1932

Abstract

Despite the absence of a right to a healthy environment in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or any global human rights treaty, environmental human rights law has rapidly developed over the past 25 years along three paths: () the widespread adoption of environmental rights in regional treaties and national constitutions; () the greening of other human rights, such as the rights to life and health, through their application to environmental issues; and () the inclusion in multilateral environmental instruments of rights of access to information, public participation, and access to justice. After describing these developments, this review assesses the possible effects of UN recognition of the human right to a healthy environment, both on the environment and on human rights law itself.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-031720-074856
2020-10-13
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/lawsocsci/16/1/annurev-lawsocsci-031720-074856.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-031720-074856&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Alston P. 1984. Conjuring up new human rights: a proposal for quality control. Am. J. Int. Law 78:607–21
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Alston P. 2019. Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/41/39 (July 17)
  3. Anaya J. 2011. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples: extractive industries operating within or near indigenous territories. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/18/35 (July 11)
  4. Anaya SJ. 2004. Indigenous Peoples in International Law Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd ed..
  5. Banda ML. 2018. Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion on the Environment and Human Rights. ASIL Insights 22:6 https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/22/issue/6/inter-american-court-human-rights-advisory-opinion-environment-and-human
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Benedek W. 1985. Peoples’ rights and individuals’ duties as special features of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Regional Protection of Human Rights by International Law: The Emerging African System P Kunig, W Benedek, CR Mahalu 59–94 Baden-Baden, Ger: Nomos Verlag
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bilder R. 1969. Rethinking international human rights: some basic questions. Wis. Law Rev. 1969:1171–217
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Boyd DR. 2011. The implicit constitutional right to a healthy environment. Rev. Eur. Community Int. Environ. Law 99:51163–257
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Boyd DR. 2012. The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions, Human Rights, and the Environment Vancouver: UBC Press
  10. Boyd DR. 2018. Catalyst for change: evaluating forty years of experience in implementing the right to a healthy environment. See Knox & Pejan 2018 17–41
  11. Boyle A. 2012. Human rights and the environment: Where next?. Eur. J. Int. Law 23:3613–42
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Bratspies R. 2015. Do we need a right to a healthy environment?. Santa Clara J. Int. Law 13:31–69
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Chenwi L. 2018. The right to a satisfactory, healthy, and sustainable environment in the African Regional Human Rights System. See Knox & Pejan 2018 59–85
  14. Cole WM. 2012. Human rights as myth and ceremony? Reevaluating the effectiveness of human rights treaties, 1981–2007. Am. J. Sociol. 117:41131–71
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Conca K. 2015. An Unfinished Foundation: The United Nations and Global Environmental Governance Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  16. Cope KL, Creamer CD. 2016. Disaggregating the human rights treaty regime. Va. J. Int. Law 56:2459–80
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Cope KL, Creamer CD, Versteeg M 2019. Empirical studies of human rights law. Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci. 15:155–82
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Craven M. 2007. The violence of dispossession: extra-territoriality and economic, social, and cultural rights. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action MA Baderin, R McCorquodale 71–88 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Creamer CD, Simmons BA. 2020. The proof is in the process: self-reporting under international human rights treaties. Am. J. Int. Law 114:11–50
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Dai X. 2014. The conditional effects of international human rights institutions. Hum. Rights Q. 36:3569–89
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Daly E, May JR 2018. Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  22. de Búrca G. 2017. Human rights experimentalism. Am. J. Int. Law 111:2277–316
    [Google Scholar]
  23. de Schutter O. 2012. Commentary to the Maastricht Principles. Hum. Rights Q. 34:1084–169
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Dennis MJ, Stewart DP. 2004. Justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights: Should there be an international complaints mechanism to adjudicate the rights to food, water, housing, and health. Am. J. Int. Law 98:3462–515
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Elkins Z, Ginsburg T, Simmons B 2013. Getting to rights: treaty ratification, constitutional convergence, and human rights practice. Harvard Int. Law J. 54:161–95
