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.
Learn more: What is the Right to a Healthy Environment?
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.
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 its consultation on a new Scottish Human Rights Bill in June 2023. The Bill aims to protect a range of rights, including the human right to a healthy environment ‘with substantive and procedural elements’.
We worked with environmental and human rights organisations from across Scotland to mobilise a strong response to the Human Rights Bill consultation in 2023.
What is happening now?
To make a real difference, our substantive environmental rights must have ‘teeth’: they must be clear, robust, and enforceable to the highest standards.
To the dismay of human rights organisations, the Bill was dropped from the 2024-25 Programme for Government.
The Government has since said that they remain committed to introducing the Bill in the next parliamentary session following elections in 2026.
ERCS will continue to work to ensure the right to a healthy environment is prioritised and is a member of the Human Rights Oversight Board and Capability Building Working Group for the Bill.
Blogs & news
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 …
Environmental and human rights groups urge UK government to back binding Council of Europe Protocol on the right to a healthy environment – press release
Over sixty organisations have written to UK government ministers ahead of a major meeting of the Council of Europe, urging them to back proposals for an additional …
Dismay and concern after Scottish Government abandons flagship Human Rights Bill
The Programme for Government announced yesterday signals the Scottish Government’s abject failure to deliver on their promise of a Scottish Human Rights Bill including the right to a healthy environment …
Lunchtime 101: Why Scotland needs a legal right to a healthy environment
What is the right to a healthy environment and what would legal environmental rights mean for Scotland? Watch our free lunchtime webinar …
Former UN Special Rapporteur explains in 90 seconds why Scotland needs the right to a healthy environment
During the last six years as the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Professor David R. Boyd has supported countless people across the world to implement and use their right to a healthy environment – watch his message to Scotland …
Civil society groups call on First Minister to ‘show leadership’ by enshrining a legal right to a healthy environment – press release
Over sixty environmental, human rights, and health organisations have written an open letter to Scotland’s First Minister, urging him to push ahead with plans for an enforceable right to a heathy environment in the next Programme for Government …
Resources
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