2 - Environmental Rights and International Human Rights Covenants: What Standards Are Relevant?

Summary

During the last two decades, victims of environmental abuse have resorted to the human rights machinery to seek redress. While none of the global human rights treaties embodies a distinct right to a healthy environment, human rights institutions have used existing rights to articulate environmental rights. Although the link between environmental degradation and human rights is no longer in doubt, it is not clear what standards these institutions use when deciding whether there has been an infringement of environmental rights. This chapter seeks to discuss how two UN treaty bodies – the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – have developed environmental rights by interpreting existing rights creatively. In so doing, the chapter will discuss whether these two committees have applied any standards to ascertain whether the rights protected under the two treaties have been violated. If so, are there any emerging principles about standards that may be useful for other human rights bodies that have to adjudicate environmental rights disputes?