UNGA declares access to healthy environment a human right

News Desk

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a historic resolution Thursday, declaring access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, a universal human right.

The resolution, based on a similar text adopted last year by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council,  received 161 votes in favour, to none against, with eight abstentions.

They were from China, Russia, Belarus, Cambodia, Iran, Syria, Kyrgyzstan and Ethiopia. Pakistan voted in favour of the resolution, saying while it supports the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, but Thursday’s resolution, after going through stages, has become a “political, and not legal” affirmation at the 193-member Assembly.

In explaining his vote, Ambassador Munir Akram said any new human right could only be legally recognized through negotiating a convention at relevant inter-governmental forums on climate change and the environment.

“As of now,” the Pakistani envoy added, “the right to environment and corresponding States obligations are not legally established by the existing international human rights instruments.

Therefore, we believe that the present resolution is a political, and not legal, affirmation at the UN General Assembly of the right to clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”  Ambassador Akram said that the draft needed to be strengthened, further elaborating the mutually reinforcing linkage between the right to environment and enjoyment and realization of economic, social, cultural rights and the right to development as well as highlighting the peculiar situation of developing countries and countries worst affected by climate change.

The resolution calls on States, international organizations, and business enterprises to scale up efforts to ensure a healthy environment for all. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the historic decision and said the landmark development demonstrates that member states can come together in the collective fight against the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

“The resolution will help reduce environmental injustices, close protection gaps and empower people, especially those that are in vulnerable situations, including environmental human rights defenders, children, youth, women and indigenous peoples,” he said in a statement released by his Spokesperson, Farhan Aziz Haq.  He added that the decision will also help States accelerate the implementation of their environmental and human rights obligations and commitments.  

“The international community has given universal recognition to this right and brought us closer to making it a reality for all,” he said.  Guterres underscored that however, the adoption of the resolution is only the beginning and urged nations to make this newly recognized right “a reality for everyone, everywhere”.  In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also hailed the Assembly’s decision and echoed the Secretary-General’s call for urgent action to implement it.

“Today is a historic moment, but simply affirming our right to a healthy environment is not enough. The General Assembly resolution is very clear: States must implement their international commitments and scale up their efforts to realize it. We will all suffer much worse effects from environmental crises, if we do not work together to collectively avert them now,” she said.

Bachelet explained that environmental action based on human rights obligations provides vital guardrails for economic policies and business models.  “It emphasizes the underpinning of legal obligations to act, rather than simply of discretionary policy.  It is also more effective, legitimate and sustainable,” she added.

The text, originally presented by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland last June, and now co-sponsored by over 100 countries, notes that the right to a healthy environment is related to existing international law and affirms that its promotion requires the full implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.

It also recognizes that the impact of climate change, the unsustainable management and use of natural resources, the pollution of air, land and water, the unsound management of chemicals and waste, and the resulting loss in biodiversity interfere with the enjoyment of this right – and that environmental damage has negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the effective enjoyment of all human rights.  According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd, the Assembly’s decision will change the very nature of international human rights law.

Governments have made promises to clean up the environment and address the climate emergency for decades but having a right to a healthy environment changes people’s perspective from begging to demanding governments to act, he said in a recent statement. 

In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, which ended with its own historic declaration, was the first one to place environmental issues at the forefront of international concerns and marked the start of a dialogue between industrialized and developing countries on the link between economic growth, the pollution of the air, water and the ocean, and the well-being of people around the world.

UN member states back then declared that people have a fundamental right to “an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being,” calling for concrete action and the recognition of this right.  Last October, after decades of work by nations at the front lines of climate change, such as the Maldives archipelago, as well as more than 1,000 civil society organizations, the Human Rights Council finally recognized this right and called for the UN General Assembly to do the same.

 “From a foothold in the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, the right has been integrated into constitutions, national laws and regional agreements. Today’s decision elevates the right to where it belongs: universal recognition,” UN Environment chief, Inger Andersen, explained in a statement published this Thursday.  The recognition of the right to a healthy environment by these UN bodies, although not legally binding meaning countries don’t have a legal obligation to comply is expected to be a catalyst for action and to empower ordinary people to hold their governments accountable.

“So, the recognition of this right is a victory we should celebrate. My thanks to Member States and to the thousands of civil society organizations and indigenous peoples groups, and tens of thousands of young people who advocated relentlessly for this right. But now we must build on this victory and implement the right,” Andersen added. 

As stated by the UN Secretary-General, the newly recognized right will be crucial to tackling the triple planetary crisis.  Here the reference is to the three main interlinked environmental threats that humanity currently faces: climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss – all mentioned in the text of the resolution. 

Each of these issues has its own causes and effects and they need to be resolved if we are to have a viable future on Earth.  The consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent, through increased intensity and severity of droughts, water scarcity, wildfires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity. 

Meanwhile, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is the largest cause of disease and premature death in the world, with more than seven million people dying prematurely each year due to pollution. Finally, the decline or disappearance of biological diversity – which includes animals, plants and ecosystems –  extensively impacts food supplies, access.