Human rights and the environment are interdependent: a healthy environment is necessary for the enjoyment of a vast range of human rights — including the rights to life and health — and the exercise of human rights such as freedom of expression and association helps to ensure protection of the environment. Both sides of this relationship are under attack. Climate change, air pollution, the global loss of biodiversity, and many other threats are degrading and destroying the environment; at the same time, those who try to defend the environment are often arrested, harassed, and even killed. Advocates increasingly bring environmental claims to international human rights tribunals, which have built a detailed, extensive body of law on the basis of widely recognized human rights. However, the United Nations has never recognized a free-standing human right to a healthy environment. Has the time come for it to do so? What would recognition of the right add to the rapidly evolving field of human rights and the environment?
Part of the 2019 iSEE Congress, "Sustainability Justice," which brings together a diverse group of researchers, educators, journalists, and activists to discuss urgent sustainability questions.
