Healthy Environment is a Human Right
Source: https://www.amnesty.org/
1972: Stockholm Declaration: The UN Conference on the Human Environment recognized that "Man has the 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 marked the beginning of formal international discussion on environmental issues and human rights.
July 2022: The UN General Assembly officially recognized the "right to a healthy envirenment" as a universal human right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment - meaning clean air, safe water and climate, healthy food, non-toxic environments, and healthy ecosystems.
30 September 2025: The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) issued new guidance on how States can ensure development while safeguarding the planet for future generations, in General Comment No. 27: "A clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an essential precondition for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights'.
July 2022: The UN General Assembly officially recognized the "right to a healthy envirenment" as a universal human right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment - meaning clean air, safe water and climate, healthy food, non-toxic environments, and healthy ecosystems.
30 September 2025: The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) issued new guidance on how States can ensure development while safeguarding the planet for future generations, in General Comment No. 27: "A clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an essential precondition for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights'.
- Escalating environmental crises are already eroding these rights and pushing the planet toward “irreversible biophysical tipping points that threaten fundamental ecological systems and process that sustain life.”
- Indigenous Peoples, peasants and other individuals, groups, and countries, including victims of colonialism, the slave trade and apartheid, have historically contributed least to the environmental crises, but are the most impacted.
- Developed States must take the lead in mitigation efforts and provide financial and technological assistance to developing States to enable their effective climate action.
- States parties have an extraterritorial obligation to prevent business enterprises under their jurisdiction from causing environmental harm that affects human rights in other countries.
'Development cannot be achieved on dying planet'
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
|
“These planetary environmental threats are driven by unsustainable levels of production and consumption, particularly by developed States that have historically contributed most to environmental degradation and climate change, and shaped by enduring relations of domination over both nature and people, deeply rooted in colonial-era resource extraction. [...] |
|
|
|
|
Uniqueness of the Right to a Healthy Environment
Unlike other human rights, the right to a healthy environment depends not only on governments and public institutions but also on the collective actions of individuals, communities, businesses, and society as a whole. The choices we make every day—from how we consume resources to how we manage waste or support sustainable practices—can contribute to protecting or undermining this right for present and future generations.
The right to a healthy environment is unique because its protection depends on shared responsibility:
The right to a healthy environment is unique because its protection depends on shared responsibility:
- Governments establish laws and policies,
- businesses adopt sustainable practices,
- communities take collective action, and
- individuals make informed choices that contribute to protecting this right for present and future generations.
The facts on climate and energy -Myth BustersThe choices we make every day determine the changes in the climate we will experience in the future!
From Rights to Action: WE can ACT RESPONSIBLE and contribute to a healthier environment! EU Learning corner on the Right to a Healthy Environment
|
|
From Rights to Responsibility: Protecting this Right Starts with Us
- Save energy at home:
- use less energy,
- improving the home’s energy efficiency: better insulation, replacing your oil or gas furnace
3. Consider a green way of transportation:
- Walk, bike or take public transport
- Switch to an electric vehicle
- Fewer flights, take a train
- more online meetings
Electronics, clothes, plastics and other items we buy cause carbon emissions at each point in production, from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing and transporting goods to market. Buy fewer things, whenever possible, and repair what you can.
5. Eat more natural - vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and less meat and dairy. Producing plant-based foods generally results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires less energy, land, and water.
6. Throw away less food
7. Protect Biodiversity: Plant native species. Most insects will not eat non-native plants, which means birds and other species lose a food source.
8. Clean up your environment
9. Speak up! :)
States Responsibilities:
The UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 52/23 on "The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment" and Resolution 53/6 on "Climate change and human rights", which outlined numerous State obligations regarding environmental issues. Key obligations include:
- Policy and Legal Frameworks: States should adopt national and local policies and legal frameworks to ensure the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, including for biodiversity and ecosystems.
- Capacity Building: States are urged to build capacity to protect the environment in line with their human rights obligations.
- Access to Information, Participation, and Justice: States must ensure effective public access to environmental information, participation in decision-making, and access to justice and remedies for environment-related human rights violations.
- Implementation of Agreements: The full implementation of relevant multilateral environmental agreements is necessary.
- Protection of Vulnerable Populations: Climate and environmental policies must protect those most affected by environmental crises, such as children, Indigenous Peoples, older persons, persons with disabilities, and migrants.
- International Cooperation: States are encouraged to cooperate and share good practices on implementing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
- Addressing Loss and Damage: Resolution 53/6 recognized the importance of averting, minimizing, and addressing loss and damage from climate change, and requested an analytical study on the topic
|
Actions:
United Nations: ACT NOW ! 
|
|
2050 EU Action Plan: "Towards a Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil
|
EU Targets by 2030:
|
|
