Formation/Cours

The connection between the environment and human rights law has been debated for years since, as fields of law, they have developed disjointedly and at different periods of time. Over the course of the last two decades, however, UN agencies, the EU and national governments have recognized that environmental degradation affects basic human rights; a clean, healthy and functional environment is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of core human rights such as the right to life, health, food, family life and adequate standard of living. Conversely, the exercise of rights has been deemed central to the promotion of environmental protection. Recently, in the light of discussions about the impacts of climate change on human rights and the biosphere, the interdependence of human rights and the environment has become all the more so prominent. As a result of this convergence, a free-standing human right to the environment has been stipulated in some national laws and international law instruments. Yet, the status of a universal human right to the environment remains unclear and there is less concurrence over the obligations national governments and private actors should carry in this regard. This course addresses the relationship between human rights and environmental protection by examining the progressive recognition of their interface in three dimensions: a) the impact of environmental harm on human rights; b) the application of human rights to environmental issues; and c) substantive areas of intersection, as they arise in the more specific fields of international development, climate change, international finance and corporate accountability. Within this context, the course will highlight stakeholders’ substantive and procedural obligations for environmental protection, give examples of good practices but also stress shortcomings at international, supranational and national levels that compromise the effective protection of the environment itself as well as individuals and societies/communities benefitting from it.

At the end of the course, the students should be able to:

1) Discuss the links between environmental/climate change and human rights;

2) Identify the critical aspects underpinning access to justice and effective judicial protection;

3) critically assess the case law of both International and European adjudicators.

Lecture 1: Course Introduction

In the first part of our introductory lecture students will be given an overview of the entire course and the requirements for successful completion (e.g. grading system, course assessment etc.).

Part II will contextualise human rights and environmental protection at the international level. Students will be presented with the historical background to the protection of each regime separately. Navigating through key UN Summits and international instruments, the module will address the origins of international environmental law and human rights law, and exhibit the legal and institutional framework for human rights and the environment in the UN, EU and the ECHR systems. Importantly, the discussion will reveal the progressive recognition of the linkages between human rights and environmental degradation.

Key materials: TBC

Lecture 2: ‘Environmental Protection in Human Rights and Human Rights Protection in Environmental Treaties – What Role for a Human Right to Environment?’

This lecture addresses the first two dimensions of the environment-human rights nexus mentioned in the course overview above, namely a) the impact of environmental harm on human rights and b) the application of human rights to environmental issues. In that respect, it will consider the potential added value of a universal human right to the environment.

In the absence of a universally accepted human right to the environment, the main path for addressing environmental degradation has been through the application of human rights law to environmental issues. UN treaty-monitoring bodies and international tribunals have “read” environmental problems into existing human rights treaty provisions in order to identify how environmental harm interferes with the realization of individuals’ human rights. By “greening” human rights, international adjudicative bodies have recognized states obligation to protect the environment through human rights law. Equally, environmental treaties have endorsed some human rights as relevant to their protective scope. Particular focus has been given to the so-called procedural rights of access to environmental information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice and remedies when environmental harm is inflicted. Against this background, the question arises what more could a human right to the environment offer. Proponents’ and opponents’ views will be put on the table for discussion.

The lecture navigates through these trends and concludes on the framework principles regulating the interlink between human rights and the environment as well as on states’ substantive and procedural obligations by reference to the relevant international human rights and environmental conventions, jurisprudence from UN bodies on the matter and the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Environment and Human Rights under aegis of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Key Materials: TBC

Lecture 3: ‘Agenda 2030 for sustainable development: A framework for integration of human rights and the environment in policy and law’

The third lecture inaugurates the series of lectures that follow which discuss the intersection of human rights and the environment in specific fields of international law. As such, today’s lecture looks into the integration of human rights and the environment in the context of international development. More specifically, the lecture will highlight the synergies between the right to development and environmental protection, including the link between the right to development and climate change. The framework to be used for this purpose is Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and the encompassing 17 Sustainable Development Goals