Recognising the Human Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment
Humanity is confronting an unprecedented planetary environmental crisis. In recent decades, human rights bodies have concluded that a healthy environment is of fundamental significance to the full enjoyment of a vast majority of human rights. At the same time, the exercise of human rights is vital for effective environmental protection.
The first international document to recognise the link between human rights and the environment was the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment.
Over the years, more than 1,100 civil society organisations all over the world, 15 UN agencies and over 70 states have expressed support for the formal recognition of this right. As a result, in October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council formally recognised access to a healthy and sustainable environment as a universal right. The UN General Assembly followed in 2022 and added this right to the library of internationally recognised fundamental rights.
Read the motion to find out more.
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