ABSTRACT
The human right to a healthy environment is indispensable for leading a life with human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights. The fact that the environment and human rights are intrinsically linked, and that environmental degradation leads to poverty and human indignity, is not a contested issue. Since 1994, after the Ksentini report on ‘human rights and the environment’,1 there has been an expectation in both the human-rights and the environmental legal communities that this link would be discussed at policy-making levels. In 2002, experts from around the world were invited to assess the link between human rights and the environment and to clarify the scope of this linkage.2 It was the first time that the two United Nations (UN) bodies – the then Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) – decided to combine their efforts to explore the link between human rights and the environment. However, the meeting ended with the issuing of a very loosely worded statement.3 Similarly, only one sentence in the Johannesburg Declaration, adopted after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), took account of the link between the environment and human rights.4 Before 2002, this link had been addressed in academic writings5
1 Final report on the Human Rights and the Environment for the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/9, 6 July 1994. The noted that environmental damage has direct effects on the enjoyment of a series of human rights, and human rights violations, in turn, may damage the environment; and the Rapporteur recommended that the human rights component of environmental rights immediately be incorporated into the work of various human rights bodies.
