Time’s up: The Council of Europe Must Put The Right to a Healthy Environment in Law – Center for International Environmental Law

On its seventy fifth anniversary, over 400 civil society organizations urge the Council of Europe to maintain up with the occasions by recognizing this important proper.

By Ann Harrison, Local weather Advisor, Amnesty Worldwide; Amy Jacobsen, Authorized Counsel Communications, Greenpeace Worldwide, Emma Pagliarusco, Advocacy Coordinator, Youth and Environment Europe; Camilla Pollera, Program Affiliate, Heart for Worldwide Environmental Legislation, Katharina Rall, Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch 

On Might 5, 1949, the Council of Europe (CoE) was established, and at present, 75 years later, it’s the cornerstone of human rights safety and enforcement in Europe, representing 46 Member States.

Over these 75 years, the European Human Rights Framework has been instrumental each inside Europe and globally in upholding human rights. But at present, “the interlinked crises of air pollution, local weather change, and biodiversity […] represent the one best problem to human rights in our period. All that is now painfully clear. The best uncertainty about these challenges is what policy-makers will do about them.” But, European governments have been failing to successfully leverage the political establishments of the Council of Europe to handle these threats. 

The milestone anniversary of the Council of Europe is a second to have fun the Group’s achievements in human rights, democracy, and the rule of regulation, and extra importantly, to look forward and aspire for a brighter future. And what higher time for the CoE to step up and successfully acknowledge the suitable to a wholesome atmosphere?  

Because the triple planetary disaster escalates, the significance of defending the human proper to a clear, wholesome, and sustainable atmosphere has already been mirrored by the UN Human Rights Council in October 2021, by the UN Normal Meeting in July 2022, and by 161 UN Member States by means of constitutions, laws, and regional treaties. Nevertheless, the European Conference on Human Rights has but to enshrine it as an autonomous proper explicitly. With 42 of its 46 Member States already defending this proper by means of nationwide constitutions, laws, or as signatories to the Aarhus Conference, it’s crucial that the Council of Europe unifies these efforts right into a binding authorized framework to explicitly defend and acknowledge the suitable to a clear, wholesome and sustainable atmosphere. 

Throughout the 4th Reykjavik Summit of the Council of Europe in Might 2023,  leaders of all Member States dedicated to “strengthening [their] work on the Council of Europe on the human rights facets of the atmosphere primarily based on the political recognition of the suitable to a clear, wholesome, and sustainable atmosphere as a human proper”. On April 18, 2024, the Parliamentary Meeting adopted a decision stressing the urgency of a legally binding instrument recognizing an autonomous proper to a wholesome atmosphere inside the Council of Europe. The decision remembers that the “post-Reykjavik Environmental Technique can be applied by and for the youthful generations and should be supported by civil society”. 

Over 400 civil society organizations, social actions, and Indigenous peoples organizations are united in demanding the popularity of the suitable to a clear, wholesome, and sustainable atmosphere by means of an extra protocol to the European Conference on Human Rights. On the seventy fifth anniversary, we be part of their voices in calling on the Council of Europe to maintain up with the occasions by instantly addressing this urgent human proper.

The extra protocol would fill the hole within the European human rights framework, thus strengthening the present commitments to respect, defend, and fulfill this human proper, and additional guaranteeing the enjoyment of all human rights. It might provide higher safety for individuals who face the best danger of environmental hurt and ship an unequivocal message of solidarity to environmental human rights defenders who presently pay a grave worth for his or her advocacy.

Furthermore, the extra protocol would assist establishing stronger environmental legal guidelines and insurance policies, enhance the implementation and enforcement of those, improve ranges of public participation, entry to data, and entry to justice in environmental decision-making, and scale back environmental and intergenerational injustices. All these components are vital to make sure a habitable planet (cleaner air, enhanced entry to secure ingesting water, and lowered greenhouse gasoline emissions, amongst others) and a extra sustainable future, particularly for the youngest generations.

As environmental challenges develop into extra prevalent in instances earlier than the European Courtroom of Human Rights, an extra protocol would assist consolidate and guarantee larger coherence throughout the Courtroom’s selections, offering larger authorized readability. 

This seventy fifth anniversary marks the passage of time: for greater than 50 of these 75 years, the Council of Europe has repeatedly ignored the calls to acknowledge the suitable to a wholesome atmosphere. Whereas we take part celebrating the achievements thus far, if the Council of Europe needs to keep up its relevance, it can’t relaxation on its laurels however should take up a management place in explicitly defending this important human proper inside the European Conference of Human Rights.

Constructing on the Courtroom’s important caselaw, such because the current KlimaSeniorinnen determination, isn’t it time for the Council of Europe to meet up with all different regional human rights establishments by recognizing the suitable to a wholesome atmosphere in regulation?

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Revealed on Might 6, 2024