The Council of Europe is the only regional human rights system that has not yet explicitly recognized the right to a healthy environment. However, progress is being made. In 2022, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a fundamental human right. This resolution is not legally binding, but it has been endorsed by all Council of Europe member states.
42 of the Council’s 46 member states already protect the right to a healthy environment through their national constitutions, legislation, or as signatories to the Aarhus Convention. The Aarhus Convention guarantees the public three key rights on environmental issues: access to information, public participation, and access to justice.
In 2023, the Reykjavik Summit of the Council of Europe emphasized the need to strengthen work on “human rights aspects of the environment based on the political recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right.”
The European Court of Human Rights has also ruled that the government’s lack of action on climate change violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women. Human rights come with legally enforceable obligations for states, and enshrining them within international law provides legal avenues for holding governments accountable if they don’t uphold them.
The right to a healthy environment is crucial to preventing and remediating the impacts of the escalating triple planetary crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss, and pervasive pollution) which affects the lives and rights of individuals and communities worldwide. It provides comprehensive protection against a range of environmental harms, including ensuring every individual has the right to clean air and water, a safe climate, healthy ecosystems, healthy and sustainably produced food, as well as non-toxic living, working, and learning environments.
The right to a healthy environment has been used effectively in domestic and regional courts in Africa and Latin America. The historic recognition of this right by the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council is already informing legal precedents and advancing accountability around the globe.
Despite the progress that has been made, there is still a lack of political will to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the growing number of climate cases and the recognition of the right by the UN and other international bodies is putting pressure on the Council of Europe to take action.
