Human Rights and the Environment: A Normative and Institutional Framework in the UN

This paper presents the development of a new human right: the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This proved to be a challenging endeavour. Although the official catalogue of human rights does not contain this right, legal scholars from the 1970s have urged its inclusion in the wider system. Environmental rights are considered to be as third generation rights, urging states and the international community to act in favour of environmental protection. They are also considered a clear moral obligation, a view shared by global churches. This paper outlines the evolution of this human rights concept from the UN Stockholm Summit in 1972 to the present day, through various summits, conferences, and conventions. One European regional convention that takes environmental rights as its basis is the 1998 Aarhus Convention. Unfortunately, several obstacles hinder the inclusion of these rights in the human rights system due to differences in focus. Nevertheless, this development could continue via soft law documents and judgements, including those of the European Court of Human Rights, and new UN institutions such as the Special Rapporteur on the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. After many discussions and published documents by the UN Human Rights Council, the Council itself agreed in 2021 and the UN General Assembly agreed in 2022 that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment should be recognised as a human right, finally putting the topic on the right track.