Environmental Rights
Legal Protections for a Healthy Planet and Society

Environmental rights are crucial in the broader struggle for human rights. As global demand for natural resources such as timber, minerals, and palm oil continues to grow, governments and corporations frequently exploit land with little regard for the communities that depend on it. The concept of environmental rights seeks to address this imbalance, ensuring that the protection of natural resources is not only a matter of environmental stewardship but also of human dignity and justice.

Environmental Rights

Constitutional Recognition of Environmental Rights

The right to a healthy environment has gained significant constitutional recognition and protection in over 100 countries, providing the strongest form of legal safeguard available. Approximately two-thirds of these constitutions explicitly refer to a "healthy environment," while others use terms such as "clean," "safe," "favorable," "wholesome," or "ecologically balanced" environments. This widespread constitutional acknowledgment underscores the growing consensus that a healthy environment is a fundamental human right, essential for the well-being and survival of all people.

Principles of Environmental Rights

At its core, the right to a healthy environment is based on the principle that all humans have basic, non-negotiable needs, including access to clean air, clean water, clean soil, and a livable climate. These environmental necessities are indispensable for the enjoyment of other human rights. Without access to a healthy environment, rights such as the right to life, health, and well-being cannot be fully realized.

Building on this foundational principle, a range of legal and policy tools have been developed to uphold and protect environmental rights. These tools serve as a "toolkit" to address various environmental challenges, from local issues such as air and water quality to global concerns like toxic substances and climate change. By empowering individuals and communities with the information, voice, and authority to participate in environmental decision-making, these tools play a crucial role in both protecting the environment and ensuring social justice.

Environmental Rights: A Holistic Approach to Equity and Sustainability

Environmental rights emphasize the need for equitable access to natural resources and the ability for all people, regardless of location or socioeconomic status, to influence environmental policies that affect their lives. Protecting these rights involves safeguarding natural resources and considering the impacts of their use on both surrounding populations and the environment itself.

This approach promotes equity and justice by ensuring that marginalized communities are not disproportionately burdened by environmental degradation. It also imposes a responsibility on highly industrialized nations to regulate their consumption of natural resources and act more equitably, ensuring that the benefits of a healthy environment are distributed fairly among all of Earth's inhabitants. In this way, environmental rights seek to protect both people and the planet, fostering a sustainable and just future for everyone.

Protecting Environmental Rights for a Fair and Sustainable Future

Access to a clean, healthy, and safe environment is a human right. Safeguarding these substantive rights for all communities benefits the planet and moves us toward a more just future. Ensuring that everyone, everywhere, has the voice, power, and information to steer environmental decision-making known as procedural rights is also critical to advancing sustainable, equitable development.

However, despite legal commitments, many nations fail to protect these procedural rights, often neglecting to meaningfully engage with vulnerable and marginalized communities. This can pose immense hardships to these communities and hinder progress in the environmental movement.

To address these challenges, organizations like the World Resources Institute (WRI) partner with Indigenous and local communities, civil society organizations, environmental and land defenders, development institutions, and governments to strengthen both substantive and procedural environmental rights around the world.
WRI achieves this through various initiatives and platforms that:

Identify the obstacles that prevent poor, vulnerable communities from realizing their rights, receiving the benefits of
addressing injustices, and participating in decision-making.
Help communities strengthen land rights.
Recommend policies for governments to implement gender equity.
Work with communities and countries to achieve ambitious environmental rights commitments based on open, accessible data.
Mobilize civil society organizations that amplify local voices and advance legislation that safeguards procedural rights.

Are Environmental Rights Equally Distributed?

Due to mass consumerism around the world, many people lack these basic human and environmental rights. For now, the brunt of environmental consequences is experienced by those who contribute least to consumerism.

The increasing rate of consumption and waste production has a profound effect on people and ecosystems. The staggering amount of waste produced due to rapid levels of consumption finds its way to low-income communities for disposal, where lax environmental regulations allow for cheaper and less responsible waste management.

For example, the rising tide of e-waste discarded electronics like cell phones, laptops, monitors, and tablets creates a heavy environmental burden due to the toxic chemicals released when improperly disposed of. Often, this waste is shipped to low-income communities of color for disposal, exacerbating environmental injustice.

How Can Environmental Rights Be Redistributed?

