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Abstract
In the last year, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted, and New York State's Constitution Bill of Rights has been amended to include, a right to a healthy environment. This continues a trend of adoption of a constitutional or statutory right to a healthy environment. The right to a healthy environment is constitutionally recognised in 110 countries. The article explores what a right to a healthy environment entails and how it can be made operational and effective. It is presented in three parts: first, what the right to a healthy environment involves; second, the correlative duties to uphold and protect the right; and third, the systematic and structural change to law and governance needed to uphold the right and discharge the duties.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The article is based on addresses to United Nations (UN) ambassadors for various countries at the French Mission to the UN, New York, 27 October 2022, and to the New York State Judicial Institute, White Plains, New York, 28 October 2022
2 United Nations General Assembly, The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, GA Res 76/300, UN GAOR, 76th sess, Agenda Item 74(b), UN Doc A/RES/76/300 (1 August 2022, adopted 28 July 2022)
3 Human Rights Council, The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, HRC Res 48/13, 48th sess, Agenda Item 3, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/48/13 (18 October 2021, adopted 8 October 2021)
4 David R Boyd, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, UN Doc A/77/284 (10 August 2022) [24]
5 John H Knox, ‘The Global Pact for the Environment: At the Crossroads of Human Rights and the Environment’ (2019) 28 Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law 40, 42
6 John Knox, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council, UN Doc A/HRC/37/59 (24 January 2018)
7 Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 36: Article 6: Right to Life, 124th sess, UN Doc CCPR/C/GC/36 (3 September 2019) [3]
8 Ibid [12]
9 Farooque v Government of Bangladesh (Supreme Court of Bangladesh, WP No 891 of 1994, 15 July 2001)
10 Subhash Kumar v State of Bihar (1991) AIR SC 420
11 Virender Gaur v State of Haryana (1995) 2 SCC 577
12 Ibid
13 Supreme Court of Colombia, 11001-22-03-000-2018-00319-01, 5 April 2018
14 Ibid 13
15 Ibid 34
16 Ibid 39
17 [2022] QLC 21
18 Ibid [1512]
19 Ibid [1646]
20 Ibid [1647]
21 Friends of the Irish Environment CLG v Fingal County Council (High Court of Ireland, No 344 JR, 21 November 2007) [264]
22 217 F Supp 3d 1224 (D Or 2016) 32
23 The State of the Netherlands v Urgenda Foundation ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2018:2610, The Hague Court of Appeal [5.2.2–5.3.2, 5.6.2]
24 Ibid [5.9.1]
25 The State of the Netherlands v Urgenda Foundation, ECLI:NL:HR:2019:2007, Supreme Court of the Netherlands, see in particular [8.2.2, 8.3.4]
26 Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v Youth Verdict Limited and Others (No 6) (n 16) [1565]
27 Ibid [1568]
28 David R Boyd, ‘The Human Right to a Healthy Environment: Protecting Life on Earth’ (Green Diplomacy, 14 October 2022) [3] <www.greendiplomacy.org/article/the-human-right-to-a-healthy-environment-protecting-life-on-earth/> accessed 6 December 2022
29 Gro Harlem Brundtland, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, UN Doc A/42/427 (20 March 1987)
30 Quoted in Boyd, Human Rights Obligations, UN Doc A/77/284 (n 4) [4]
31 Quoted in Boyd, Human Rights Obligations, UN Doc A/77/284 (n 4) [8]
32 Boyd, Human Rights Obligations, UN Doc A/77/284 (n 4) [11]
33 Ibid
34 For a detailed account, see J Rockström and M Klum, Big World, Small Planet (Yale University Press 2015)
35 World Economic Forum, The Global Risks Report 2021 (Insight Report, 16th edn, 19 January 2021) 7 <www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2021.pdf>
36 Ibid 23
37 Ibid
38 Ibid 24
39 (2019) 234 LGERA 357
40 As reproduced in David Attenborough, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future (Witness Books, 2020) 110
41 Ibid [441–450]
42 Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (Oxford University Press 1994) 262
43 Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, opened for signature 25 June 1998, 2161 UNTS 447 (entered into force 30 October 2001)
44 Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, opened for signature 4 March 2018, C.N.195.2018.TREATIES-XXVII.18 (entered into force 22 April 2021)
45 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, opened for signature 11 July 2003, OAU Doc CAB/LEG/66.6 (entered into force 25 November 2005)
46 Knox, ‘Global Pact for the Environment’ (n 5) 11
47 MC Mehta v Union of India (Writ Petition (Civil) 860 of 1991, 22 November 1991). The claim was brought under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution, which grants Indian citizens the right to seek a remedy from the Indian Supreme Court if their fundamental rights have been infringed.
