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the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, provides for its interpretation in decisions by a review body. 184 The R2HE, as such, is related to other rights and existing international law, 185 such as the rights to life, the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the right to sufficient food, the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, the right to an adequate standard of living, or the right to development. At the same time, procedural rights, such as the right to participate in decision-making, and access to justice and effective remedies, including the secure exercise of these rights free from reprisals and retaliation are vital to the protection of the environment. 186 Realizing the R2HE also requires international cooperation, solidarity and equity in environmental action, including resource mobilization, as well as recognition of extraterritorial jurisdiction over human rights harms caused by environmental degradation. 187 Recognition of the R2HE empowers all people with a critical tool to hold their governments, big polluters and all those responsible for environmental harm to account. 188 The R2HE is naturally connected to the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development according to Dupuy, Le Moli and Vinuales may be defined as a development, which as a necessary procedural step, that “takes into account environmental protection (integration), and which does so in a way that is consistent with the environmental treaty obligations undertaken by a country or, at the very least, with the core content of customary international environmental law applicable to all countries.” 189 The sustainable development, in its three dimensions (social, economic and environmental), and the protection of the environment, including ecosystems, contribute to and promote human well-being and the full enjoyment of all human rights, for present and future generations. 190 From the historical perspective, first indication of the existence of the R2HE is in the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment (1972) , which states that “man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits 184 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, A/HRC/37/59, 28 January 2018, para 11. 185 UN Human Rights Council, The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, A/HRC/ RES/48/13, 8 October 2021, para 2. 186 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, A/HRC/37/59, 24 January 2018, para 2. 187 UN Human Rights Council, Right to a healthy environment: good practices: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, A/HRC/43/53, 30 December 2019. 188 UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, UN Environment Programme, UN Development Programme, What is the Right to Healthy Environment? (2023) . 189 Dupuy PM, Le Moli G and Vinuales JE, ‘Customary International Law and the Environment’ in Rajamani L and Peel J (eds), The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law , 2nd edn (OUP, 2021), pp. 385–401. 190 UNGA, ‘Right to clean, healthy and sustainable environment’, A/RES/76/300, (2022), preamble para 8.

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