Environmental Law: Understanding the Inter-Relation between Human Rights and the Environment

This article discusses the inter-relation between human rights and the environment in the context of environmental law. It covers the hazards of environmental pollution, frameworks for human rights, the role of the state, the Rio Declaration, and more.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Environmental law
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
INTRODUCTION
Environmental law deals with pollutions related to soil, land, air and water and issues
related to depletion of natural resources, global warming and so on and so forth. Environmental
law is a group of treaties, statutes, policies that study the environment and the inter-relation
between human and the nature. These encompass local, national and international regulations to
understand the effect of humans on the non human world. Preserving the nature and the
environment must be the most important task of humans because it is an essentiality. The aim of
the environmental law is to ensure that the pollution is kept under check, if there is preservation
if natural resources and the Government take steps to reduce pollution in all its forms.
ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD
Environmental pollution is a growing concern claiming lives all across the globe. In the
recent years, lives have been lost due to environmental pollution, natural resources have
depleted, not only humans but animals have fallen prey to environmental degradation1. The
United Nations Environment Programme has detected that more than 2 million deaths occur due
to pollution2. Men, being a social animal, are linked to the society in ways more than one and as
a result, the entire system is interconnected. Natural disasters are on the rise like deforestation,
forest fire which affect the livelihood of indigenous people because they have no other means of
income and if their source is gone, they will die of unemployment3.
1 Plater, Zygmunt JB, et al. Environmental law and policy: Nature, law, and society. Wolters Kluwer Law &
Business, 2016.
2 Angell, Philip, Gregory Mock, and Jen Lesar. "United Nations Environment Programme." (2014).
3 Cullet, Philippe. Differential treatment in international environmental law. Routledge, 2017.

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With growing pollution, weather change has become erratic and with extreme weather
change comes the rise of health risks arising from life threatening diseases like malaria, dengue
which are contagious and posing high health risks. Most of the air and water borne diseases have
exponentially exacerbating because health conditions are degrading rapidly. Human health is at
the receiving end of these extreme climate changes4. Environment has a huge role to play in the
well being of humans. Environment is all encompassing and if not taken seriously can cause far
reaching havoc. Environment has to be seen as an important aspect of human rights, though this
has been widely debated. Most countries do not lay emphasis on the importance of environment
and the interrelation between environment and human rights. Human rights are inalienable rights
which are essential to every human being and are considered the most basic and innate rights.
Every human has a right to safe, healthy and disease free environment. The right to provide a
safe and ecologically balanced environment should be human rights as these are basic rights5.
The United Nations through the Rio Declaration and the Stockholm Declaration have
tried to bridge the gap between human rights and environmental law6. In the very early stages of
the United Nations’ attempt to deal with human rights issues and understanding human rights in
the light of dignity, the Stockholm Declaration has played a big role.
Stockholm Declaration 1972 has created various legal instruments and frameworks to
battle environmental degradation. It was the first declaration of its kind that linked human rights
with health and environmental protection. It recognized for the first time that every man should
live in an environment which is adequate for his well being and health. It recognized “human
rights to understand that man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate
4 Gillespie, Alexander. International environmental law, policy, and ethics. OUP Oxford, 2014.
5 Werksman, Jacob, James Cameron, and Peter Roderick, eds. Improving compliance with international
environmental law. Routledge, 2014.
6 Viñuales, Jorge E., ed. The Rio declaration on environment and development: a commentary. OUP Oxford, 2015.

3ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being”.
The Declaration aimed at achieving a healthy environment. There are a thousand environmental
conditions that impede the healthy living in an environment and if not checked can cause hazard
to the well-being of humans around them. This Declaration along with regional and local laws
have the same end result and goal-to achieve sustainable development and make environmental
law a part of human rights.
Environmental concerns have gathered significant momentum in the last few years and
have got alarming reviews from governmental, non-governmental agencies, academicians, policy
makers who have expressed their concern over the growing environmental pollution that is
plaguing us. The current situation calls for immediate international law protection which shall be
buttressed by laws and policies. The relation between environment and human rights are
mutually inclusive because one cannot be understood without the other. The clear conclusion to
the relation inter-relation between human rights and environment can have only one answer-
these are so intrinsically linked that it can be said that humans have the basic right to a clean and
healthy environment. Though this concept has been severely advocated by scholars and
academicians but when it comes to legal recognition, there has not been too much legal status
that has been granted. Understanding environmental law in the light of international law has not
garnered much attention but preliminary understanding of human rights lead to the conclusion
that it has started to gain recognition in customary international law. There needs to be legal
recognition of environment and analysis of legal status granted to agencies that deal with
environment.

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HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORKS
There are a few frameworks that discuss human rights but there do say in implicit terms
and are not very affirmative of human rights as a human rights concept. These frameworks owe
their origin and reference to the Stockholm Declaration and are concerned with giving
importance to environmental rights as human rights. There are a few frameworks, namely,
European Convention on Human Rights, Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Access
to Justice in Environmental matters. European Convention on Human Rights talks about human
rights in respect of human health but it does not directly talk about environmental law as part of
human rights. This is an extension of human rights law which is implemented in the sphere of
environmental law. The Aarhus Convention is important for strengthening a citizen’s
environmental rights. This is the first convention to recognize a right to environment under the
auspices of the United Nations. The UNHRC in its Resolution 2005/60 has recognized
environmental law and sustainable development as part of human rights law. The Resolution
upholds that peace, security, right to healthy environment are essential to human sustenance. The
resolution mandates all states agencies to ensure that the rights of citizens to a healthy
environment be made compulsory and it is mandatory for the state to take care of every citizen’s
environmental rights.
Some international conventions that focus on incorporation of environment in human rights law
are International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic
Social and Cultural Rights. These covenants aim to modify the existing laws by bringing in
environment protection rather than including new environment protection rights. By coordinating

5ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
the “greening” of existing laws, it can be seen as a convergence of environment and human
rights.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONEMNT: JOHANNESBERG SUMMIT
The aim of the summit was to give due recognition to environment and how it can be understood
in the light of human rights. This summit exclusively dealt with the relation between human right
and environmental protection and how it can be accorded constitutional rights. To understand
that, various regional and local bodies have been studied and their consultation has been
analyzed. Therefore, the aims of the Summit were to strike a balance between regional, national
and international levels to understand the importance of environment. To accord constitutional
rights to environmental bodies, many information tools were studied that can help in easy access
to knowledge and rights. They identified the implementation flaws and recommended ways to
understand the gravity of environment and the consequent degradation of human health as a
result. Climate change is regarded in international law as a concern for rising risks in humanity.
The aim is to fix pecuniary liabilities in cases of breach of climatic conditions.
ROLE OF STATE AND DUE DILIGENCE
There has to be a strict guideline for acknowledging state participation and also for
attracting the clause of due diligence. Most environmental hazards are created by non-state actors
but the international legal statues and frameworks only identify environmental rights with state
actors. Humans suffer severe harm and degradation due to the unlawful activities but when it
comes to seeking redress, it can only be done in cases of harm caused by state actors. The
existing international legal statutes can only be invoked against state and not against non state
actors. This is a big flaw because most of the hazards are caused by non state actors but due to

6ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
the conditions laid down in international statutes, the non state actors are not brought to book and
are not held accountable. Due diligence is a requirement because the private enterprises should
be held accountable for any wrong that is caused to humans as a result of which they suffer
irreparable damage. It is essential to bring a direct cause of action against the private individuals
who cause grievous harm to the society and do not give due recognition to environment. In case
of a state falling below the safety standard requirement, it will be the duty of the constitutional
body to check the condition and provide help or penalize. The Secretary General’s Report on
human rights E/CN.4/2005/96 stresses on the fact that all the state policies shall be directed
towards ensuring a society for the welfare of citizens and a safe environment. The threshold for
safety requirement is set by the governmental agency to regulate health and welfare of the
citizens. The aim is to recognize the procedural duties of the state agencies in implementing
human rights. It is imperative to impose some duties on the states to understand their role in
ensuring a healthy environment. The duties should include active participation to promote
healthy living and to persevere the nature so that no further degradation takes place.
RIO DECLARATION
This is an in depth Declaration which took place after the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development Preparatory Committee wanted to include a specific directive of
nature and importance of environment7. The United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development Preparatory Committee wanted to include healthy environmental living in human
rights and hence as a result of that Rio Declaration came to be included in the Committee’s
agenda. The Rio Declaration addresses human rights in harmony with the environment and states
in its statement that, “Every human is entitled to a healthy living in harmony with nature”. There
7 Fisher, Brendan, et al. "Moving Rio forward and avoiding 10 more years with little evidence for effective
conservation policy." Conserv. Biol 28.3 (2014): 880-82.

7ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
have been various international instruments that have been formulated to address the issue of
human rights and the harmonious relation between human rights and the environment. The Rio
Declaration also talks about establishing rights to humans to ensure a better living of the present
and the future generation. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
Preparatory Committee was the first instrument of its kind that recognized and acted on the
Preamble of the Stockholm Declaration. Therefore, upholding the principles of the Stockholm
Declaration, Paragraph 1 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
Preparatory Committee can be read to understand that it is on the same line of human rights and
environment protection. The Rio Declaration also talks about sustainable development, that is to
say, it recognizes that the natural resources are depleting at an alarming rate and to ensure the
future generation also has access to these resources, the present generation must utilize the
available resources to us judiciously8.Though these resources replenish themselves naturally, it is
imperative for the present generation to understand that natural resources need to be preserved
and kept for the others to utilize9.
RIGHT TO ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Key to a healthy environment is to make information freely accessible and available.
Citizens have a right to seek information and also gain information10. In case, any citizen chances
upon any information thinking it is important to be made public for the benefit of the citizens, he
shall make the information known to the public in their good interest. Art 6 of the Framework
8 Emas, Rachel. "The concept of sustainable development: definition and defining principles." Florida International
University (2015).
9 Wiener, Jonathan B. "Precautionary Principle." chapter in Principles of Environmental Law (2017).
10 Elkins, Zachary, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a
Constitutional Model." Human Rights Of, By, and For the People: How to Critique and Change the US
Constitution (2017).

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Convention on Climate Change emphasizes on right to seek information and also right to gain
access to knowledge. The same is included in the Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, where importance has been attached to information gathering and information
sharing11. The Aarhus Convention as noted by Kofi Annan, is the most cogent application of
environment in human rights law. This serves as a tool to strengthen human rights by making
environmental rights enforceable.
RIGHT AGAINST ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
The Rio Declaration gives rights to claim damages against any loss or damage resulting
from environmental degradation. The Polluter pays principle is a legal way to deal with anyone
polluting the environment and as a result harming the citizens. In case of any damage or harm,
the onus is on the polluter to make remedies available and also pay the harmed party12. The
essential essence of the Polluter Pays Principle is that, anyone who pollutes the environment has
to pay the price and also has to compensate13. This is a stringent action against anyone trying to
harm the environment. Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an effective and essential tool
for implementing human rights in cases of environmental violation14. The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights also claims that in cases of gross violation, a party can ask for remedies from
the tribunal15. The State is mandated to provide remedies. There are a few remedies available in
cases of violation of rights and these frameworks regulate the smooth functioning of courts and
tribunals in ensuring that there is effective remedy16. American Declaration for the Rights and
11 Schaubroeck, Thomas, et al. "Focusing on sustaining human well-being: a rationale for an anthropocentric
sustainability concept." SETAC Europe 25th annual meeting. 2015.
12 De Sadeleer, Nicolas. "Polluter pays principle." Essential concepts of global environmental governance (2014):
155-156.
13 Kubová, Pavla. "Polluter Pays Principle." Economy, Business and Financing 1 (2014).
14 Hakim, Fika Yulialdina. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights." IJIL 4.1 (2015).
15 Donnelly, Jack, and Daniel J. Whelan. International human rights. Hachette UK, 2017.
16 Ambec, Stefan, and Lars Ehlers. "Regulation via the Polluter‐pays Principle." The Economic Journal 126.593
(2016): 884-906

9ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Duties of Man in its Article XVII states that in cases of environmental violation, a citizen can
claim remedies from tribunals. The European Convention on Human Rights in Article 6 also
talks about enforcing legal rights and acknowledging that every human has the right to legal
remedies in cases there is any environmental violation17. The Convention has a provision for
public hearing in cases of disputes concerning violation of human rights by a state agency.
Zimmermann v Switzerland upheld the provision of Article 6 that says that no one shall be denied
a legal remedy and the State shall ensure that human rights are not violated18.
RIGHT TO LIFE, HEALTH AND SAFE ENVIRONMENT.
Through direct references, the Court has held that right to a safe living and proper health
is a mandate that every State agency ahs to follow19. It is the duty of the State to make sure that
waste disposal is done properly; resources are used to their optimal level and there is no harmful
activity going on in the premises that might lead to health hazard. In this regard, it is important to
read the Oneryildiz v Turkey, which was the first case involving loss of life due to an
environmental hazard20. This is a landmark judgment, in which the court held that Turkey was
responsible for the death of the relative of the applicant and also held that there was gross
negligence which lead to the death21. This case gave rise to legal remedies in cases if
environmental damage. The European Commission on Human Rights also recognizes that any
death attributable to the inaction of the citizen leading to death eventually will call for a cause of
17 Grabenwarter, Christoph. "European Convention on Human Rights." European Convention on Human Rights.
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2014.
18 Holm, Tove, et al. "Developing sustainability into a golden thread throughout all levels of education." Journal of
Cleaner Production 117 (2016): 1-3.
19 Brisman, Avi, and Nigel South. "‘Life-Stage Dissolution’, Infantilization and Antisocial Consumption:
Implications for De-responsibilization, Denial and Environmental Harm." Young23.3 (2015): 209-221.
20 Orellana, Marcos. "Reflections on the Right to a Healthy Environment: Comments on Rebecca Bratspies' Do We
Need a Human Right to a Healthy Environment." Santa Clara J. Int'l L. 13 (2015): 71.
21 Warlenius, Rikard, Gregory Pierce, and Vasna Ramasar. "Reversing the arrow of arrears: The concept of
“ecological debt” and its value for environmental justice." Global Environmental Change 30 (2015): 21-30.

10ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
action. A bare reading of Article implies that the Courts need to take appropriate action against
inaction of a Governmental agency or the State. Lopez Ostra v Spain held that pollution results in
breach of life and hampers safe living. This case is important because it recognized that pollution
can lead to a breach of human rights because environment is directly related to human rights22.
Environment rights or human rights
The ICCPR, ICESCR, EHCHR, IACHR, ACHPR are the treaties that can included in the corpus
of human rights law that deal exclusively with environment which include right to life, water,
health. There is a big problem in implementing environmental right in human right because all
laws that have been discussed above have impliedly talked about right to air and water but have
not incorporated a separate and exclusive law that talks about right to environment. The real
challenge lies in making a universal law that will be complied by all nations to incorporate in
their domestic law. All rights to clean air and water have to be incorporated in domestic laws and
in cases of failure to comply, penalties shall be attached.
CONCLUSION
Though the legislations and commissions aim to safeguard human rights and
environment, it is difficult to give environmental right a human rights status. There are various
human rights issue that need to be addressed, but whether every social issue can be given human
rights recognition or not has been a matter of serious debate. There has been various claims
regarding giving right to environment a human rights’ stature but that rarely happens because
environment is a continuously changing process and due to scientific advances and technology,
there is no stagnancy in the environmental conditions. There are many constitutional rights
22 Shelton, Dinah. "Whiplash and Backlash-Reflections on a Human Rights Approach to Environmental
Protection." Santa Clara J. Int'l L. 13 (2015): 11.