Addressing these imminent environmental and societal problems requires a massive change in how we interact with the world and with each other. It involves reevaluating the economic relationships we have and considering the costs and benefits for all parties concerned.

This isn’t simply about finding better ways to manage waste or reducing consumption. Environmental rights also encompass the protection of natural resources, access to and use of these resources, and how these factors affect surrounding populations and the resources themselves.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has been working on these issues for over three decades. They have produced a short video explaining how responsible land use can be mutually beneficial while also supporting the environment.

The Rights of Nature

In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to recognize the rights of nature in its constitution. This groundbreaking move takes the concept of environmental rights to the next logical conclusion by granting rights to nature itself.

Rather than treating nature as property under the law, Rights for Nature articles acknowledge that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles.

The passing of the Rights for Nature law in Ecuador inspired the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, an organization working to establish legal rights for the Earth’s ecosystems worldwide.

Rights of Nature in Ecuador's Constitution:

Right to Exist: Nature has the right to exist as a living entity.
Right to Persist: Nature has the right to continue its existence without disruption.
Right to Maintain Vital Cycles: Nature has the right to sustain its natural cycles and processes.
Right to Regenerate: Nature has the right to heal and regenerate its ecosystems.

International Environmental Law (IEL)

International Environmental Law (IEL) plays a crucial role in advancing environmental rights by focusing on the protection of both the environment and human beings. IEL addresses a wide range of environmental issues, including air and water pollution, overfishing, and global warming. It serves as a branch of international law that brings the concept of environmental rights to the global stage, building on the principles established at the national level.

The development of IEL as a distinct area of international law began in the mid-twentieth century, reflecting the growing recognition that environmental rights are essential for sustainable development and the protection of human dignity. As the United Nations emphasizes, violations of environmental law hinder the achievement of sustainable development goals and environmental sustainability.

Despite its progress, the international legal framework still faces challenges, particularly in effectively protecting vulnerable groups such as children. These weaknesses highlight the need for a more robust integration of environmental rights into international law, ensuring that all people, regardless of age or status, are safeguarded from environmental harm.

IEL draws upon various sources, including treaties, customary law, and general principles of law, as outlined in Article 38 of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) statute. Among these, treaties and customary law have proven to be the most effective in enforcing environmental rights. International legal treaties, similar to business contracts, require states to honor their commitments, reinforced by the principle of Pacta Sunt Servanda as enshrined in Article 26 of the Vienna Convention. This principle ensures that states adhere to their obligations, further strengthening the global framework for protecting environmental rights.

Conclusion

In summary, environmental rights are an essential component of the broader human rights framework. They recognize that a healthy environment is a prerequisite for the full enjoyment of other rights and that protecting the environment is integral to protecting human dignity and well-being. As the global community continues to confront environmental challenges, the recognition and enforcement of environmental rights will be crucial in shaping a sustainable and just future for all.

FAQs

Q. How do environmental rights impact marginalized communities?

Environmental rights ensure that marginalized communities are not disproportionately affected by environmental degradation. By empowering these communities to influence environmental policies, environmental rights help promote equity and justice, ensuring that all people have fair access to clean and sustainable resources.

Q. What role do procedural rights play in environmental protection?

Procedural rights are crucial in environmental protection as they ensure that all individuals and communities have the information, voice, and power to participate in environmental decision-making. These rights guarantee that the perspectives of all, especially vulnerable and marginalized groups, are considered in the development and implementation of environmental policies. This is essential for advancing sustainable and equitable development.

Q. How does international environmental law support environmental rights?

International Environmental Law (IEL) plays a significant role in supporting environmental rights by providing a legal framework that addresses global environmental issues such as pollution, overfishing, and climate change. IEL helps protect both the environment and human rights, ensuring that nations uphold their obligations to maintain a sustainable and just global ecosystem.

Q. What is the significance of the Rights of Nature in environmental rights?

The Rights of Nature, first recognized in Ecuador's constitution, represent a pioneering approach in environmental rights by granting legal rights directly to nature. This concept acknowledges that ecosystems have the right to exist, persist, maintain vital cycles, and regenerate, ensuring that nature is protected not just as a resource for humans but as an entity with intrinsic value.

Q. How do environmental rights contribute to global sustainability efforts?