Human Rights Day: advancing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment
By Lika Kvizhashvili on December 10, 2024
Every year on December 10, the world comes together to celebrate Human Rights Day, marking the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In recent years, the emphasis has expanded to include a growing recognition of environmental rights. With the United Nations General Assembly’s groundbreaking resolution in 2022, the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment was formally acknowledged as a universal human right. This milestone reflects the inseparable connection between human rights and the environment, particularly as the world faces mounting ecological crises.
Defining the right to a healthy environment
The right to a healthy environment encompasses both substantive and procedural rights:
- Substantive Rights: Access to clean air, safe drinking water, sustainable food, a stable climate, and healthy ecosystems.
- Procedural Rights: The ability to participate in environmental decision-making, access to environmental information, and seeking justice for environmental harm.
This comprehensive framework underscores that environmental health is not just a matter of ecological concern—it is a fundamental human right that ensures the dignity, safety, and well-being of individuals and communities. It also holds governments and private entities accountable for actions that harm ecosystems and threaten human survival.
The critical need for environmental rights
The right to a healthy environment has become increasingly urgent in the face of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution:
- Climate Change: Rising global temperatures exacerbate extreme weather events, displacement, and resource scarcity, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations.
- Biodiversity Loss: The destruction of ecosystems threatens food security, clean water supplies, and the natural balance needed for human survival.
- Pollution: Air and water pollution lead to millions of premature deaths annually, with children, women, and marginalized communities bearing the greatest burden.
The right to a healthy environment provides a legal and moral foundation to address these challenges. It empowers individuals to demand sustainable practices, participate in environmental governance, and seek remedies for environmental harm.
Barriers to realizing the right
Despite its recognition, significant barriers remain in making this right a reality:
- Lack of Enforcement: Many countries lack the legal frameworks or resources to uphold environmental protections.
- Economic Priorities Over Environment: Short-term economic gains often overshadow long-term environmental sustainability.
- Vulnerability of Marginalized Groups: Indigenous communities, women, and children are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation, yet often lack access to justice.
- Threats to Environmental Defenders: Environmental activists frequently face harassment and violence for advocating against harmful practices.
Opportunities for change
Achieving the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment requires coordinated efforts at all levels:
- Strengthening National Frameworks: Countries must integrate environmental rights into their constitutions, laws, and policies. Examples from nations like Ecuador and South Africa show how legal recognition of environmental rights can lead to tangible protections.
- Empowering Vulnerable Groups: Governments must ensure equal access to justice and environmental decision-making for all communities, particularly those most affected by ecological harm.
- Global Cooperation: Tackling transboundary environmental issues like climate change and deforestation requires international collaboration and financial support for developing nations.
- Education and Advocacy: Raising public awareness about environmental rights can mobilize communities to hold governments and corporations accountable.
The UNEP, UNDP, and OHCHR are actively supporting countries in strengthening legal frameworks and promoting environmental governance. Their joint efforts aim to ensure that environmental rights become a cornerstone of sustainable development.
A path to sustainable development
The integration of environmental rights into human rights frameworks is not just an ethical imperative—it is also essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A clean, healthy environment underpins key goals, including:
- SDG 3: Good health and well-being.
- SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation.
- SDG 13: Climate action.
- SDG 15: Life on land.
By aligning environmental policies with these goals, nations can create a future where people and planet thrive together.
Conclusion
As we observe Human Rights Day, let us recognize that the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is not merely an environmental issue - it is a fundamental human right. It protects our ability to live with dignity, security, and health.
Safeguarding this right is a shared responsibility that demands immediate and collective action. By strengthening legal frameworks, addressing barriers, and fostering global cooperation, we can ensure that everyone, everywhere, enjoys the benefits of a healthy environment.
Fontes/Links:
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/un-resolution-billed-turning-point-climate-justice
https://feature.undp.org/rights-are-the-answer/
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