Background
Without a healthy environment, humanity cannot survive or thrive.
After a lengthy delay, the Scottish Government has published its consultation on a new Scottish Human Rights Bill.
The Bill will protect a range of rights, including the human right to a healthy environment ‘with substantive and procedural elements’. ERCS is a member of the Advisory Board to the Human Rights Bill and you can read our presentation to the Board in May 2022 on the human right to a healthy environment: What it is and why it matters.
What is the right to a healthy environment?
The right will enshrine and protect our right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The substantive and procedural elements of the right to a healthy environment are equally important.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment has defined the substantive part as including the features of clean air, a safe climate, access to safe water and adequate sanitation, healthy and sustainably produced food, non-toxic environments in which to live, work, study and play, and healthy biodiversity and ecosystems.
Read our report on the Substantive Right to a Healthy Environment which sets out the definitions, standards and enforcement mechanism to make this right a reality.
The procedural part specifies the processes and mechanisms for people to exercise their environmental rights and ensure environmental laws are enforced. These rights include access to information, public participation in decision-making, access to justice and effective remedies and are enshrined by the UNECE Aarhus Convention.
Take action
The task now is to ensure that both the substantive and procedural parts of the right to a healthy environment are delivered with ‘teeth’. That is, our right needs to be enforceable to make a real difference to the environment and to the lives of people most affected by environmental problems in Scotland. Help us make this a reality!
Complete the Human Rights Bill consultation with help from our template response on Part 5: Recognising the right to a healthy environment, or our full consultation response.
Human Rights Consortium Scotland has released a full consultation guide if you need support completing other sections.
Our right to a healthy environment and other rights
Read our three briefings commissioned by the Human Rights Consortium Scotland on the relationship between our right to a healthy environment and three other human rights:
- How the human right to a healthy environment advances the rights of disabled people – joint briefing with Inclusion Scotland
- How the human right to a healthy environment advances our right to health
- The relationship between the human right to a healthy environment and the right to food
Blogs & news
Scottish Government faces legal action over missing climate assessment – press release
ERCS and Good Law Project will take legal action against the Scottish Government unless it acts urgently to uphold its commitments over the climate crisis …
Watch our animation on the right to a healthy environment and take action
Find out about what the right is, why it is important, and how we can use it to protect people and planet …
An enforceable right to a healthy environment: Now is the time for Scotland to deliver
We all depend on nature. A healthy environment is fundamental to the right to life, and is integral to addressing the root causes of food and fuel insecurity, health inequalities, and the cost-of-living crisis …
Environmental experts urge the Scottish Government to ‘be bold’ as it prepares to incorporate the right to a healthy environment
A new report backed by experts from across Scotland’s environmental sector has welcomed the Scottish Government’s commitment to incorporating the substantive and procedural elements of the right to a healthy environment in its upcoming Human Rights Bill …
Bathing water case update: the good, the bad, and the ugly
In March, we submitted a formal complaint to Environmental Standards Scotland about the prohibitively high threshold for applicants seeking bathing water designation for Scotland’s beaches, lochs and rivers …
ERCS challenges Scottish Government over bathing water status
ERCS has made a complaint to Environmental Standards Scotland regarding the government’s unlawful approach to the designation of bathing waters in Scotland …
Voice from the Human Rights Lived Experience Board – Ann Coleman
Ann Coleman has been a community and environmental campaigner for over 25 years. We are grateful that she agreed to be on the Human Rights Lived Experience Board to inform the development of the Human Rights (Scotland) Bill …
We have only one earth. Let’s take care of it. Sign the petition!
Sunday 5 June is World Environment Day – to remind us that there are billions of planets in our galaxy but there is #OnlyOneEarth. Let’s take care of it …
Press release: petition for an enforceable human right to a healthy environment launched today
Our petition launched today calls for an enforceable human right to a healthy environment for every person in Scotland…
Come to the launch of our Call to Action!
We warmly invite you to the launch of our Call to Action and Advocacy Manifesto: A right to a healthy environment that works, Wednesday 8 December 1-1:45pm (online, free). Now more than ever we need a human right to a healthy environment to tackle the climate and nature emergencies. Hear about the legal reforms that are needed and support the launch of our online petition …
United Nations Human Rights Council recognises the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
Great news! The United Nations Human Rights Council recognised last Friday (8th October) for the first time, that a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right …
Parties’ election promises on environmental rights compared
Ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary election on 6 May, here is what the political parties have said in their election manifestos about incorporating the human right to a healthy environment …