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gathered to give impetus to environment and human rights but that is not a case all across the
globe. Proper implementation of these constitutions and regulatory frameworks give out that
though human rights is a burning issue, but due to the rapid changing nature of environment, it is
difficult to gauge the dynamic nature of environment. With the help of tribunals and court,
though right to environment has been forced and enacted, the status has not been granted to call
right to environment a human rights concern. Hence, it can be concluded that though right to
environment is a pressing issue which needs to be immediately addressed but there are no
specific laws or regulations that deal with giving Right to Environment the status of human
rights exclusively.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ambec, Stefan, and Lars Ehlers. "Regulation via the Polluter‐pays Principle." The Economic
Journal 126.593 (2016): 884-906
Angell, Philip, Gregory Mock, and Jen Lesar. "United Nations Environment Programme."
(2014).
Brisman, Avi, and Nigel South. "‘Life-Stage Dissolution’, Infantilization and Antisocial
Consumption: Implications for De-responsibilization, Denial and Environmental
Harm." Young23.3 (2015): 209-221.
Cullet, Philippe. Differential treatment in international environmental law. Routledge, 2017.
De Sadeleer, Nicolas. "Polluter pays principle." Essential concepts of global environmental
governance (2014): 155-156.
Donnelly, Jack, and Daniel J. Whelan. International human rights. Hachette UK, 2017.
Elkins, Zachary, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton. "The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights as a Constitutional Model." Human Rights Of, By, and For the People: How to Critique
and Change the US Constitution (2017).
Emas, Rachel. "The concept of sustainable development: definition and defining
principles." Florida International University (2015).
Fisher, Brendan, et al. "Moving Rio forward and avoiding 10 more years with little evidence for
effective conservation policy." Conserv. Biol 28.3 (2014): 880-82.
Gillespie, Alexander. International environmental law, policy, and ethics. OUP Oxford, 2014.

13ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Grabenwarter, Christoph. "European Convention on Human Rights." European Convention on
Human Rights. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2014.
Hakim, Fika Yulialdina. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights." IJIL 4.1 (2015).
Holm, Tove, et al. "Developing sustainability into a golden thread throughout all levels of
education." Journal of Cleaner Production 117 (2016): 1-3.
Kubová, Pavla. "Polluter Pays Principle." Economy, Business and Financing 1 (2014).
Orellana, Marcos. "Reflections on the Right to a Healthy Environment: Comments on Rebecca
Bratspies' Do We Need a Human Right to a Healthy Environment." Santa Clara J. Int'l L. 13
(2015): 71.
Plater, Zygmunt JB, et al. Environmental law and policy: Nature, law, and society. Wolters
Kluwer Law & Business, 2016.
Schaubroeck, Thomas, et al. "Focusing on sustaining human well-being: a rationale for an
anthropocentric sustainability concept." SETAC Europe 25th annual meeting. 2015.
Shelton, Dinah. "Whiplash and Backlash-Reflections on a Human Rights Approach to
Environmental Protection." Santa Clara J. Int'l L. 13 (2015): 11.
Viñuales, Jorge E., ed. The Rio declaration on environment and development: a commentary.
OUP Oxford, 2015.
Warlenius, Rikard, Gregory Pierce, and Vasna Ramasar. "Reversing the arrow of arrears: The
concept of “ecological debt” and its value for environmental justice." Global Environmental
Change 30 (2015): 21-30.

14ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Werksman, Jacob, James Cameron, and Peter Roderick, eds. Improving compliance with
international environmental law. Routledge, 2014.
Wiener, Jonathan B. "Precautionary Principle." chapter in Principles of Environmental
Law (2017).