UN General Assembly Declares Access to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, a Human Right.
On Thursday last week, The UN General Assembly adopted a historic resolution. This resolution declared that access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a universal human right and continues to emphasize that climate change and environmental degradation are some of the most pressing threats to humanity's future. This resolution is expected to be a catalyst for further climate action, and calls upon international organizations, business enterprises and States to scale up their efforts to ensure a health environment for all people.
UN Secretary-General , António Guterres, after welcoming this decision said,
“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… The decision will also help States accelerate the implementation of their environmental and human rights obligations and commitments.” - António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
This resolution is a text that was originally presented by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland last June. Today, this text is cosponsored by over 100 different countries noting that the right to a healthy environment requires the full implementation of environmental agreements. This text also highlights that the environmental damage - such as climate change, unsustainable management, pollution, etc. - has negative implications both directly and indirectly for the effective enjoyment of all human rights.
"This resolution sends a message that nobody can take nature, clean air and water, or a stable climate away from us – at least, not without a fight," - Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Inger Anderson, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, often speaks about the triple planetary crisis. This includes climate change, nature and bio diversity loss, and pollution and waste. Ultimately, left unchecked this triple planetary crisis could lead to severe consequences for people around the world. These consequences will disproportionately affect the poor, women, and girls. The belief is that while this resolution is not legally binding on the 193 UN Member States, that it will have a big enough effect to encourage more states to implement laws regarding humans’ right to a healthy environment and will also provide more leverage against ecologically destructive policies and projects. This ruling should help to fight the triple planetary crisis that Anderson mentions.
Photo by Alenka Skvarc on Unsplash
An important note to consider here, while this is a historic ruling and is hopeful to push action and change, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet mentions that,
“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,” - Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Taking steps such as this ruling represents major progress in terms of sustainability and climate change. While there are still actions to be taken, and laws and policies to be passed, this highlights that change is inevitably coming and more and more countries are “turning up the heat” to make a difference sooner than later.
Sources:
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/speech/action-triple-planetary-crisis
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123482
