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Environment
The intersection between human rights and the environment gives rise to a broad range of issues. Despite the lack of a specifically articulated right to a healthy and sustainable environment in a legally binding international instrument, the connection between environmental protection and the protection of human rights has been recognised.
At the global level, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change pose a threat through flooding, increased storm activity and the destruction of fish stocks. At the trans-national level, pollution originating within one state may contaminate the air and water resources of another state, and development projects, such as dam construction, may deplete or alter shared resources. At the national level, vulnerable communities are often displaced to accommodate development projects; factories may pollute air and water supplies, and citizens may be denied information about potentially harmful environmental conditions.
Environmental integrity is important to the right to life, health, food and water and even to the right of self-determination. Furthermore, the exercise of participatory rights, such as the right to information and access to justice, are important for environmental protection.
The relationship between human rights and the environment is both complementary and contradictory. International human rights instruments rarely mention the environment and environmental instruments generally focus on environmental damage as a harm per se, rather than considering its effect on human populations.
While international human rights law generally governs the relationship between a state and its citizens, international environmental law generally governs the relationship between states. Not every international obligation assumed by a state will confer a right on its citizens, and recourse against derogations from international environmental obligations is generally available to States, not to individuals or other groups.
A consideration of human rights and the environment, therefore, gives rise to questions relating to issues such as state responsibility, whether state responsibility extends to environmental harms affecting human rights outside the state’s territory or jurisdiction, whether the state has an obligation to protect its citizens from harms originating outside its territory, and whether non-state actors can be held accountable for human rights violations.
 ACJ Terms of Reference on the Right to Environment |
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