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Elver H. 2017. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/34/48 (Jan. 24)
  27. Forst M. 2016. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. U.N. Doc. A/71/281 (Aug. 3)
  28. Gardbaum S. 2008. Human rights as international constitutional rights. Eur. J. Int. Law 19:4749–68
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Gauri V, Brinks D. 2008. Courting Social Justice: Judicial Enforcement of Social and Economic Rights in the Developing World Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  30. Gearty C. 2010. Do human rights help or hinder environmental protection. J. Hum. Rights Environ. 1:17–22
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Gellers J. 2015. Explaining the emergence of constitutional environmental rights: a global quantitative analysis. J. Hum. Rights Environ. 6:175–97
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Gellers J, Jeffords C. 2018. Toward environmental democracy? Procedural environmental rights and environmental justice. Glob. Environ. Politics 18:199–121
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Glob. Witn 2019. Enemies of the State? How governments and businesses silence land and environmental defenders Rep., Glob. Witn London, UK:
  34. Goderis B, Versteeg M. 2014. The diffusion of constitutional rights. Int. Rev. Law Econ. 39:1–19
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Gonzalez C. 2015. Environmental justice, human rights, and the Global South. Santa Clara J. Int. Law 13:1151–95
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Gore A. 1992. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit New York: Penguin
  37. Graubart J. 2008. Legalizing Transnational Activism: The Struggle to Gain Social Change from NAFTA's Citizen Petitions University Park: Penn State Univ. Press
  38. Gregg B. 2013. Human Rights as Social Construction Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  39. Hafner-Burton EM. 2012. International regimes for human rights. Annu. Rev. Political Sci. 15:265–86
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Handl G. 1995. Human rights and protection of the environment: a mildly revisionist view. Human Rights and Environmental Protection A Cançado Trindade 117–42 San Jose, Costa Rica: Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Hannum H. 2019. Rescuing Human Rights: A Radically Moderate Approach Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  42. Hathaway OA. 2002. Do treaties make a difference? Human rights treaties and the problem of compliance. Yale Law J 111:81932–2042
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Henkin L. 1990. The Age of Rights New York: Columbia Univ. Press
  44. Houck O. 2008. A case of sustainable development: the river god and the forest at the end of the world. Tulsa Law Rev 44:2275–316
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Imhof S, Gutman J, Voigt S 2016. The economics of green constitutions. Asian J. Law Econ. 7:3305–22
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Inter-Am. Court Hum. Rights 2017. Advisory opinion on the environment and human rights. Opin., Nov. 15
  47. Jeffords C, Gellers JC. 2018. Implementing substantive constitutional environmental rights: a quantitative assessment of current practices using benchmark rankings. Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism E Daly, JR May 34–58 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Jeffords C, Minkler L. 2016. Do constitutions matter? The effects of constitutional environmental rights provisions on environmental outcomes. KYKLOS 69:2294–335
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Jensen S. 2015. The Making of International Human Rights: The 1960s, Decolonization, and the Reconstruction of Global Values Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  50. Keck ME, Sikkink K. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press
  51. Knox JH. 2008. Horizontal human rights law. Am. J. Int. Law 108:11–47
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Knox JH. 2013. Report of the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment: mapping report. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/25/53 (Dec. 30)
  53. Knox JH. 2014. Climate ethics and human rights. J. Hum. Rights Environ. 5:22–34
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Knox JH. 2018. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/37/59, annex (Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment) (Jan. 24)
  55. Knox JH, Boyd DR. 2018. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. U.N. Doc. A/73/188 (July 19)
  56. Knox JH, Pejan R. 2018. The Human Right to a Healthy Environment Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  57. Kotzé LJ, Villavicencio Calzadilla P 2017. Somewhere between rhetoric and reality: environmental constitutionalism and the rights of nature in Ecuador. Transnatl. Environ. Law 6:3401–33
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Law DS. 2018. The global language of human rights: a computational linguistic analysis. Law Ethics Hum. Rights 12:1111–50
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Law DS, Versteeg M. 2011. The evolution and ideology of global constitutionalism. Calif. Law Rev. 99:51163–257
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Li Q, Reuveny R. 2007. The effects of liberalism on the terrestrial environment. Confl. Manag. Peace Sci. 24:219–38
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Limon M. 2018. The politics of human rights, the environment, and climate change at the Human Rights Council. See Knox & Pejan 2018 189–214