48 Ibid
49 Knox, ‘Global Pact for the Environment’ (n 5) 12
50 Re Application of Maui Electric Company 408 P 3d 1 (Haw Sup Ct, 2017)
51 Ibid 12
52 Ibid 18
53 Ibid 21
54 [2022] ZAECMKHC 55
55 Ibid [99, 103]
56 Ibid [95]
57 Ibid [102]
58 Ibid [104]
59 [2022] KENET 699 (KLR)
60 Ibid [44]
61 Ibid [32]
62 Ibid [38]
63 Ibid [39]
64 Ibid [40]
65 Ibid [42, 43]
66 Ibid [44]
67 [2022] FCAFC 193
68 Tipakalippa v National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (No 2) [2022] FCA 1121
69 Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd v Tipakalippa (2019) FCAFC 193
70 Ibid [64, 67, 77, 78, 80, 150, 157]
71 Ibid [153]
72 Ibid [104]
73 Ibid [56]
74 Knox, ‘Global Pact for the Environment’ (n 5) 13
75 [2022] QLC 4
76 Ibid [19, 22]
77 Ibid [37]
78 Ibid [38]
79 Ibid [40]
80 Ibid [44]
81 Knox, ‘Global Pact for the Environment’ (n 5) 15
82 Ibid [34]
83 Application No 36220/97, ECHR 2005-VII
84 Ibid [74–75, 79]
85 (1993) 296 Phil 694
86 Ibid, 1
87 Daniel Billy and others v Australia (Torres Strait Islanders Petition), Human Rights Committee, 135th sess, UN Doc CCPR/C/135/D/3624/2019 (22 September 2022, adopted 21 July 2022)
88 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, opened for signature 16 December 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 March 1976)
89 Torres Strait Islanders Petition (n 86) [2.7–3.7]
90 Ibid [8.12–8.14]
91 Ibid [8.7]
92 Ibid Annexures I–II
93 Ibid [11]
94 (2021) 1 BvR 2656/18, I BvR 78/20, I BvR 96/20, I BvR 288/20
95 Ibid [251–255, 261]; see also Petra Minnerop, ‘The “Advance Interference-Like Effect” of Climate Targets: Fundamental Rights, Intergenerational Equity and the German Federal Constitutional Court’ (2022) 34 Journal of Environmental Law 135; Gerd Winter, ‘The Intergenerational Effect of Fundamental Rights: A Contribution of the German Federal Constitutional Court to Climate Protection’ (2022) 34 Journal of Environmental Law 209
96 Wesley Hohfeld, ‘Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied on Judicial Reasoning’ (1913) 23(1) Yale Law Journal 16
97 See Illinois Central Railroad v Illinois 146 US 387 (US Sup Ct, 1892); National Audubon Society v Superior Court (Mono Lake Case) 33 Cal 3d 419 (Cal Sup Ct, 1983); MC Mehta v Kamal Nath and Others (Protecting the Beas River Case), Writ Petition 182/1996 (Supreme Court of India, 12 May 2000); Stannards Marine Pty Ltd v North Sydney Council [2022] NSWLEC 99; see also Muthaiga North Residents Association v Nyari House Limited [2022] KEELC 2578 (KLR), in which the Environment and Land Court of Kenya affirmed that land reserved for public utility is held in trust for the people of Kenya and is accordingly not available for further alienation [64–67].
