in October 2021 was an unprecedented decision, adopted with the unparalleled support of member countries. The UN GA resolution sends a powerful message that there is widespread, worldwide support for this right – which is already recognized in 156 countries at the national and regional levels.
The UN GA resolution on the right to a healthy environment was the result of States’ commitment on environmental issues, many years of advocacy and collaboration by national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, children and young people, and business actors, among others, and supported by UN entities. Putting rights at the centre of addressing the triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity and nature loss, and pollution – is more important now than ever and an imperative for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As a follow up on the UN GA Resolution, an Information Note was jointly released in January 2023 by UNEP, UNDP, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It aims to improve understanding of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and why it matters. The note traces the origins of this right, describes its key elements and highlights the expected benefits of its recognition by the UN GA. Importantly, the note outlines the roles of different stakeholders in advancing realization of the right.
From the Introduction to the Note:
All people have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. As human rights and the environment are interdependent, a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is necessary for the full enjoyment of a wide range of human rights, such as the rights to life, health, food, water and sanitation and development, among others. At the same time, the enjoyment of all human rights, including the rights to information, participation and access to justice, is of great importance to the protection of the environment.
Despite myriad international agreements, as well as national laws and policies, the condition of our environment keeps deteriorating. The global crises we currently face, including climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and pollution, represent some of the biggest threats to humanity, severely affecting the exercise and enjoyment of human rights. Some examples include:
- Rising global temperatures are increasing water shortages and land degradation, including soil erosion, vegetation loss, wildfires, and permafrost, affecting people’s rights to life, health, food, water and adequate standard of living, among other rights.
- Air pollution is considered one of the biggest environmental threats to health resulting in an estimated seven million premature deaths every year in violation of the rights to health and life.
- Over 38 million people were newly displaced by climate-related disasters in 2021. This directly affects the enjoyment of the rights to adequate housing, education, health and security, among others.
- Environmental degradation disproportionately impacts persons, groups and peoples already in vulnerable situations. The impacts of the triple planetary crisis augment the structural and other intersecting barriers they face. Some examples of those who have often been and may continue to be disproportionately affected by the triple planetary crisis include:
- Women and girls, as environmental degradation reinforces pre-existing gender inequalities and discrimination on issues such as gender-based violence, and rights of access and tenure over land and natural resources.
- Children who, because of inter alia their less-developed physiology and immune systems, experience the effects of environmental degradation more intensely due to food and water shortages, and transmission of diseases.
- Indigenous Peoples who often face grave and even life-threatening risks for defending the traditional lands, resources and territories upon which their communities depend for survival, livelihoods and religious and customary practices.
Advancing a rights-based approach to environmental protection
A human rights-based approach (HRBA) to environmental protection is a critical tool for empowering those impacted by environmental activities and enhancing accountability for those making decisions and undertaking environmental activities. The HRBA integrates all human rights, including the right to a healthy environment and its substantive and procedural elements mentioned above as well as human rights principles such as inclusivity and universality, equality and non-discrimination, and accountability.
The HRBA identifies and strengthens the relationship between ‘duty bearers’ with human rights obligations and ‘rights holders’ who are empowered to hold duty bearers to account and to enjoy access to effective remedies for violations.
Rights-based approaches to environmental decision-making and policy development can provide the following benefits, among others:
- Establishment of consistent global environmental human rights standards to facilitate interventions at the appropriate levels (local, national, regional and international).
- Strengthened capacities of States to meet their human rights and environmental obligations in a coherent manner, , including their duty to ensure that private entities/non-State actor respect human rights.
- Enhanced accountability by enabling people to uphold their rights and hold States and other stakeholders to account.
- More effective, legitimate and sustainable outcomes.