  62. López Ostra v. Spain No. 16798/90, Eur. Ct. H.R 1994.
  63. May JR, Daly E. 2015. Global Environmental Constitutionalism Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  64. Midlarsky MI. 1998. Democracy and the environment: an empirical assessment. J. Peace Res. 35:3341–61
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Milewicz K, Goodin R. 2018. Deliberative capacity-building through international organizations: the case of the universal periodic review. Br. J. Political Sci 48:251333
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Mutua M. 1996. The ideology of human rights. Va. J. Int. Law 36:589–657
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Netherlands v. Urgenda Foundation No. 19/00135 (Neth. Supreme Ct 2019.
  68. Neuman GL. 2003. Human rights and constitutional rights: harmony and dissonance. Stanford Law Rev 55:51863–900
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Neumayer E. 2005. Do international human rights treaties improve respect for human rights. J. Confl. Resolut 49:925–53
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Nollkaemper A, van Alebeek R 2012. The legal status of decisions by human rights treaty bodies in national law. Human Rights Treaty Bodies: Law and Legitimacy H Keller, G Ulfstein 356–413 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Öneryildiz v. Turkey No. 48939/99, Eur. Ct. H.R 2004.
  72. Orellana M. 2018. Quality control of the right to a healthy environment. See Knox & Pejan 2018 169–88
  73. Peel J, Lin J. 2019. Transnational climate litigation: the contribution of the Global South. Am. J. Int. Law 113:4679–726
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Pellegrini L, Gerlagh R. 2006. Corruption, democracy, and environmental policy: an empirical contribution to the debate. J. Environ. Dev. 15:3332–54
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Portillo Cáceres v. Paraguay U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/126/D/2751/2016, H.R. Comm 2019.
  76. Rajamani L. 2018. Human rights in the climate regime. See Knox & Pejan 2018 236–51
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Rodríguez-Garavito C. 2018. A human right to a healthy environment? Moral, legal, and empirical considerations. See Knox & Pejan 2018 155–68
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Rodríguez-Rivera L. 2018. The human right to environment in the 21st century: a case for its recognition and comments on the systemic barriers it encounters. Am. Univ. Int. Law Rev. 34:1143–204
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Ruhl JB. 1999. The metrics of constitutional amendments: and why proposed environmental quality amendments don't measure up. Notre Dame Law Rev 74:245–81
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Saramaka People v. Suriname No. 172, Inter-Am. Ct. Hum. Rights 2007.
  81. Shelton D. 1993. What happened in Rio to human rights. Yearb. Int. Environ. Law 3:175–93
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Simmons B. 2009. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  83. Smith-Cannoy H. 2012. Insincere Commitments: Human Rights Treaties, Abusive States, and Citizen Activism Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ. Press
  84. Social and Economic Rights Action Centre v. Nigeria No. 155/96, Afr. Comm. H.P.R 2001.
  85. Sohn L. 1973. The Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment. Harvard Int. Law J. 14:3423–515
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Stammers N. 2009. Human Rights and Social Movements London: Pluto
  87. Tuncak B. 2016. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/33/41 (Aug. 2)
  88. Waltz S. 2001. Universalizing human rights: the role of small states in the construction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hum. Rights Q. 23:44–72
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Waltz S. 2002. Reclaiming and rebuilding the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Third World Q 23:437–48
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Whaling in the Antarctic Australia v. Japan), 2014 Int. Ct. Justice Rep. 257, para 83 2014.
  91. White M. 2018. Addressing human rights protection gaps: Can the universal periodic review process live up to its promise?. The Universal Periodic Review of Southeast Asia J Gomez, R Ramcharan 19–35 Berlin: Springer
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Winslow M. 2005. Is democracy good for the environment. J. Environ. Plan. Manag 48:5771–83
    [Google Scholar]
  93. World Comm. Environ. Dev 1987. Our Common Future Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-031720-074856
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error