Environmental and human rights campaigners are angered and dismayed at the Scottish Government’s announcement in parliament that they are no longer going to include the right to a healthy environment in a Scottish Human Rights Bill.
Last week, an open letter signed by over 100 civil society organisations was sent to the First Minister urging him not to renege on the government’s longstanding commitment to recognise the human right to a healthy environment in a Scottish Human Rights Bill, due to be introduced next year.
Since 2017, civil society, legal and academic experts have been on various working groups for the government advising on how to shape the right and they are dismayed that the right has been dropped without any consultation.
Recognising the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was a key recommendation of the Scottish Government’s National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership (2021), which acknowledged the interdependence of human rights obligations and international environmental law obligations. It was included in the Government’s 2023 consultation on a Human Rights Bill for Scotland, when the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote that ‘recognising and including the right to a healthy environment within the limits of devolved competence is a necessary and important step for Scotland now to take.’
Civil society has long campaigned and worked with the government to develop a comprehensive legal human-rights framework which recognises the right to a healthy environment as well as including the economic, social and cultural international treaties: namely the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Once incorporated, they will sit alongside the civil and political rights already provided under the Human Rights Act 1998.
The letter sent last week was instigated when fears were raised that the government was considering dropping the right from its forthcoming Human Rights Bill without any consultation.
It reminded the Scottish Government that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) is unequivocal in General Comment no. 27, in affirming how the right to a healthy environment is an essential precondition to the full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. Faced with the triple planetary crisis of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste, the letter highlights how incorporation of the right could shift how budgetary and strategic decisions are made to tackle the systemic cause of food and energy insecurity and health inequalities, as well as meeting Scotland’s legal biodiversity and net zero targets.
Last year, the Scottish Government raised questions about the strength, scope and coverage of duty attached to the right. Subsequent communication with the government focused on answering these questions and campaigners’ concerns that the government had shifted from a compliance duty to a weaker procedural duty. At no time had the government discussed the possibility about dropping the right with civil society stakeholders.
Shivali Fifield, Chief Officer at the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, said:
‘It is unbelievable that this decision has been made with no prior consultation with civil society stakeholders. Environmental and human rights organisations as well as legal and academic experts have spent countless hours over the past nine years working with the government, in good faith, to include the right to a healthy environment in a Scottish Human Rights Bill. We know we can make the right work for Scotland within devolved competence and we cannot conceive how we can fulfil full economic, social and cultural rights for all Scots without it.
It is untenable that, once again, the rug has been pulled from under us and our good will is in shatters. I struggle to see how the government can meet its four priorities without addressing the systemic causes of food and energy insecurity and health inequalities. Most of us can see how the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an essential tool for doing that and transforming how we do business. It’s a shame that the government has opted for expediency over rights and justice.’
Charlie McMillan, Director of the Human Rights Consortium Scotland, said:
‘A healthy environment is fundamental to the enjoyment of human rights. We are deeply disappointed by this decision and urge the Scottish Government to reconsider. Excluding this right overlooks the connections between environmental harm, poverty and inequality. People across Scotland need a framework that recognises these connections and supports meaningful accountability. The Government should listen to civil society, honour its commitment and restore the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment to the Bill.’
Neil Cowan, Scotland Programme Director at Amnesty International, said:
‘The Scottish Government itself has described the right to a healthy environment as being ‘indivisible’ from other fundamental human rights. So the decision to drop it from the Human Rights Bill is dismaying.
The Human Rights Bill is a long-awaited opportunity to make rights real for all of us and to help build a more just Scotland, so to have weakened it in this way is deeply disappointing. We are clear that there can be no social justice without environmental justice, and we urge the Scottish Government to reconsider.’
Amanda Grimm, Advocacy Lead at Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, said:
‘Backtracking on including the right to a healthy environment seems like a clear signal that the Scottish Government is giving up on tackling the climate emergency – despite stating that this is one of its four key priorities for the country. It’s particularly disturbing that our leaders have chosen to drop legalising this human right in the same week they green-light a giant new gas-fired power station in Peterhead that will further stoke climate breakdown. If Scottish ministers are serious about tackling climate change, they should enshrine the right to a healthy environment and safe climate in this crucial bill.’
ENDS
For more information contact
Benjamin Brown, Policy & Advocacy Officer
Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
bbrown@ercs.scot, 07856 407479
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] The Scottish Government announced its intention to drop the right to a healthy environment in Parliamentary Question S7W-0453
[2] The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) is an environmental law charity. We carry out advocacy in policy and law reform to improve environmental rights and compliance with the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice on environmental matters.
[3] Human Rights Consortium Scotland is the civil society network to defend and promote human rights in Scotland.
[4] Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people in over 150 countries who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all.
[5] Stop Climate Chaos Scotland is a coalition of over 70 civil society organisations working together to secure fast and fair policies to tackle climate change and its impacts.
[6] For more information on the right to a healthy environment, see ERCS’s explainer briefing
[7] The Scottish Government previously announced its intention to recognise the right to a healthy environment as part of a new Human Rights Bill following the publication of recommendations in the National Taskforce for Human Rights: leadership report. In her Ministerial forward to the public consultation on a Human Rights Bill for Scotland, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Shirley-Anne Somerville said that ‘recognising and including the right to a healthy environment within the limits of devolved competence is a necessary and important step for Scotland now to take’ and that ‘recognising the right to a healthy environment sends an important signal of solidarity to the global community in support of the international rule of law.’ The 2023 consultation document is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/human-rights-bill-scotland-consultation/documents/
[8] the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership Report (2021) recommended the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment should be included with substantive and procedural elements.
Substantive environmental rights would have standalone protection for the first time and include: clean air; a safe climate; healthy and sustainably produced food; safe and sufficient water; non-toxic environments in which to live, work, study, and play; and healthy biodiversity and ecosystems. The ERCS / Scottish Environment LINK’s report on the substantive right to a healthy environment is available at: https://www.ercs.scot/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/The-Substantive-Right-to-a-Healthy-Environment_June-23_online.pdf
Procedural environmental rights are already protected in Scotland under the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention), but Scotland remains non-compliant with the Convention’s access to justice requirements. ERCS’s briefing on Scotland’s progress on delivering access to justice is available at: https://www.ercs.scot/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/ERCS_-Progress-on-access-to-justice_Briefing_June26.pdf.
