Incorporating the Right to a Healthy Environment

The Right to a Healthy Environment in International Law

• United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 48/13– a resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 8th October 2021, recognising the right to a healthy environment
• Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters– United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 1998

News

• Call to action: An enforceable human right to a healthy environment– the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) launches petition calling for the Scottish Government to incorporate the right to a healthy environment into Scots law, 2022
• Access to a healthy environment, declared a human right by UN rights council– Human Rights Council recognises the right to a healthy environment, October 2021
• Parliamentary motion lodged on a human right to a healthy environment– Ruth Maguire MSP has lodged a motion for the Scottish Parliament to include the right to a healthy environment in its upcoming plan to incorporate a range of human rights into Scots Law, February 2021
• A clean and healthy environment should be a basic human right – international law could make it one– Bel Trew writes for The Independent, November 2019
• UN expert calls for global recognition of the right to safe and healthy environment– John H. Knox, Former UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and the environment, reports to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, March 2018

Briefings and Blogs

• Incorporating International Human Rights: How the human right to a healthy environment advances the rights of disabled people– a joint briefing from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland and Inclusion Scotland, September 2021
• How the human right to a healthy environment advances our right to health– a briefing from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, September 2021
• The relationship between the human right to a healthy environment and the right to food– a briefing from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, September 2021
• A Human Right to a Healthy Environment must be included in a new Human Rights (Scotland) Act– a joint briefing to the Scottish Parliament, from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, and Scottish Environment LINK, February 2021
• The Case for a Substantive Right to a Healthy Environment– a briefing from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, presented to the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership, November 2020
• Why Scotland Needs a Human Right to a Healthy Environment– a presentation by Emilia Hanna from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, December 2020
• It is time for the United Nations to recognise the human right to a healthy environment– a briefing from John H. Knox, Former UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and the environment, June 2018
• About human rights and the environment– a briefing from the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights

The Work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment

• Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment– this document sets out States’ basic obligations regarding the right to a healthy environment
• Right to a healthy environment: good practices– the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and the environment sets out good practice examples for States regarding the right to a healthy environment, March 2020
• Annual thematic reports of the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment– the reports of the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and the environment

Academic Papers

• Human Rights and the Environment: Where Next?– Boyle, A. European Journal of International Law, Volume 23, Issue 3, August 2021
• The European Court of Human Rights and International Environmental Law– Pedersen, O.W., published in John H Knox and Ramin Pejan (eds), The Human Right to a Healthy Environment (CUP 2018), June 2018

Videos

• Recognising the human right to healthy environment- a short video explaining the right to a healthy environment, from the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment
• Why the human right to a healthy environment should be included in the Human Rights (Scotland) Bill– a short video from the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, addressing the Glasgow People’s Health Inquiry in September 2021
• UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment supports ERCS petition– Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Dr David Boyd, expresses his support for a petition to incorporate the right to a healthy environment into Scots law