Right to a healthy environment
Without a healthy environment, humanity cannot survive or thrive.
We need an enforceable right to a healthy environment in Scots law.
What is the human right to a healthy environment?
In July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly declared access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a universal human right, recognising that environmental damage has negative implications for the effective enjoyment of all human rights, for present and future generations.
165 out of 193 UN member states now recognise the right, which the UN sees as a critical tool for holding public bodies and polluters to account in order to protect and restore the natural world.
In September 2025, The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) Rights issued General Comment 27. This new guidance is unequivocal that ‘without regard for the earth’s environmental limits, it is impossible to achieve the equal realisation of [ESC] Covenant rights for all’.
The right to a healthy environment has substantive and procedural parts:
Substantive rights
The six substantive features are: 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. To make a real difference, our substantive environmental rights must have ‘teeth’: they must be clear, robust, and enforceable to the highest standards.
Procedural rights
The procedural part specifies the processes and mechanisms for people to exercise their environmental rights and ensure environmental laws are enforced. The three rights of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice are enshrined by the UNECE Aarhus Convention.
Human Rights (Scotland) Bill
The Scottish Government published proposals for a new Scottish Human Rights Bill in June 2023. The proposals aimed to protect a range of rights, including the human right to a healthy environment with substantive and procedural elements. ERCS welcomed the proposals in our response to the consultation.
Disappointingly, with a change of First Minister, the Scottish Government wavered in its commitment to recognise the right and, in July 2024, ERCS sent an open letter to the First Minister signed by over sixty organisations.
To the dismay of human rights organisations, the entire Bill was dropped from the Scottish Government’s 2024-25 legislative programme.
After some delay, the development of the Bill continued and ERCS was a member of the Human Rights Oversight Board and Capability Building Working Group to shape the inclusion of the right to a healthy environment. In July 2025, the Government published their Human Rights Bill Discussion Paper with the right to a healthy environment included but with a weaker duty.
What is happening now?
The Human Rights Bill was included in the SNP’s 2026 election manifesto and in the 2026-31 Programme for Government, with legislation scheduled for year 2 of the new parliamentary session.
While ERCS welcomes a Human Rights Bill, we are deeply concerned that the longstanding commitment to a human right to a healthy environment seems, once again, to be at risk of exclusion from the Bill.
In October 2026, over 100 organisations signed an open letter to the First Minister expressing their concerns.
Global progress towards the realisation of environmental rights
At a UK level, we endorse calls for a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, and internationally, we are campaigning for the Council of Europe to incorporate an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights recognising the right to a healthy environment.
ERCS’s work continues to be informed by global best practice and emerging legal developments across the world. For further information, see:
- OHCHR (Sept 2025) General comment No. 27 on economic, social and cultural rights and the environmental dimension of sustainable development
- UNEP (2025) Right to a Healthy Environment in Practice: A Decade Before the Courts (2015-2025)
- Puentes Riaño (Aug 2024) Overview of the implementation of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
- Boyd (April 2024) The Right to a Healthy Environment: A User’s Guide
Blogs & news
Anger and dismay as Scottish Government drops the right to a healthy environment from its human rights framework – press release
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 …
Over 100 organisations urge First Minister not to abandon the right to a healthy environment – press release
Over 100 civil society organisations have written an open letter urging the First Minister not to renege on the government’s longstanding commitment to recognise the human right to a healthy environment in a Scottish Human Rights Bill …
What Scotland’s Programme for Government means for environmental rights
The Scottish Government has published its Programme for Government, setting out its plan for the next five years and specific actions for the year ahead …
Scottish elections 2026: where do the parties stand on environmental rights?
With only a week to go before the next Scottish Parliament election, what commitments have each party made on environmental rights and access to justice? …
A healthy planet, a fair society: new UN guidance links human rights and the environment
A new General Comment published by the United Nations makes clear that ‘a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an essential precondition for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.’ …
Advocacy Manifesto sets out route map to secure environmental rights
ERCS today launches our new Advocacy Manifesto, setting out a route map of how every person’s right to live in a healthy environment can be respected, protected, and fulfilled …
Landmark climate change ruling reaffirms States’ obligations to protect the right to a healthy environment
The International Court of Justice has issued a landmark Advisory Opinion on States’ obligations regarding climate change …
Everyone’s Environment: Recommendations for more inclusive environmental policy in Scotland
Last September, we were commissioned by NPC’s Everyone’s Environment project to co-produce recommendations for making environmental policy more inclusive. This blog shares the project’s resources …
Resources
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