The universal right to a healthy environment: a comprehensive and comparative study of its international and regional, legal and political implications and an examination of its role in promoting effective environmental protection

Abstract

This thesis investigates the evolution of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment up until its official universal recognition by the United Nations General Assembly in July 2022. This new right symbolizes the interdependent link between human rights and the environment, and their respective areas of international law. However, it has not yet been included in the broad list of fundamental rights recognised globally, although several norms, principles and other substantive and procedural rights which inform the right to a healthy environment can be found in soft and hard law treaties and agreements on the international, regional and national scales. This thesis examines the right’s legal and political implications on these levels by assessing its influence in human rights bodies’ jurisprudence, so as to argue that a legally-binding universally recognised agreement recognizing the right to a healthy environment as a fundamental human right is necessary for efforts of environmental protection to become more effective. Additionally, it assesses the theoretical concepts used to promote the right’s recognition, and determines that a combination of the human rights-based and nature’s rights approaches are the ideal means to advance its universal implementation. Ultimately, the thesis recognises the importance of the right to a healthy environment for the protection of the environment and humans alike.