CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

CYIL 15 ȍ2024Ȏ LINKING HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT … recognizes the rights of nature, distinct from the rights of human beings, and therefore worth mentioning. 30 During the late 1980s the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) made an input on the right to a healthy environment when it incorporated the right into its document, General Principles Concerning Natural Resources and Environmental Interferences . Article 1 of the General Principles provides that: ‘[a]ll human beings have the fundamental right to an environment adequate for their health and well-being.’ 31 Furthermore, in 1989, the Conference on the Environment was held in Hague. Its final document, the Hague Declaration on the Environment (the Hague Declaration), contains a provision addressing the relationship between the right to live and the global environment. It implies the right of individuals to the protection of the environment at the international level and thus recognizes the link between human rights and the environment. 32 What is more, the Hague Declaration represents the first attempt to propose a new global environmental organization with binding legal authority . However, with the establishment of such a new organization it would without a doubt involve some sacrifice of national sovereignty which many states would be reluctant to do. 33 Hence, the question arises, whether states are reluctant to yield some portion of their national sovereignty in order to codify a clearly established principle on the right to a healthy environment at the universal level; are states afraid to give away a certain part of their national sovereignty in order to achieve a healthy environment? Another approach to address the right to a healthy environment was made in 1989, at the International Congress on a More Efficient International Law on the Environment and Establishing an International Court for the Environment within the UN System. In its Final Statement the Congress emphasized that: ‘the environment is one of the basis of human rights, is a necessary legal reality at the international level’ and ‘that obligatory and legal procedures for preventing and regulating any conflicts […] must be found and endorsed by competent international authorities ’ 34 (emphasis added). Once more the question arises whether states would be willing to yield some portion of their sovereignty to join such a system. After Rio, the United Nations continued their work on the relationship between the environment and human rights. In 1990, an important development in the history of a right to the environment took place, with the appointment of a Special Rapporteur, F. Z. Ksentini. 30 ATAPATTU, Sumudu: The Right to a Healthy Life or the Right to Die Polluted? The Emergence of a Human Right to a Healthy Environment Under International Law. Tulane Environmental Law Journal , Vol. 16 (1), 2002, p. 75. 31 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future, Annexe 1: Summary of Proposed Legal Principles for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development Adopted by the WCED Experts Group on Environmental Law. Available online at: http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-a1. htm (accessed 3 December 2022). 32 This provision reads as follows: ‘[b]ecause of the nature of the dangers involved, remedies to be sought involve not only the fundamental duty to preserve the ecosystem, but also the right to live in dignity in a viable global environment…’ Hague Declaration on the Environment , done 11 March 1989. International Legal Materials . American Society of International Law, Vol. 28 (5), 1989, p. 1309. 33 This organization would be empowered to initiate and enforce international agreements to control pollution. The ICJ would ensure legal compliance and arbitrate disputes arising under international environmental law. See HODKOVÁ, Iveta: op. cit ., p. 68. 34 These competent authorities should be ‘an international body within the UN System to guarantee the supervision, planning and management of the world environment…[and should be] accessible to States, United Nations organs, and private citizens’. See HODKOVÁ, Iveta: op. cit ., p. 69.

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