Unpacking the Human Right to a Healthy Environment: Definition, Implementation and Impact

Started in January 2022

Context

In 2021 and 2022, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly (UNGA) endorsed resolutions recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (R2HE). While broadly lauded as a breakthrough for environmental protection, experts remain divided on whether a non-binding resolution will be able to overcome a lack of consensus and vested interests within and between states or mark a critical step towards tighter environmental accountability and enforcement.

One point of agreement is that its implementation requires a clarified understanding of its content, related states ‘obligations, as well as its interconnection with other human rights, and that evidence is needed on how this soft-law instrument has been used to bring changes in national laws and policies.

Objectives

This project will start by clarifying the definition of the R2HE, its content – including substantive and procedural aspects –, related states’ obligations, as well as its interconnections with other human rights.

In a second phase, the research will address its implementation and how UNGA resolution A/76/300 that endorsed this right has led to changes in domestic laws and policies, has influenced court cases or has been referred to in decisions taken by regional and international human rights mechanisms.

Such insights will be instructive for policy-makers, development programming agencies, environmental advocates, civil society, tribunals, and experts, as well as regional and international human rights mechanisms.

NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

environment News

New Research Brief examines the implementation and global impact of the UNGA Environment Resolution

12 December 2024

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new Research Brief examining the implementation and global impact of the UNGA Resolution recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Read more >

Forest from below News

New Publication Explores National Uptake of the Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

25 March 2024

Our new Research Brief The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment explores the national recognition of this human right.

Read more >

Open dump's view from the sky News

New Publication Details the Contours and Next Steps for the Right to a Healthy Environment

9 January 2023

Our new publication Human Rights and the Environment explores the implications of the recently recognised right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, with a focus on the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

Read more >

RESEARCHERS

Picture of Christophe Golay

Christophe Golay

Senior Research Fellow

Dr Christophe Golay's expertise relates to economic, social and cultural rights, the right to food and the rights of peasants.

OUTPUT

Detailing the Contours and Next Steps for the Right to a Healthy Environment

Building on the recent recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the first phase of this research – completed in 2022 – aimed to mainstream this right and the protection it affords in the work of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and Geneva-based human rights mechanisms.

Published in December 2022, our briefing Human Rights and the Environmentand its research brief The Right to a Healthy Environment detail the contours of this right and the relationship between human rights and the environment, formulating concrete recommendations on its mainstreaming in the work and resolutions of the UNGA and the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).

At a side event during the 51st session of the HRC – co-organized with the permanent missions of Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Switzerland and Slovenia to the UN in Geneva – diplomats, representatives from NGOs and international organizations and experts also discussed the implementation of this right and the role of the HRC in this.

Publications

Cover Page of Research Brief

The Implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution 76/300 Recognizing the Right to a Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment

December 2024

Baïna Ubushieva

Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

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Cover Page of Research Brief

The Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Understanding its Scope, States Obligations and Links with Other Human Rights

March 2024

Christophe Golay, Baïna Ubushieva

Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

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Cover of the publication

Right to a Healthy Environment

December 2022

Megan Donald

The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

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Cover of the publication

Briefing N° 21: Human Rights and the Environment

December 2022

Megan Donald

The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Download > Download >

Past Events

The Implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution 76/300 Recognizing the Right to a Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment

11 December 2024, 18:30-20:00

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The Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Consensus Building on its Scope and Links with Other Human Rights

5 March 2024, 14:30-15:30

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Promoting and Protecting the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

14 September 2022, 19:00-20:30

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Training

Human Rights and the Environment: Introducing Legal Regimes and Key Issues

1-8 September 2025

Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.

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Read more

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The Right to Food in Europe

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Cover of the publication Publication

Briefing N° 25: Localizing Multilateralism

published on March 2025

Domenico Zipoli, Ludovica Chiussi Curzi, Kamelia Kemileva

Read more

Cover page of the working paper Publication

AI Decoded: Key Concepts and Applications of Artificial Intelligence for Human Rights and SDG Monitoring

published on January 2025

Milica Mirkovic, Jennifer Victoria Scurrell

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