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

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 >

Scavengers Burning Trash, Tondo Garbage Dump, Manila Philippines News

New Research on the Right to a Healthy Environment

22 March 2022

This project forms part of our research cluster on sustainable development that aims to explore the linkages between sustainable development, the protection of the environment, climate change and the branches of international law that protect the rights of the most vulnerable.

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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.

Portrait of Dr Dr Baïna Ubushieva

Baïna Ubushieva

Associate Research Fellow

Her expertise and publications are centred around international and European human rights law, with a particular focus on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

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 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 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

Read more >

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

food in a graph shape News

New Paper Examines How Environmental Damage Caused by Conflict Effects the Global Food System

18 April 2024

Our latest Research Brief examines the myriad consequences that accompany damage rendered upon food systems during armed conflict.

Read more

Final Report of the Treaty Body Follow-Up Review Pilot Series News

Final Report of the Treaty Body Follow-Up Review Pilot Series

16 July 2024

The Geneva Human Rights Platform has released the final report of its Treaty Body Follow-Up Review Pilot Series, marked with presentations at the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

Read more

CFS52 Side Event Event

Implementing the Right to Food Guidelines and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants in Africa and Europe: A Civil Society Perspective

22 October 2024, 13:30-14:45

This side event to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security will bring civil society voices to discuss the implementation of the Right to Food Guidelines and of UNDROP.

Read more

Online Right to Seeds Workshop Event

Online Workshop on the Proposed New EU Regulation on the Production and Marketing of Seeds and other Plant Reproductive Material

17-18 October 2024, 14:00-13:30

This online workshop will cover the current status of the negotiations on the proposed new EU plant reproductive material (PRM) regulation.

Read more

A general view of participants during of the 33nd ordinary session of the Human Rights Council. Training

The Universal Periodic Review and the UN Human Rights System: Raising the Bar on Accountability

11-15 November 2024

This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.

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Madagascar, Miarinarivo district. Women transplanting rice. Project

The Rights of Peasants

Started in May 2008

After having provided academic support to the negotiation of the UN Declaration for ten years, this research project focuses on the implementation of the UN Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas.

Read more

Crops view from the sky Project

The Right to Food in Europe

Started in December 2022

This research will provide legal expertise to a variety of stakeholders on the implementation of the right to food, and on the right to food as a legal basis for just transformation toward sustainable food systems in Europe. It will also identify lessons learned from the 2023 recognition of the right to food in the Constitution of the Canton of Geneva.  

Read more

Cover Page of Research Brief Publication

Beyond Power and Politics: Engaging Russia in a Fractured Multilateral Order

published on September 2024

Robin van der Lugt, Chhime Sherpa

Read more

Cover Page of Research Brief Publication

Sending Up a Flare: Autonomous Weapons Systems Proliferation Risks to Human Rights and International Security

published on August 2024

Leif Monnett

Read more