How to assure enjoyment of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment

On July 28, 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted, with 161 votes in favor and eight abstentions, a resolution declaring access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment a universal human right.

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Less than a year earlier, a similar resolution was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.

Even before that, in 2012, the first Independent Expert on human rights and environment was appointed and, three years later, the mandate was upgraded to that of a Special Rapporteur on the right to clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The political recognition of this right is a crucial milestone that took over a decade to achieve. Slovenia, together with Morocco, the Maldives, Costa Rica and Switzerland, has been at the forefront of these efforts.

Since 2021, the UN system has also had a Special Rapporteur on human rights in the context of climate change, with the Philippines being part of the core group advancing this agenda. The two areas are closely interconnected. The negotiations under the UN Convention on Climate Change were the first to explicitly enshrine the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in the unanimously adopted final documents. States and other stakeholders - from individuals to businesses -have a duty and responsibility to prevent activities that violate human rights and to ensure that fundamental human rights are respected and integrated into all actions.