98 Juliana v United States (n 22)
99 CSJN (Arg), S1144.XLIV, 26 March 2009
100 Colombian Supreme Court, 11001-22-03- 000-2018-00319-01, 5 April 2018
101 Ibid 34
102 Ibid 45
103 Ibid 46
104 Ibid 46–47
105 Ibid 47
106 See the discussion in BJ Preston, ‘The Evolving Role of Environmental Rights in Climate Change Litigation’ (2018) 2 Chinese Journal of Environmental Law 131, 145–148
107 Farooque v Government of Bangladesh (2002) 22 BLD (HCD) 345 (Supreme Court of Bangladesh)
108 Prakash Mani Sharma v HMG Cabinet Secretariat (Supreme Court of Nepal, WN No 3027/2059, 10 December 2007)
109 Court (On Its Own Motion) v State of Himachal Pradesh (National Green Tribunal of India, Original Application No 237 of 2013)
110 MC Mehta v Union of India (Writ Petitions No 817 of 2015, 116 of 2013 and 728 of 2015, 16 December 2015)
111 MC Mehta v Union of India (Writ Petition No 13029/1985, 12 August 2016)
112 Vardhaman Kaushik v Union of India (National Green Tribunal of India, Original Application No 21 of 2014, 14 December 2014)
113 Urgenda Foundation v The State of the Netherlands (ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2015:7145); The State of the Netherlands v Urgenda Foundation (ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2018:2610) (Urgenda II); The State of the Netherlands v Urgenda Foundation (ECLI:NL:HR:2019:2007) (Urgenda III)
114 Urgenda II [5.2.2–5.3.2, 5.6.2]; Urgenda III [5.6.2, 5.8, 7.5.1]
115 Lahore High Court, Writ Petition No 25501/2015, 4 September 2015
116 Ibid [8]
117 Ibid [7]
118 Neubauer et al v Germany (n 93)
119 Ibid [194–195, 266]
120 Ibid [183]
121 United Nations General Assembly, The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment (n 1) 3
122 Boyd, Human Rights Obligations, UN Doc A/77/284 (n 4) [11]
123 Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist (Penguin Random House, 2018)
124 Kate Raworth, ‘Meet the Doughnut: The New Economic Model that Could Help End Inequality’, (World Economic Forum, 28 April 2017) <www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/the-new-economic-model-that-could-end-inequality-doughnut/>
125 Leghari v Federation of Pakistan (n 114)
126 Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Incorporated v Environment Protection Authority (2021) 250 LGERA 1 [18, 144, 149]
127 NSW Environmental Protection Authority, EPA Climate Change Policy, 22 November 2022
128 MC Mehta v Union of India and Others (Writ Petition (Civil) No 13381 of 1984); MC Mehta v Union of India and Others (Writ Petition No 3727 of 1985)
129 Metropolitan Manila Development Authority et al v Concerned Residents of Manila Bay et al (Supreme Court of the Philippines, GR Nos 171947-48, 18 December 2008)
130 In Republic v Kenya Revenue Authority & another Ex-Parte Peter Wainaina Githu T/A Quickserve Cargo Logistics (High Court of Kenya, Miscellaneous Application No 99 of 2013, 3 March 2014), the High Court of Kenya set out the parameters for applying structural interdicts. In Mitu-Bell Welfare Society v Kenya Airports Authority & others (Supreme Court of Kenya, Petition 3 of 2018, 11 January 2021), the Supreme Court of Kenya acknowledged structural interdicts as a remedy. In Isaiah Luyara Odando and another v National Management Environmental Authority and others (Environment and Land Court of Kenya, Constitutional Petition No 43 of 2019, 15 July 2021), the Environment and Land Court of Kenya issued a structural interdict to protect the right to a clean and healthy environment