Without a healthy environment, humanity cannot survive or thrive.
The Scottish Government will consult on a new Human Rights (Scotland) Bill in 2023. We are delighted to be part of the Advisory Board to the Human Rights Bill.
The Bill will protect a range of rights, including the human right to a healthy environment ‘with substantive and procedural elements’. Read our presentation to the Board in May 2022 on the human right to a healthy environment: What it is and why it matters.
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.
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.
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.
For more information, you can read our Advocacy Manifesto, or our one-page Summary of Recommendations and watch the video below.
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
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 …
Update: Taskforce recommendations and Parliamentary debate
March was a busy month! Read our blog on the headlines from the Taskforce’s report, the Parliamentary debate and our next steps …
Why Scotland needs a human right to a healthy environment
Without a healthy environment, humanity cannot survive. ERCS is advocating for a human right to a healthy environment to be included in Scots law as part of a new Human Rights (Scotland) Act. Read on to find out why we need a human right to a healthy environment, why Scotland needs to act, and what we are doing to support this …
